Head of Cards and Payments
HugoBank
Head of Cards and Payments
HugoBank
Digital retail bank enabling financial inclusion
HugoBank · Karachi, Pakistan · — · Posted 2026-10-20
Workplace: on_site
Department: Product & Design
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).
● 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.
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HugoBank is a digital retail bank based in Karachi that aims to expand financial inclusion in Pakistan. It uses a mobile app to offer fast online account opening, secure transfers, P2P payments, bill payments, and credit products, and it issues physical and virtual debit and credit cards, plus Earned Wage Access for early salary access. The bank combines international fintech know-how with local market reach, leveraging Muller & Phipps’ network to serve the unbanked quickly and position itself as a wealthcare partner for holistic financial needs. Its goal is to increase Pakistan's bank account penetration to over 80% and open 34 million new accounts by 2027.
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