About Appro

Appro is an exciting fintech start-up disrupting the banking onboarding journey for retail clients. At Appro we pride ourselves on our transparency, and our ability to quickly provide our clients with the best loan and credit card options that they can seamlessly review and compare in order to select the offer that helps them set their money goals on the path to success.

This is an opportunity to join Appro as a Head of Risk, & Compliance. The role will be based in the UAE.

Key Responsibilities

• Play a key role in driving the implementation of risk management, compliance and governance standards & related initiatives according to the book of work and in line with the industry leading practices of the Financial Services or Fintech(s) and meeting the regulatory expectation
• Assist in the development of the Enterprise Risk Management strategy & initiatives, ensure the alignment of risk appetite, and provide oversight across various principal risk types (eg. operational risk, reputational risk, IT & ICS risk, sovereign risk, market risk & ALM, compliance & FCC, model governance / validation, macro-economics implications, etc)
• Provide advisory to various functions within the company and ensure they adopt adequate & consistent measures to manage and mitigate existing and/or emerging risk and compliance related matters
• Perform ad-hoc or routine independent risk evaluation based on qualitative and quantitative factors across the value chain process, new or changes to the product features, strategic-alliances / partnerships to determine the risk adjusted return including the assessment of compliance and financial-crime compliance expectations
• Lead efforts to integrate risk assessment further into strategic decision-making process and/or prioritise discussions into cost benefit analysis, as appropriate
• Monitor market, macro-economic and geopolitical developments; assess their potential risk scenarios and financial-risk impact on sovereign and credit quality and ratings of counterparties
• Monitor key regulatory developments and stay abreast of the current events and market trends in various countries (eg. Asia, EU, US, GCC) and ensure overall compliance risks are adequately managed
• Implements, challenges and designs dynamic risk and compliance related initiatives and drives change and process improvement to the risk management landscape
• Review and assess control deficiencies (including KRI, RCSA, metrics etc), assist in the remediation plans, and determine the effectiveness and adequacy of mitigation controls
• Strengthen the operational risk and information & cyber risk analytics with insight into their key risk areas on a current basis and on a predictive basis
• Execute, maintain and monitor the overall risk appetite and reputational risk of the company and recommend changes to improve the sensitivity, efficiency and effectiveness of the approach

• Coordinate and liaise with internal and external stakeholders including third party vendors as required from an independent risk and governance perspective (3rd party risk management)
• Liaise with the Legal team to ensure identified risks are adequately addressed
• Conduct, execute and report on various types of risk governance and assurance review including post-mortem validations
• Bring thought leadership and leading practice frameworks and standards of innovative industry-wide risk, compliance and controls that contribute to an environment that fosters ongoing innovation and enables continuous improvement of risk and compliance mindset within the company
• Assist in the implementation of risk profiling, incident management including registration of issues and events, managing and delivering of risk incident reports via the automation of risk management reporting tool
• Support and coordinate periodic risk and compliance related reports, assessments, budgeting and forecast processes including monitoring of risks against risk appetite limits and thresholds
• Influence and gain buy-in from the Executive Leadership team and other relevant stakeholders (eg Board, Auditors, Investors, Rating Agencies, etc)
• Support management in handling issues with internal auditors and/or external auditors
• Prepare, manage, update and maintain all the necessary artefacts as required (e.g. playbook, framework, standards/guidelines/policies etc)
• Work with new, changing or unstructured situations, including where there may not always be readily apparent solutions

Key Stakeholders

• CEO
• COO
• CTO
• CFO
• Legal
• Board members

Qualifications and Experience

Subject matter knowledge and experience

• At least 12 years of financial risk & non-financial risk experience within traditional and/or non-traditional financial services (including FinTech) in managing a range of functions & demonstrating leadership skills with the ability to improve organisational effectiveness
• Strong industry enterprise risk management, governance, compliance, corporate actions, information & cyber risk, risk-based audit (internal or external), risk consulting and relevant change management / transformation experience.
• Ability to quickly adapt to shifting priorities, demands and timelines through both analytical and problem-solving skills
• Proficiency in analysing fragmented inputs, synthesizing key attributes and advise on the effectiveness and balance recommendation / outcomes
• Experience in the regulatory risk and compliance initiatives with a proven track record that may impact the industry
• Experience with Central Bank regulations, Consumer Protection Regulations, Data Privacy law etc.
• Bachelor\xe2\x80\x99s or Master\xe2\x80\x99s degree in business, banking, economics, management, accounting, finance, management information systems, or related field or equivalent
• Professional qualifications such as CIA, CFA, CPA, CRISC, CISA, CDPSE, CGEIT, CISSP or equivalent certification will be an added advantage
• Proficient with Market data & MS Office Suite applications
• Excellent communication skills \xe2\x80\x93 oral, written and presentation
• Strong sense of personal ownership and responsibility in accomplishing the organizational\xe2\x80\x99 s goal
• Ability to work independently as well as in a team
• Ability to thrive in a quick-paced environment, multi-task & deliver to tight deadlines

About SC Ventures

SC Ventures (\xe2\x80\x9cSCV\xe2\x80\x9d) was established in 2018 with the purpose of \xe2\x80\x9cRewiring the DNA in Banking\xe2\x80\x9d by bringing three distinct areas together:

• The eXellerator Lab, enabling innovation at large in the Bank by supporting intrapreneurs and their ideas, collaborating with fintech\xe2\x80\x99s through the SCV Fintech Bridge and engaging with clients and co-creation ideas
• The Investment Fund (\xe2\x80\x9cFund\xe2\x80\x9d), tasked to acquire minority stakes in fintech companies (\xe2\x80\x9cfintechs\xe2\x80\x9d) whose technology has been successfully validated in the Group
• Venture building, with the objective of exploring new business models (\xe2\x80\x9cventures\xe2\x80\x9d), in the way it engages existing new customers and markets.

There are c.65 team members (excluding individual ventures), including dedicated colleagues from the Group\xe2\x80\x99s support functions, based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nairobi, London and San Francisco.

Standard Chartered