Description
Mastercard is seeking a Senior Counsel to provide strategic, practical and commercially focused regulatory support across Asia Pacific for Mastercard's Commercial & New Payment Flows business.
The successful candidate will advise on existing and emerging regulations with a view toward enabling the commercialization of workable regulatory pathways, solving complex problems and realizing business opportunities while appropriately managing regulatory risk.
Key responsibilities:
- Serve as a key regulatory adviser for CNPF in Asia Pacific, with primary responsibility for Corporate Solutions and SME and additional support for Transfer Solutions.
- Translate complex requirements into crisp, actionable advice that clearly sets out the conclusion, assumptions, risks, options and recommended path.
- Identify practical regulatory pathways that support responsible innovation and growth; challenge assumptions, propose alternatives and work through operational, financial, treasury, safeguarding and compliance dependencies.
- Advise on card-network and payment-system regulation; commercial and SME products; virtual cards; interchange and pricing; consumer protection; payment services; and domestic and cross-border funds movement, including remittances and collections.
- Advise on digital-asset and stablecoin initiatives, including product and settlement use cases, licensing and registration, regulatory-perimeter questions, safeguarding and financial-crime controls.
- Partner with Financial Crimes, Compliance and other control functions on AML/CFT, sanctions, KYC, transaction monitoring and related regulatory obligations.
- Assess licensing, authorization, registration and notification requirements; support market-entry and legal-entity strategies, applications, supervisory matters, examinations and remediation.
- Monitor Asia Pacific regulatory developments and drive timely implementation or advocacy responses, with particular focus as needed on payments systems regulation, licensing, interchange and pricing.
- Coordinate regulatory submissions, consultation responses and advocacy positions; engage constructively with regulators; and manage outside counsel for focused, practical and cost-effective advice.
- Own a broad portfolio with a high degree of autonomy, prioritize effectively, manage stakeholder expectations and deliver against compressed timelines in a global matrix.
Requirements:
- A law degree and qualification to practice in at least one relevant jurisdiction, with significant experience in payments, financial services, fintech, technology or regulatory law.
- Broad, current payments-regulatory experience spanning card networks and payment systems, interchange and pricing, consumer protection and domestic and cross-border funds movement.
- Experience with cross-border and domestic payment transfers, commercial card and corporate payment solutions, virtual cards, B2B payments, SME products strongly preferred.
- Experience advising on digital assets or stablecoins is strongly preferred, including the ability to apply existing frameworks to novel technologies and operating models.
- A firm understanding of AML/CFT regulatory obligations and an ability to work effectively with Financial Crimes and Compliance specialists.
- Experience with Australian and/or New Zealand payments regulation is strongly preferred.
- Strong judgment and demonstrated ability to refine fact patterns, identify dependencies and develop pragmatic solutions that enable opportunities while managing risk.
- Ability to deliver concise, business-friendly advice and executive updates under time pressure and with evolving facts.
- Proven ability to manage a complex portfolio autonomously, take ownership through implementation or resolution, and influence effectively across functions and levels.
- A proactive, solutions-oriented and collaborative approach, with excellent written and oral English.
- Additional Asia Pacific language capability is an advantage.