Head of Banking & Treasury

Role definitions and reporting structure

Roles defined:
Head of Banking & Treasury
· Treasury Manager

Reporting:
Head of Banking & Treasury reports to the CEO

• CEO
• └─ Head of Banking & Treasury— banking relationships (primary focus)

Reports to:

CEO

Direct report:
Treasury Manager

Title alternatives:
Head of Banking Relationships
· Director of Banking & Treasury

Owns the company’s access to the banking and payment system. The core mandate is to source, build, deepen, and defend relationships with banks, EMIs, and payment/crypto partners across jurisdictions — so the group always has reliable, redundant, well-disposed banking, despite operating in a category many banks avoid. Day-to-day treasury execution is delegated to the Treasury Manager; this person sets direction and steps in on the hard, relationship-heavy, and high-stakes work.

• Source and open new banking, EMI, and payment-partner relationships; maintain enough redundancy that no single institution is a point of failure.
• Build genuine, trusted relationships with relationship managers, compliance officers, and decision-makers — the people who decide whether an account stays open.
• Own the company’s "bankability" narrative: present the business credibly and keep documentation and story coherent as the group evolves.
• Identify which institutions actually have appetite for precious‑metals and crypto‑adjacent clients, and cultivate them ahead of need.
• Establish and maintain correspondent banking relationships (nostro/vostro accounts) to enable direct multi‑currency, cross‑border settlement and reduce dependence on intermediary payment chains.
• Manage the correspondent due‑diligence process end to end — Wolfsberg questionnaires, RMA / SWIFT key exchange, and the ongoing AML obligations specific to correspondent relationships.

• Proactively manage de‑risking / de‑banking exposure: anticipate periodic reviews and respond fast and completely to EDD requests, KYC refreshes, and source‑of‑funds and transaction queries.
• Keep banks comfortable so reviews don’t escape into account closures; treat every query as relationship maintenance.
• Maintain a contingency plan if any key account is frozen or closed, so operations don’t stop.

• Secure and protect the fiat banking and on/off‑ramp partners that tolerate USDC/USDT flows — typically the hardest accounts to obtain and keep.
• Manage how the crypto side of the business is presented to traditional banking partners.
• Lead the process of obtaining and maintaining Visa and Mastercard Principal Licenses (Principal Membership), enabling the group to issue and/or acquire directly rather than depend on a third‑party BIN sponsor or program manager.
• Leverage direct contacts within Visa and Mastercard to navigate scheme onboarding, due diligence, certification, and ongoing membership obligations.
• Coordinate the licensing, capital, and compliance prerequisites that Principal Membership requires, working alongside the card, legal, and compliance teams.

• Negotiate fees, limits, settlement terms, and service levels across the banking stack.

• Direct and supervise the Treasury Manager, who runs payments, account administration, intercompany liquidity, and reconciliation.
• Set approval limits and controls; ensure segregation of duties beneath them.

• Report banking status, risks, and concentration exposures to the CEO.
• Interface with compliance/legal on AML and regulatory obligations.
• Apply AI and automation where it streamlines the team’s reporting, monitoring, and documentation workload.

• Strong, current network in Swiss/EU banking and payments — ideally with existing relationships at institutions open to this client profile.
• Background as a relationship banker, corporate banking/treasury lead, or similar — someone who has opened and kept difficult accounts.
• Demonstrated experience opening and maintaining correspondent accounts (nostro/vostro), including the associated…