Head of Payments and Client Digital Services APAC

ING Wholesale Banking in Singapore

We began operating in Singapore in 1987 where we host the regional Asia Pacific headquarters. With over 300 financial experts, we are the largest wholesale banking branch in Asia. ING stands out in the Asia Pacific region because we go a step further for our customers. We look at things from the client’s perspective which allows us to construct tailor-made solutions to fit the needs of every company we serve. This mentality underpins all our client relations and has produced various prestigious awards.

Organizational context

WB APAC COO is responsible of the oversight of the operational delivery across 9 different ING Legal entities within the region, as such the domain leverages on the delivery of shared services via ING Hubs Manila and on the Global Payments and C&DS processes established by our global WB COO C&DS and PSS (Payments and settlement services) organizations.

WB COO C&DS and PSS organizations are globally responsible for all Payment & Cash Management and local settlements operational activities along the client life cycle and the Digital Services to our clients.

This reaches from Client Onboarding, through in-life Client Services and back-office processing to a potential Client Offboarding. These services are within C&DS supported by strong Process Leadership and our Process Excellence & Automation team.

We have strong ambitions to accelerate in:

• Standardization and digitalization of our key processes so that clients can self-serve were possible and manual process steps are intelligently automated.
• Executing our Client Services Target Operating Model to serve our clients with high quality and in a scalable manner.

About the position

We are looking for a passionate APAC Regional Payments and C&DS head, within our WB APAC COO organization, that will drive our regional strategy to the next level so that we can transition towards highly standardised and digitized global processes for our customers.

Responsibilities

1.  Act as an Internal and external payments Regional single point of contact for multiple countries (Singapore, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, HK, Philippines, Australia), understanding the needs of each location.

2. Lead the Payments and Client & Digital services digital transformation across the whole APAC region, prioritizing the most important gains to optimize the whole payments and settlements process; effectively liaising with global stakeholders across ING Group to materialize technological and procedural change.

3. Act as liaison between the WB APAC COO domain and the commercial teams in order to push the digital adoption via the Client and Digital services processes.

4. Responsibility of the regional alignment, optimization and standardization of BAU payments and settlement activities across the different countries as well as steering the delivery and execution of local settlements teams and ING Hubs Manila settlements teams providing services to the region. Coordinating with Global Process leads and ensuring that operational management is monitored via establishing meaningful operational metrics and KPIs to elevate the quality of the overall process. 

5. Lead WB COO APAC domain when it comes to local and RTGS payments execution, spotting local needs and liaising with global stakeholders to optimize local processes.

6. Ensure that the overall ING Bank N.V. Payments and settlements control framework is fully adopted and maintained across the region.

In addition, the role entails support and coverage for PCM, WCS, Trade Finance settlements as well as Client Services activities such as:

• E2E regional oversight of Daily Banking activities under Global, Local & Hubs processing, covering operational management.
• Driving the transition from local to consolidated services
• Make sure stakeholders adopt global processes and only allow opting out when legally required or with strong business rational.
• Challenge all (business)stakeholders on strategic choices/implementation towards needed automation, manual work and global standards.
• Determining the regional roadmap and ensuring scalable operations on a global level for fulfilment of all processes. In strong alignment with Scalable Client Services Lead and other MT members.
• Dynamic planning for all roles and responsibilities in scope.
• Ensuring that APAC change demands are well aligned with global QBR process and alignment/escalation with others.
• Closely monitor Global Process Performance and Accelerate delivery on improvements.
• Ensure that the regional Payments and settlement control framework is align to global standards and regulatory requirements.

Qualifications and competencies:

• Strong Payments and digital adoption leader with at least 12+ experience in the Payments, Trade Finance, WCS, PCM, domains. 
• Clear communicator, stakeholder manager and change manager that can challenge the status quo, claim the global mandate and make sure requirements and benefits are clear for all involved.
• An experienced lead with strong influencing and stakeholder management skills able to steer change and operational rigor across APAC as well as with stakeholders in Netherlands and rest of the ING Bank NV wider organization.  
• Experienced with sourced activities and transforming business with global teams, complex processes and organizations.
• Strong analytical, influencing and learning skills.
• Professionally sceptic, knowledgeable and solution oriented.
• Emotional resilience and confidence: you adapt easily to new environments, remain calm and continue to perform under pressure.
• You talk open and honestly, are a trustworthy sparring partner. You give and act on
• constructive feedback.
• Availability to travel across APAC.
• Proven track record of leading projects and change management in a complex global organization
• Ability to think both strategically and tactically
• Proactive, structured and hands-on approach
• Ability to manage conflicting priorities and demonstrate adaptability in a fast-paced environment