Head: Card Schemes Partnerships at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• To manage the card scheme operating model on behalf of Absa – all contractual, commercial, change, compliance and new capability requirements for existing and new payment schemes.
• Influence, guide and direct the card payment schemes and key industry forums on strategic and operational decisions (material opportunities, issues & risks).
• To manage and expropriate the maintenance of proper governance and control standards (including intra & interbank) across the Absa payment value chain (auth, clearing & settlement) in order to deliver material value to Absa BU clusters and our end customers.
• As a centre of excellence, establish an overall health position of Absa Payment partnerships albeit PSO, TPPP’s, ISO’s, Financial Services companies and bank sponsorships with strong alignment to Absa BU Product clusters.
• Develop and maintain the overarching payment partnership framework and guiding principles to ultimately shape / inform go / no go payment partnerships decisions in close collaboration with BU product areas.
• Develop, manage and maintain the overall payment partnership plan across multiple payment rails that seeks to extract value from strategic partnerships.
• Job Description

Accountability: Relationship Management and Industry representation

• Maintain strong relationships with all senior levels within PSO’s (Visa, MasterCard) is imperative, as these relationships will frequently be stress tested in various ways (Commercial, Contractual, Operational, Compliance, Projects / BoW etc.).
• Manage & negotiate with PSO’s when appropriate to avoid non-compliance penalties and address any non- compliance issues to ensure actions taken to remedy non-compliance.
• Maintain the relationship and Absa presence on key industry forums in order to influence and provide guidance on key strategic issues.
• Maintaining the health of Absa / PSO relationship and inform /Influence policy formulation on key strategic issues.
• Regular performance engagements, reporting and assessments.
• Responsible for the delivery of comprehensive briefings to Senior Executives
• Contribute and participate in industry forums created for the purpose of maintaining the integrity of payment transactions across the national payment system.
• Active monitoring and guidance of the TPPP’s, ISO & Payment Sponsorships

Accountability: Reporting, Analytics and Insights

• Maintain and enhance the exception reporting process created for the maintenance and tracking of payment and settlement transaction performance and integrity.
• Ensure that team identify all compliance programs that are mandatory and drive and monitor levels of compliancy.
• Conduct detailed analysis of total business information including transactional, pricing and operating system performance.
• Translate and channel exception reporting findings to the appropriate value chain function and track the remediation of issues.
• Maintain the business rule repository, testing environment and MI production pertaining to the area.
• Recommend changes to the way of work in accordance with best practice in the Card industry.
• Contribute to the overall Risk management strategy across the Card payment value chain.
• Ensure that production systems are optimised through strategic and tactical influence from the payment and settlement analytical environment.

Accountability: Financial Management

• Ensure that all gaps are identified and closed when it comes to Revenue and other leakages.
• Manage direct and indirect costs of scheme membership by reducing fees and seeking process enhancements with strong alignment to Product Control environment.
• Maintain the balancing process between Business, IT and Finance in order to optimise the revenue generated from payment and settlement of transactions.
• Contribute to the optimisation of the Absa Card Payment strategy, business planning processes and BoW deliverables.

Accountability: People Management

• Manage and direct the Payment Partnership team (Scheme Management and Payment partnerships team) activities.
• Ensure team is optimally resourced to deliver annual objectives
• Manage the performance and development of team members

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)

End Date: August 18, 2025