Payment Standards Specialist at BankservAfrica

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• BankservAfrica form part of the South African National Payments System and are a trusted partner of the financial industry, including banking institutions, and therefore require that employees adhere to unwavering standards of honesty and transparency in performing their duties.

PURPOSE

• The main purpose of the Payment Standards Specialist is to review payment and messaging content to ensure compliance with relevant Clearing Rules, payment and messaging rules, regulations, standards, policies and guidelines.  Determine the BankservAfrica standards for new and modernised payment processes and messages.  Work collaboratively with industry participants and standards forums to ensure we remain aligned with best practice and industry standards. 
• Evaluate data usage against the BankservAfrica standards.  Must be able to analyse complex data and communicate conclusions to colleagues and industry participants.  Must be comfortable conducting relevant research and maintaining thorough records.

You will engage with the following stakeholders:

•  Internal and external stakeholders
•  Product Lifecycle Managers
•  Business and Enterprise Architects
•  Product and Data Architects
•  EPMO 
•  Regulatory Bodies

 Payment Forums

•  International Standards forums

Your key responsibilities include:

•  Gather and assess applicable product (existing or new) information in order to obtain a holistic understanding of the inner and outer workings of product with reference to payment methodologies and message standards in its application within the payments landscape ecology
•  Review payment and message content and format of existing and new products to ensure compliance with clearing rules, regulations, payment standards, policies, and guiding principles 
•  Establish BankservAfrica standards for new and modernised payment processes and messages to meet requirements of the industry modernisation of payments initiative
•  Perform analysis on applicable products (existing or new) with the given assessment information ascertained to provide formal expert opinion on the products feasibility and viability considering functionality, data, security, integration, infrastructure and performance
•  Provide expert opinion product design components within defined fields and contexts such as regulatory, business and commercial
•  Work collaboratively with industry participants and standards forums to ensure BankservAfrica remains aligned with best practice and industry standards
•  Contribute to local and international working groups in defining payment standards for new schemes
•  Facilitate and share expert knowledge with industry and standard forums.
•  Offer constructive opinions from experiences of BankservAfrica’s innovative usage of new or existing payment or payment related message standards
•  Engage with key stakeholders and regulatory bodies to ensure messages and their usage adhere to defined governance and regulatory policies and compliances
•  Facilitate and share expert product knowledge to other Product Analysts as well as to Product Architects in support of the product and service offering development

QUALIFICATIONS / KNOWLEDGE

•  Extensive relevant payment mechanisms and scheme knowledge
•  Project Management course/knowledge an advantage
•  Required computer literacy levels

EXPERIENCE

•  Comprehensive experience in product development and product management fields
•  Experience in Business Analysis, product design and financial modelling 
•  Minimum 5 years’ experience in payments industry