Product Lead - Merchants (VP/SVP)

The Product Owner - Merchants is responsible for building, managing, and scaling HugoBank’s SME ecosystem, encompassing payments enablement, financial operations, and credit access for small and medium enterprises. This role will design and execute digital propositions that simplify how SMEs collect payments, manage liquidity, and access financing through products such as working capital loans, invoice factoring, inventory finance, and BNPL for businesses. The incumbent is required to deliver seamless SME experiences, drive ecosystem growth, and strengthen HugoBank’s position as a digital-first SME bank. The role demands a unique blend of product strategy, commercial acumen, regulatory understanding, and on-ground SME experience to translate the needs of small businesses into scalable financial solutions.

Responsibilities:

Merchant & Payments Product Development:

• Lead the design and execution of the SME Product Roadmap, focusing on payment acceptance, cashflow management, and financing enablement for SMEs.
• Develop targeted SME acquisition strategies for priority clusters such as distributors, pharmacies, wholesalers, and e-commerce sellers.
• Roll out digital acceptance solutions (e.g., QR, POS, Tap-to-Phone, RAAST, and payment links) tailored to SME business models.
• Build digital business account structures with transparent settlement cycles, automated reconciliations, and integrated invoicing tools.
Develop value-added services (e.g., digital invoicing, spend insights, and business analytics dashboards) that enhance financial management for SMEs.

Payments Strategy & Product Development:

• Develop and operationalize SME lending products, including:
• • Working Capital Loans / Running Finance
  • Inventory or Distributor Finance Invoice Factoring & Receivables Finance
  • BNPL for SMEs / Micro-Business Financing

• Use SME transaction data to build cashflow-based credit scoring models, enabling faster and fairer access to financing.
• Embed credit journeys directly within the Merchant app (from application to approval, disbursement, and repayment).
Conduct risk-return analysis, product pricing, and profitability modelling for SME credit lines.

Partnerships & Ecosystem Development:

• Forge strategic alliances with anchor corporates, FMCGs, distributors, and aggregators (e.g., Getz Pharma, M&P, retail supply chains) to onboard SME networks and enable embedded finance models.
• Collaborate with payment service providers (PSPs), fintechs, and marketplaces to expand reach and co-create merchant solutions.
• Engage with card schemes, RAAST, 1LINK, and SBP to ensure regulatory alignment and interoperability for SME payment flows.
Represent the Bank in SME ecosystem forums to promote digital adoption and financial empowerment.

Insights, Analytics & Optimisation:

• Leverage merchant transaction data to identify lending opportunities and design incentive programs.
• Define and track KPIs such as activation, churn, credit utilisation, and transaction growth.
• Conduct periodic market and competitor benchmarking to evolve HugoBank’s merchant value proposition.
• Present insights and performance dashboards to management for strategic decision-making.

Risk, Compliance & Operations:

• Design and maintain robust KYB/KYC frameworks, ensuring that onboarding processes for merchants and SME borrowers adhere to AML/CFT and customer due-diligence standards.
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, and Fraud Management teams to establish proactive controls, fraud monitoring dashboards, and alert mechanisms for abnormal transaction patterns or repayment irregularities.
• Develop merchant lending products (inventory finance, invoice factoring, BNPL), ensuring data-driven assessment of repayment capacity based on transaction history and cash-flow analysis.
Drive continuous monitoring of portfolio health, NPL ratios, and take corrective actions in coordination with Risk and Finance functions.

Cross-Functional Leadership:

• Collaborate with liabilities Product, Marketing, Tech, and Data to deliver integrated merchant offerings.
• Partner with Product Owner Lending to create merchant financing products (working capital, invoice factoring, BNPL for SMEs).
• Work with Analytics to derive insights from merchant transaction data to enhance engagement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, or related field.
• Master’s degree or professional certification in Payments/FinTech preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in Merchant Onboarding, payments and digital financial services.
• Proven track record of developing and scaling merchant/payment propositions.
• Strong understanding of SBP regulations and digital payment systems.
• Familiarity with payment gateways, fintech APIs, and merchant onboarding technologies (KYB/KYC).
• Commercial acumen with the ability to design pricing, revenue-sharing, and incentive models for merchants.
• Experience in building merchant acquisition strategies and scaling payment ecosystems.
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to use BI tools/analytics to track merchant performance and design interventions.
• Commercially driven, Entrepreneurial mindset, Stakeholder management, Strong problem-solving.