Head of Cards and Payments (VP-SVP)

About this role

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 drive initiatives to grow spend, retention, and cross-sell across both segments, leveraging customer and merchant insights and behavioral data.

● Define strategies to migrate secured customers to unsecured credit cards, and to grow merchant QR adoption into deeper transacting relationships, based on credit behavior and repayment/transaction history.

● Own the consolidated Cards and Payments P&L across both segments, working with Finance to manage revenue drivers (interest income, interchange, merchant discount rate, payment fees) and cost levers.

• ● Direct campaigns and offers — consumer and merchant-facing — that drive product stickiness and long-term engagement.
• ● Partner with the Lending function to ensure cards and payments transaction data feeds lending decisioning for both Retail and Merchant & Business customers.
• Governance, Risk & Compliance

● Hold ultimate accountability for the domain’s compliance with State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) regulations, consumer and merchant card and payment guidelines, and internal risk policies, across both segments.

• ● Direct Compliance and Legal engagement on documentation, disclosures, and product approvals for consumer and merchant cards and payments products.

● Lend business support for chargeback, dispute, and fraud monitoring frameworks with respective domain experts in Fraud Risk and Operations, on card/payment consumer and merchant transaction flows.

• ● Lead periodic risk reviews across the domain, identifying control gaps and directing corrective actions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Management
• ● Act as the senior accountable owner for cards and payments across internal functions — Technology, Credit Risk, Operations, Finance and Customer Experience.
• ● Build, lead, and develop a cross-functional cards and payments team supporting both Retail and Merchant & Business segments.
• ● Represent the cards and payments domain in CCO leadership and executive forums, shaping the broader commercial strategy.
• ● Partner with Marketing to design go-to-market campaigns, customer and merchant education, and lifecycle communication strategies across both segments.

Secondary Responsibilities

• ● Represent the cards and payments domain in cross-departmental and executive workshops, providing strategic input from a domain-wide perspective.

● Oversee resolution of escalated customer and merchant service issues related to card and QR/payment activation, billing, rewards, and disputes, in partnership with Operations and Contact Centre teams.

• ● Direct reconciliation accuracy with Back-Office and Finance for card and payment transactions, fees, and commission payouts across both segments.
• ● Own the preparation of regulatory submissions, inspection responses, and compliance reports related to cards and payments.
• ● Ensure marketing collaterals, campaigns, and communication materials across both segments are reviewed and approved by Compliance before release.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

● Consolidated Cards and Payments P&L contribution across Retail and Merchant & Business segments (fee income + interest income + interchange + merchant discount rate + payment fees − cost to serve).

• ● Card and QR/payment activation rate and time-to-activation, tracked separately for consumer and merchant segments.
• ● QR/instant-payment transaction volume, merchant acceptance growth, and payment success rate.
• ● Spend per active card/merchant and total interchange/MDR revenue.
• ● Card and payment-method dormancy/inactivity rate across both segments.
• ● Credit Card Portfolio delinquency and credit-loss rate (secured vs. unsecured, consumer vs. merchant).
• Regulatory and audit findings closures/open/overdue (SBP and internal risk reviews).

Requirements

● Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics or a related field from a recognized institution is mandatory; a Master’s degree (MBA or equivalent) is preferred.

● Atleast 10 years of progressive experience in Cards, Payments, or Digital Banking, including recent 2 years in a senior or similar role owning P&L and managing cross-functional commercial management.

• ● Proven track record of building and scaling cards and payments portfolios.
• ● Demonstrated experience owning end-to-end product and P&L accountability, from strategy and architecture through go-to-market, performance management, and optimization.
• ● Exposure to SBP regulatory frameworks governing cards, payments, consumer and merchant protection, and payment instruments, including direct regulator engagement experience.

● Experience negotiating and managing relationships with card schemes (Visa, PayPak, Mastercard, Union Pay), third-party processors and Pakistan’s instant-payment infrastructure (Raast, 1LINK).

● Experience in banks, fintechs, or card-issuing/payments institutions, with prior people-leadership experience managing teams of product, design, or commercial professionals, strongly preferred.