We at Pine Labs are looking for those who share our core belief - Every Day is Game day. We bring our best selves to work each day to realize our mission of enriching the world through the power of digital commerce and financial services.
Role Purpose
The Senior Manager Merchant Acquiring Risk is responsible for leading and executing the operational risk framework across Pine Labs card acquiring business, supporting secure scale across Southeast Asia. The role oversees key elements of the risk lifecycle including merchant onboarding risk, transaction monitoring, AML controls, chargeback and dispute management, ensuring alignment with regulatory and network standards.
As the acquiring business grows in scale, complexity, and transaction velocity, this role plays a critical part in protecting the platform, customers, and partner banks from fraud, misuse, financial loss, and operational risk. The Senior Manager/Manager is expected to drive continuous improvement in risk controls and contribute to the evolution from traditional rule‑based systems to intelligent, data‑led and AI‑enabled risk operations, embedding automation and real‑time decisioning into day‑to‑day risk management.
Responsibilities we entrust you with:
1. Merchant Onboarding & KYB Risk
- Execute and manage KYB (Know Your Business) and merchant due diligence processes across assigned SEA markets, ensuring adherence to internal policies and regulatory expectations.
- Apply defined merchant risk segmentation and tiering frameworks based on factors such as MCC, transaction volumes, and geography.
- Operate and monitor automated onboarding risk scoring tools and workflows, including watchlist checks and adverse media screening.
- Review and escalate high‑risk onboarding cases in line with defined approval and governance thresholds.
- Support continuous improvement of onboarding controls through data analysis and feedback from fraud and AML outcomes.
- Set and enforce policies for merchant approval, conditional approval, and decline, in line with scheme and regulatory requirements
- Establish ongoing merchant monitoring cadences with periodic reviews and trigger-based re-evaluation
2. Transaction Monitoring & Fraud Risk
- Operate and manage real‑time and batch transaction monitoring systems to detect fraud, unusual patterns, and policy violations across assigned merchant portfolios.
- Implement and maintain risk rules, velocity controls, and threshold parameters as defined in collaboration with Technology and Data teams.
- Monitor alerts, oversee transaction investigations, and ensure timely escalation, actioning, and closure in line with SOPs.
- Support model and rule optimization efforts by providing operational insights, false‑positive feedback, and emerging fraud patterns.
- Track and report key metrics including Fraud Losses, Alert volumes and False positive rates and detection effectiveness
- Prepare regular MIS and support audits, scheme reviews, and management reporting.
3. AML / CFT Compliance
- Execute the AML / CFT risk framework for the acquiring business in line with internal policies and regulatory requirements across respective countries.
- Ensure day‑to‑day compliance with local AML regulations in markets such as Singapore and Malaysia,
- Manage STR / SAR identification, documentation, and filing workflows, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and completeness.
- Conduct and support Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) reviews for: High Risk merchants and high risk MCCs and High‑risk geographies and corridors
- Act as the operational point of contact for AML audits, regulatory queries, and internal reviews, supporting data and evidence preparation.
- Support delivery of AML training and awareness sessions for operations and business teams.
4. Chargeback Management
- Manage end‑to‑end chargeback and dispute operations, including prevention, representment, and arbitration, in line with card‑scheme rules.
- Monitor and apply defined chargeback thresholds and early warning triggers (e.g., Visa VAMP, Mastercard ECP) across assigned merchant portfolios.
- Perform detailed analysis of:
- Chargeback reason codes
- Merchant‑level and segment‑level trends
- Market‑specific exposure and ratios
- Work closely with merchant‑facing and operations teams to Flag merchants with rising chargeback ratios
- Execute representment strategies to:
- Recover losses
- Reduce chargeback‑to‑transaction ratios
- Prepare regular MIS and dashboards for internal reporting and audits.
5. Risk Governance & Reporting
- Support development and ongoing maintenance of the risk appetite statement for the SEA acquiring business by providing data inputs and risk insights.
- Assist in operating risk governance forums, committees, and reporting cadences by preparing agendas, materials, and action trackers.
- Produce regular risk dashboards and MIS covering fraud losses, AML metrics, chargebacks, disputes, and operational risk indicators.
- Maintain and update the risk register, ensuring key risks are:
- Identified and documented
- Accurately rated
- Linked to defined mitigation and ownership plans
- Partner with Product, Operations, and Compliance teams to embed risk considerations into day‑to‑day decision‑making.
- Promote awareness of risk policies and controls across operational teams.
6. Regulatory & Market Engagement
- Support engagement with financial regulators across SEA markets (e.g., MAS, BNM, OJK, BSP, BOT) on risk‑related and compliance matters.
- Ensure operational readiness for local regulatory requirements, including:
- Licensing conditions
- Ongoing reporting obligations
- Market‑specific operational risk controls
- Coordinate responses to regulatory queries, audits, and inspections by preparing data, documentation, and evidence packs.
- Track regulatory changes and escalate relevant updates and impact assessments to senior risk leadership.
- Support participation in industry forums, working groups, and scheme‑led discussions as required.
What matters in this role:
- 6–8 years of experience in risk management within payments, acquiring, fintech, or financial services.
- Bachelor's degree required with any related certifications in Risk, AML, Fraud, or Payments are advantageous.
- Deep domain expertise in at least three of: merchant risk, transaction fraud, AML/CFT, chargebacks.
- Demonstrated experience managing acquiring risk portfolios in Southeast Asian markets
- Hands-on knowledge of Visa and Mastercard operating rules, chargeback programs (VAMP, ECP), and compliance frameworks
- Experience engaging with card schemes and financial regulators in the Malasia or SINGAPORE
- Proven track record of building and leading cross-functional risk teams in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
- Strong analytical skills with experience using data-driven approaches to risk decision-making
- Experience in a payments processor, acquirer, or payment facilitator (PayFac) environment
- Familiarity with PCI-DSS requirements and their intersection with operational risk
- Regional language capabilities in addition to English
What we Value in Our people
- You take the shot: You Decide Fast and You Deliver Right
- You are the CEO of what you do: you show ownership and make things happen
- You own tomorrow: by building solutions for the clients and doing the right thing
- You sign your work like an artist: You seek to learn and take pride in the work you do
About Pine Labs Malaysia
Pine Labs is a leading merchant commerce omnichannel platform across India, Southeast Asia, and UAE. Our deep technology is designed to empower businesses and fuel their entrepreneurial spirit. We build and host a roster of fintech products, from digital payments to loyalty solutions. To learn more, please visit https://www.pinelabs.my/
