Head of Cards and Payments will own HugoBank’s entire Cards and Payments domain — credit and debit cards (secured and unsecured), consumer and merchant QR, and instant-payment rails (Raast, 1LINK) — across both the Retail and Merchant & Business Banking segments.
This is a senior leadership role accountable for setting the cards and payments strategy and P&L, representing cards and payments at the executive level with Technology, Risk, Compliance, Finance, and external partners including card schemes, processors, and payment-infrastructure providers.
The incumbent will shape HugoBank’s cards and payments agenda as a unified capability that serves both individual customers and merchant/business clients, ensuring one consistent rail strategy, one risk and compliance posture, and one P&L view drives decisions across both segments.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Product Strategy & Proposition Development
● Set and own the end-to-end strategy for HugoBank’s Cards and Payments domain across Retail and Merchant & Business Banking — covering consumer and merchant cards, QR, and instant-payment rails — in line with the bank’s financial inclusion and lending-first vision.
● Define differentiated value propositions for both segments: consumer card rewards and QR/payment incentives for Retail customers, and merchant QR acceptance, settlement, and working-capital-linked propositions for Merchant & Business clients.
● Lead market and competitor benchmarking across consumer and merchant cards and payments to identify whitespace, pricing, and positioning opportunities specific to Pakistan.
● Own the consolidated Cards and Payments Product Roadmap spanning both segments, ensuring one rail and infrastructure strategy serves Retail and Merchant & Business rather than being built twice.
● Represent HugoBank at the executive level with card schemes (Visa, PayPak), payment-infrastructure bodies (Raast, 1LINK), and processors, negotiating commercial terms and setting the partnership agenda.
Product Design, Development & Implementation
● Direct the translation of product strategy into detailed Business Requirement Documents and oversee delivery with Technology and Operations across consumer and merchant-facing cards and payments initiatives.
● Lead the development of new features, loyalty propositions, and digital enhancements across both card and QR/payment experiences for Retail and Merchant & Business customers on Cards and Payments.
● Own vendor and processor relationships for card issuance, tokenization, personalization, and lifecycle management, and payment infrastructure partnerships for QR and instant-payment enablement across both segments.
● Oversee testing, UAT, and post-launch monitoring across the cards and payments portfolio to ensure seamless rollout for both consumer and merchant-facing products.
● Direct periodic reviews of customer and merchant journeys to identify friction points and prioritize design enhancements.
● Shape the long-term evolution of the bank’s cards and payments ecosystem, providing senior-level insight into customer/merchant behavior, regulatory trends, and technology advancements.
● Own the performance, reliability, and uptime of Raast QR and other instant-payment rails across both consumer and merchant transactions, holding Technology and infrastructure partners accountable for settlement speed and availability.
● Lead exploration of embedded card and payment offerings (e.g., co-branded cards, merchant QR and payment-gateway partnerships) aligned with HugoBank’s strategic ecosystem.
● Set the technology and innovation agenda for tokenization, contactless payments, QR/instant-payment innovation, and AI-driven credit scoring across the domain.
Portfolio Management & Performance Optimization
● Own portfolio health across consumer and merchant cards and payments, including activation, utilization, delinquency, transaction volume, and profitability, for both Retail and Merchant & Business segments.
● Set and…