Bank Payments Services & Schemes Lead

Hello, we’re Starling. We built a new kind of bank because we knew technology had the power to help people save, spend and manage their money in a new and transformative way. We’re a fully licensed UK bank with the culture and spirit of a fast-moving, disruptive tech company. We’re a bank, but better: fairer, easier to use and designed to demystify money for everyone. We employ more than 3,500 people across our London, Southampton, Cardiff and Manchester offices.

Reporting to the Director of Payments you’ll lead on our Bank payments capabilities. You will also be the end to end owner of our (non-card) key payment services (FPS, BACS, CHAPS, Cheques etc.), ensuring the Bank meets scheme and regulatory requirements and that we deliver great outcomes for our customers.

The role covers the journey ownership, strategy and regulatory engagement for our non-card payment services, with an emphasis on regulatory ownership for Payments as an Important Business Service (IBS) for the bank.

Key Responsibilities:

Payments ownership.  Own the FPS / BACS / CHAPS / Cheques payment solutions end to end

• Ensure our non-card payments are managed ETE.  This includes the key schemes (e.g., FPS) plus ancillary services (e.g., CoP)
• These must be fully mapped out (from tech / systems to exception handling in pay-ops).  
• Ensures our existing journeys meet regulatory requirements
• Acts as the CCBO’s linkage to the Important Business Services (IBS) (the 7 payment related IBS) and agree ITols with technology resilience
• Manage and gather the data for the Operational Risk Committee payment KRIs
• Alongside the Director of Payments, define the customer payment limits and configurations for our key services, balancing our customers’ needs for security, convenience and inclusivity

Scheme / supplier management.  Act as the business owner for key schemes and suppliers

• Holds relationships with key payment scheme and infrastructure providers e.g., Pay.uk, BACS / Vocalink / FPS etc.
• Manage key payment scheme interactions and attestations
• Ensure scheme changes are understood and processed
• Manage Post Office relationship

Incident management. Act as the BCP point / incident manager for (non-card) payment related incidents.

• Support tech in responding to and closing down incidents, acting as the SME and providing advice and guidance
• In particular the role must be able to understand PSD2 / PSR2017 requirements and SLAs
• Ensure that all payment incidents which arise are managed in a timely and effective manner, consistent with regulatory expectations

Pay-ops oversight. Act as the SME and interface for pay-ops as they automate various processes in the pay-ops team

• Agree, set and manage SLAs for the COO payments operations team
• Alongside the COO team, work with the Bank’s Payment and Reconciliation Operations team to ensure that regulatory expectations are met and that we are delivering good outcomes for customers.  

UK Retail Payments Infrastructure 

• Watching brief to understand the emerging National Payments Vision, the RPIB etc. and ensure we are ahead of / abreast of changes
• Must ensure Starling remains current with latest regulations and requirements and acts ahead of time to ensure future compliance
• Continually evaluate the regulatory and competitive landscapes to understand where potential risks / challenges are, as well as where the key opportunities for growth and development are.
• Represent Starling at key industry events and forums.

Risk and control

• Lead on risk identification and regulatory mapping, ensuring that payment RCSAs are effectively maintained.
• Ongoing oversight of payment control effectiveness.
• Own and react to operational reporting, covering Transaction Processing KRIs and MI.
• Maintain live view of current and future regulatory requirements via established horizon scanning and pro-active research

Requirements

Essentials

• Expertise in key payment regulations (PSR2017 / PSD2 etc) and relevance to Bank operations 
• Deep understanding of payments and the payments landscape
• Robust knowledge of our key payment rails FPS / BACS / CHAPS etc
• Knowledge of payment trends and pay.uk / PSR evolution
• Payments vocation – must care passionately about payments, want to learn more and appetite to upgrade the Bank’s understanding

• Consistently act with the highest ethical standards, ensuring decisions are always in the best interest of our customers, colleagues, and the bank. Lead by example, fostering a culture of trust and transparency across all levels

Good to have

• Experience in collaborating effectively across a variety of business areas and ability to interact effectively with all levels
• Diplomacy and emotional intelligence to build strong professional relationships at all levels 
• Hands-on, resilient and adaptable to a fast moving environments

Benefits

• 25 days holiday (plus take your public holiday allowance whenever works best for you)
• An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
• Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off
• 16 hours paid volunteering time a year
• Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme
• Life insurance at 4x your salary & group income protection
• Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton
• Generous family-friendly policies
• Incentives refer a friend scheme
• Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks
• Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing

About us:

You may be put off applying for a role because you don’t tick every box. Forget that! While we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’re always open to discussion. So, if you’re excited about working with us, but aren’t sure if you’re 100% there yet, get in touch anyway.We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. Whatever came before, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.

Starling is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Starling are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. When you provide us with this information, you are doing so at your own consent, with full knowledge that we will process this personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice. By submitting your application, you agree that Starling will collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we will process, where we will process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal information.