Head of Credit and Financial Risk - BPL

Barclays UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution is seeking an experienced Head of Credit and Financial Risk to manage risk in a dynamic Payments environment. This pivotal role requires extensive expertise in risk management and a deep understanding of the payments acceptance business. Responsibilities include leading the Credit Risk team, ensuring operational excellence, and influencing strategic decisions. The successful candidate will contribute to a culture of strong risk oversight and be pivotal in shaping governance processes.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in Risk Management, ideally from a FinTech Payments institution.
• Deep understanding of credit applications and financial risk evaluation.
• Ability to influence strategic decisions across functions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and setup of the Credit Risk team.
• Oversee all Credit Risk processes, ensuring operational excellence.
• Monitor portfolio performance and implement action plans.

Skills

Risk management experience

Strong analytical skills

Understanding of payments acceptance

Stakeholder management

Education

Relevant degree in finance or related field

Job description

Risk Function Overview

Credit Risk will be part of the broader Risk Function for BPL, covering all “Second Line of Defence” Principal Risk Management activities including (but not limited to) Credit Risk, Operational Risk, Treasury & Liquidity Risk, Financial Crime, and Regulatory Compliance.

Purpose of the role

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Head of Credit and Financial Risk to lead risk management in a dynamic Payments FinTech environment. This role is pivotal in shaping the governance, processes, and adoption of the Barclays Enterprise Risk Management Framework for NewCo. The successful candidate will bring extensive experience in Risk Management, ideally from a FinTech Payments institution, a deep understanding of the payments acceptance business, and the ability to set the Risk strategy and drive change at the highest levels of the organisation.

Accountabilities

Strategy and Innovation

• Lead the design and setup of the Credit Risk team, working with the Chief Risk Officer to define and monitor adoption of BPL’s Risk Appetite framework in the context of Barclays ERMF
• Provide strategic input to function-wide initiatives and instill a strong risk oversight culture across the business.
• Manage and consult on strategic projects that impact the Risk function or broader organisation.

Operational Leadership

• Oversee all Credit Risk processes for a high-volume payments/acquiring business, ensuring operational excellence and supporting new business opportunities.
• Lead and develop the team, embedding a performance culture aligned with business values.
• Provide expert advice to senior management and committees, influencing decisions across functions.

Risk Oversight and Management

• Make independent credit decisions on new business requests, evaluating risk profiles and recommending appropriate credit terms.
• Monitor portfolio performance, identify emerging risks, and implement action plans for troubled lending in collaboration with relevant teams.
• Ensure compliance with regulations and internal policies, including timely escalation of risks and appetite breaches.

Stakeholder Management

• Build strong relationships across the business and with internal and external stakeholders, including sales and coverage teams, regulators and industry groups.
• Represent the function in senior-level negotiations and influence strategic decisions.

About

Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.

In April 2025, we announced a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation – activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve‑outs – to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long‑term growth.

Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance‑linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long‑term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years.

For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.

Purpose of the role

To assess and approve/decline credit applications based on established credit policies, risk appetite, and regulatory requirement and analysing financial information, evaluating creditworthiness, and recommending credit terms and conditions to ensure responsible lending practices.

Accountabilities

• Analysis of new payment applications, financial statements, credit reports, and other relevant documents to assess the borrower's creditworthiness and repayment capacity.
• Monitoring the performance of approved payment facilities, identifying potential risks and early warning signs of delinquency.
• Evaluation of the risk profile of each application considering factors like industry trends, borrower financials, collateral, and market conditions.
• Provision of independent credit decisions on payment applications, adhering to established credit policies, risk parameters, and regulatory requirements.
• Development and implementation of appropriate course of action for troubled lending, including workout plans, restructuring, or collections.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide.
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub‑function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions.
• Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
• Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub‑function.
• Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
• Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up‑to‑date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
• Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
• Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
• Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.