Payment Operations Associate

Castle Trust Bank; Basingstoke; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Performance bonus

Pension (contributory)

Life Assurance

25 days holiday (+ 5)

Job summary

Castle Trust Bank is seeking a Payment Operations Associate to join our growing team in Basingstoke. The role focuses on processing payments, reconciliations, and maintaining strong controls to ensure accurate, secure financial operations.

You will work across Savings, Property, Omni and Treasury lines, ensuring payments are processed correctly and customers receive a seamless experience. The role includes ongoing improvement and data-driven problem solving.

Qualifications

• Experience in a high-volume payments, reconciliation or financial operations environment.
• Advanced Excel skills (formulas, lookups, pivots) for large data sets.

Responsibilities

• Process inbound and outbound payments accurately within service levels.
• Perform daily and monthly reconciliations across accounts and internal systems.
• Investigate and resolve payment exceptions and discrepancies.
• Support change initiatives and system enhancements.
• Maintain accurate procedures and contribute to knowledge sharing.

Skills

Payments processing

Excel advanced

GL systems

Data analysis

Attention to detail

Prioritisation

Communication skills

Problem solving

Adaptability

Education

AAT study / qualification

Tools

GL software

Job description

Payment Operations Associate

“Be at the Heart of Every Transaction”

At Castle Trust Bank, we pride ourselves in being a fintech challenger bank, providing specialist property mortgages, retail finance lending and savings accounts to a variety of customers.

Delivering excellent customer outcomes starts with getting the fundamentals right. Our Payment Operations team plays a vital role in ensuring customer payments, reconciliations and operational processes are completed accurately, efficiently and securely every day.

This role is based in Basingstoke and will require attendance in the office five days per week during the probation period to support onboarding and the development of role competency. Upon successful completion of probation and achievement of full competency, the role will transition to a hybrid working pattern of three days in the office and two days working from home.

This role and what you’ll lead and deliver:

We’re looking for a Payment Operations Associate to join our growing team. This is an excellent opportunity for someone with experience in payments, reconciliations or financial operations who enjoys working with data, solving problems and maintaining high standards of accuracy.

You’ll work across our Savings, Property, Omni and Treasury business lines, helping to ensure payments are processed correctly, controls are maintained and customers receive a seamless experience.

Payments Processing

• Process inbound and outbound payments accurately and within agreed service levels.
• Complete daily payment activities across multiple business areas.
• Ensure all payment instructions meet internal procedures and regulatory requirements.
• Investigate and resolve payment exceptions, returned payments and processing errors.

Reconciliations & Controls

• Perform daily and monthly reconciliations across bank accounts and internal systems.
• Investigate and resolve reconciliation discrepancies.
• Operate key controls, maintain accurate audit trails and elevate issues where required.
• Support effective risk management through adherence to operational procedures and controls.

Stakeholder Support & Continuous Improvement

• Respond to customer and internal operational queries within agreed service levels.
• Support change initiatives, testing activities and system enhancements.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, controls and operational efficiency.
• Maintain accurate procedures and contribute to knowledge sharing across the team.

What you’ll bring:

Essential

• Experience working within a high-volume payments, reconciliation or financial operations environment.
• Advanced Excel skills, including formulas, lookups and pivot tables, with the ability to manage and analyse large datasets.
• Experience using General Ledger or Finance systems, with a sound understanding of debits, credits and transaction matching.
• Strong attention to detail, analytical thinking and problem-solving capability.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities effectively.
• A customer-focused approach and strong verbal and written communication skills.
• A proactive mindset, high levels of integrity and the confidence to identify and elevate issues appropriately.
• A willingness to learn, adapt and support continuous improvement initiatives.

Desirable

• Experience working within a banking or financial services environment.
• Awareness of Consumer Duty principles and financial services regulation.
• Studying towards an AAT qualification or similar.
• Currently studying towards AAT or an equivalent professional qualification.

Why join Castle Trust Bank?

• Competitive salary
• Performance bonus (based on individual and company performance)
• Generous contributory pension through Hargreaves Lansdown
• Life Assurance
• 25 days’ holiday + option to buy/sell 5 days
• Additional paid volunteering day
• Private healthcare through Equipsme (includes cash back for Dental and Optical treatment)
• Free access to BHSF Rise EAP to support colleague health and wellbeing
• Gym discounts
• Season ticket travel loans (if applicable)
• A supportive, inclusive culture where your work has real impact

Caught your attention? If so, we’d love to talk to you and tell you more about what it’s like to work at Castle Trust Bank - The Place To Work!

Castle Trust Bank is an equal opportunity employer where we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our colleagues to thrive. We welcome applications from all and will not discriminate against any status/characteristic protected by law and will always base our decisions on merit.

We are proud to support people with disabilities and are committed to be a Disability Confident employer. If you are a person with a disability and meet the minimum criteria for the role you will be offered an interview. Should you require any reasonable adjustment to support you in your application for one of our opportunities, please contact [e-mail]

https://www.castletrust.co.uk/careers/who-we-are