SCM Technical Specialist
Salary or salary range: Competitive
Contract type: Full-time
Location of position: London
Application deadline: 07/07/2024
Job Description
To find out more about this role, and other opportunities, in the Supervision and Compliance Monitoring Division at the PSR join our recruitment webinar on Monday 1st July at 2pm. You'll get a chance to meet the Enforcement and Compliance Management team, find out first-hand what the role involves and ask any questions you might have. Scroll down to the bottom of the advert for full Teams details.
About the PSR
How payments work affects the society we live in; the challenges faced by the vulnerable; how likely we are to fall victim to fraud; and how easily we can manage our money. Payments underpin our economy.
Behind these payments are several important payment systems. We rely on these systems to support markets, facilitate competition and drive innovation. This helps to deliver new products, find new ways to protect people from harm, and deliver services that give people and businesses more choice and control about how to pay and be paid.
We need the technology, the rules governing the use of these systems and the markets they support to all work well. This is where the PSR plays an important role – we are the economic regulator of, and competition authority for, those systems. We protect people and businesses and promote competition and innovation in these systems and the markets that they support.
The PSR is an independent economic regulator led by Managing Director, David Geale. We are directly accountable to Parliament and funded by the payments industry. We work closely with other regulators involved in this sector, notably the Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the Competition and Markets Authority. Operationally we are an independent subsidiary of the Financial Conduct Authority.
Purpose of the role
The PSR is covering larger and more complex areas of work than ever before. Through active monitoring, supervision and enforcement, we will make sure people and businesses can continue to have confidence in the payment systems they use every single day.
The Supervision and Compliance Monitoring (SCM) Division is responsible for ensuring that the PSR’s regulatory requirements are complied with and improving outcomes for everyone that uses payments systems by challenging poor practice within firms. The SCM Division was established in June 2023 and carries out three main functions:
Supervision: develops relationships with those we regulate to understand how they take decisions, manage risk and deliver the right outcomes for users of payments systems
Compliance Monitoring: focuses on ensuring compliance with the PSR's directions, requirements and regulations through the gathering of evidence, fieldwork and data analysis. We use this knowledge to ensure that any non-compliance is quickly resolved and to decide if formal regulatory intervention is more appropriate
Enforcement: investigates potential breaches of our directions, requirements and regulations, with the power to impose fines and publish details of identified breaches
You will use your experience of the payments sector to provide expert advice to the SCM Division. This will support the Division in our work to ensure that participants in the payments industry comply with our directions and work towards our strategic objectives. You will also have experience of overseeing technology change projects ideally related to payment systems.
Your role will contribute to all three functions of the SCM Division, you may be:
Providing advice to the compliance monitoring team on the viability of a firms plans to deliver change to become compliant with our directions
Supporting the Enforcement Team by assessing and where appropriate challenging the credibility of a firm’s explanation for a compliance failure
Helping the Supervision team to understand the plans of a Payment System Operator to design and deliver technology to innovate to support users of payment systems
The role requires considerable external engagement, playing a key role in ensuring that the PSR is a strong, confident, outwardly facing regulator, building effective relationships with senior industry stakeholders and across the wider family of regulators and public bodies. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing team; for more information about the work of SCM have a look here.
Key accountabilities:
Providing expert advice and industry insight on strategic, commercial, operational and technical aspects of payments and payment systems to support the SCM division
Clearly articulating complex matters in a straightforward manner to non-technical stakeholders; including contributing to written documents both for internal governance decisions and external publication
Engaging with a network of industry and other external stakeholders to keep abreast of developments in the payments ecosystem, and working with key stakeholders to promote our objectives, such payments industry, the Bank of England, the FCA, HM Treasury, the CMA, the European Commission, overseas central banks and other regulators
Providing briefings to the PSR’s board and senior management
Representing the PSR in external meetings and conferences, including through giving presentations and sitting on panels
Be a key part of the SCM leadership team, helping to develop and grow our function
Be an active role model for PSR colleagues demonstrating behaviours in line with the PSR values and capabilities
The skills and experience you will have
We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.
Minimum
Significant payments industry experience, and a detailed understanding of UK payment systems, services, and the commercial models relevant to payments firms
Experience of operating in a role with significant internal and external influence
Proven ability to understand complex and technical concepts, form well-judged conclusions and explain those in a way accessible to a range of colleagues
Essential
Expert knowledge of (a number of) the UK’s key payment systems and the ability to apply this knowledge to the strategic challenges facing the PSR
An in-depth understanding of the role of regulation and the operational impact of regulatory requirements with respect to UK payment systems and payment service providers
Significant experience of overseeing change management, ideally technology change
An understanding of key stakeholders in the UK payments industry and their motivations, issues and concerns
Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence and gain the trust of other senior leaders and external stakeholders
The ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines on a diverse set of projects and work streams
Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to distil complex issues into succinct messages and present confidently to a variety of internal and external stakeholders at all levels
Credibility and a proven track-record of working at a senior level
Ability to work collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary environment, simplifying complex concepts across teams, providing constructive support and robust challenge where necessary
Ability to contribute to a cohesive work environment, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and professional development, where collaboration, mentorship and clear communication are valued
A deep and demonstratable understanding of risk disciplines including; operational risk, third-party risk and regulatory risk management
Strong analytical and innovative problem-solving skills, robustness in the face of challenge, and the ability to balance analytical rigour and pragmatism, while exercising excellent judgement
Desirable
A good level of experience of the regulatory landscape and public policy issues relating to economic regulation and competition policy, ideally in a sector relevant to payments and payment systems
A strong knowledge and appreciation of the opportunities and challenges facing the payments industry (and the financial services industry more broadly)
Strong networks across payments and/or financial services, in the UK and/or overseas
A working knowledge of economic concepts relevant to payment services
Experience of investigating incidents and control failures to evaluate root cause and oversee remediation of issues
PSR Values
All members of PSR are expected to demonstrate the PSR Values of Integrity, Unity, Engagement, Knowledge & Purpose.
In order to represent the people and organisations that we serve, we are committed to building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our commitment includes disability, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ and gender identity, mental health, and social mobility issues.
We are proud signatories of the e Women in Finance Charter, we hold the Level 2 Carer Confident accreditation from Carers UK and we signed the Social Mobility Pledge in June 2020.
As an inclusive employer, we are open to considering flexible working arrangements. Please contact our recruiter if you wish to apply for this role on a flexible basis.
Useful information
This role is graded as Technical Specialist – Regulatory Level 5
This role is based in London
The role offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package
Applications close at 23.59 on Sunday 7th July 2024
If you are interested learning more about these roles, please contact Katie Ayling on katie.ayling@fca.org.uk
Want to know what it is like to work at the PSR? Check out this short video PSR recruitment video 2022 - YouTube
Please note – Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted
Conflicts of interest
All applicants to the PSR are required to demonstrate that they do not have other interests likely to conflict with their responsibilities as an employee of the PSR.
You should declare any potential conflict of interest as early as possible in the selection process (via the named recruitment contact), and also disclose information or personal connections that, if appointed, might be open to misperception.
Any potential conflicts of interest will not prevent candidates going forward to interview but may, if appropriate, be explored during the interview to establish how the candidate would address the issue(s) should they be successful in their application.
For more information on conflicts please visit:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/conflict-of-interests.pdf Recruitment webinar
To find out more about this role, and other opportunities, in the Supervision and Compliance Monitoring Division at the PSR join our recruitment webinar on Monday 1st July at 2pm. Full Teams details below:
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