Head of Banking and Expansion - LatAm

Company Description

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. Min fees. Max ease. Full speed.

Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their life easier and save them money.

As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money. For everyone, everywhere.

Job Description

Your mission:

• Working with the Product Leads, help define the opportunities and direction for our products in Latin America. Collaborate across teams and inspire others so that we deliver the best solution. 
  • Work closely with product teams (Bankers, Product Managers and Product Engineers) to develop our vision and build better products and experiences for our customers. Your contribution will mainly be from the payments infrastructure, regulatory and operational banking partnerships point of view.
  • Work with our Compliance and Government Relations teams in managing our relationships with regulators and other important non-commercial relationships, such as the government.
  • Work with our global teams (Product, Finance, Treasury, etc.) to ensure our customers and products are at the centre of our mission.
  • Lead the LatAm Banking and Expansion team by giving them tools and coaching for them to grow and operate independently. 

• To deepen our regulatory infrastructure in Brazil.

  • Identify the most appropriate way to grow Wise in Brazil. If we need licences, you will need to manage the process end-to-end: understand the regulations, prepare, coordinate and submit the application, and get the regulatory buy-in as well as support the fulfillment of any other local requirements for the licence applications.

  • Manage and support the day to day requirements for our current licences, both from a Product and Compliance perspective.

  • Understand existing and new regulations and figure out the best ways our product can comply with them. You will be one of the product team’s go-to people for regulatory knowledge. We see regulation as an opportunity!

• Take ownership of maintaining and improving existing relationships with banks and other financial institutions. This refers primarily to our transaction banking agreements, which let us build and expand our product, and you'll have a high level of autonomy in optimising these. You will:

  • Lead commercial and relationship discussions with partners and monitor our economics on global routes to ensure we offer the most sustainable and competitive service in the market.

  • Create new opportunities within existing relationships with financial institutions in Brazil to ensure we continuously improve our product (i.e. increase speed, reduce costs, add more visibility to our transactions, etc.).

• To build new relationships with relevant financial institutions:

  • Work with regional and product teams to open new relationships with relevant financial institutions (i.e. banks, payment processors, cards issuers, processors, etc.).

  • Manage an end-to-end process: find the right potential partners, pitch Wise as a client, negotiate the commercial agreements and contracts, complete account opening forms, explain our compliance processes, pass due diligence, and do anything else needed to be ready for development.

Qualifications

This role would suit someone who is:

• Able to independently negotiate the most ideal terms with a clear product vision and understanding in mind and you can figure out the ideal operational and commercial process with every new partner.

• Excellent at managing financial regulatory relationships, constantly creating opportunities to improve them.

• Able to get stuff done. Not afraid to get hands dirty to deliver what is needed - we’re a fast growing company and you will need an entrepreneurial mindset to thrive.

• Familiar with how financial, payments and FX regulators work, preferably in Brazil and Mexico, and the different decision makers that need to be taken into account to make things happen. 

• Understand financial, payments and FX regulation in a changing regulatory environment and have an interest in AML/KYC and risk controls. Knowledge of Brazilian and Mexican regulation strongly preferred. 

• Familiar with how corporate banks and financial institutions work and their decision makers. You’re excellent at managing those relationships and are constantly creating opportunities to improve them.

• You are business fluent in Portuguese (required) and Spanish (strongly preferred)

• Happy to work independently and flexibly within a fast-moving environment.

• Passionate about transforming the financial industry for good.

It would be ideal, but not essential if you:

• Have experience in Government Relations & Public Policies.

• Understand financial regulation in the region, and have worked directly with other regulators.

• Understand how local and international payments work (specific knowledge of other Latin American countries payment systems would be a plus

Additional Information

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For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.
Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

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