Cards Operation Manager

The Card Operations Manager is responsible for the effective day-to-day management of Renmoney’s debit and credit card operations, ensuring operational stability, regulatory and scheme compliance, accurate reconciliation and settlement, effective fraud controls, efficient card issuance and personalisation, and a consistently positive cardholder experience.

The role will oversee the end-to-end operational processes supporting the card business and work closely with internal stakeholders, card schemes, processors, personalisation bureaus and other service providers to ensure that card products are delivered reliably, securely and efficiently.

1. Card Operations Management

• Manage the end-to-end operational processes for Renmoney’s debit and credit card portfolio, including card issuance, personalisation, activation, transaction processing, reconciliation, settlement and dispute management.
• Ensure card operational processes are efficient, scalable and appropriately controlled.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual card operations processes and improve turnaround times.
• Monitor operational performance and proactively address issues that could affect card availability, transaction processing or customer experience.
• Develop, maintain and continuously improve card operations procedures, process maps and operating manuals.

2. Regulatory and Card Scheme Compliance

• Ensure card operations comply with all applicable CBN, NIBSS and card scheme requirements, including Mastercard, Verve, Visa and AfriGO requirements w
• Monitor changes in regulatory and scheme rules and coordinate implementation of required operational changes.
• Ensure all required regulatory and scheme reports are accurate and submitted within stipulated timelines.
• Coordinate responses to internal audits, external audits, regulatory reviews and card scheme assessments.
• Ensure audit and compliance findings relating to card operations are addressed within agreed timelines.

3. Card Issuance, Personalisation and Inventory Management

• Manage card ordering, inventory, personalisation, activation and distribution processes.
• Maintain adequate card stock levels to support approved issuance plans and prevent stock-outs.
• Work closely with card personalisation bureaus and other service providers to ensure cards are produced and delivered within agreed service levels.
• Monitor card issuance turnaround times and resolve operational bottlenecks.
• Ensure appropriate controls are maintained over blank cards, personalised cards, PINs and other sensitive card materials.

4. Transaction Processing, Reconciliation and Settlement (this is primarily handled by the central operations team; the job of the card ops manager here will be to ensure everything is done correctly, within stipulated timelines and in line with regulations)

·       Oversee daily reconciliation of card transactions across relevant channels, processors, card schemes and settlement accounts.

• Ensure reconciliation is completed within agreed timelines and discrepancies are promptly investigated and resolved.
• Work closely with Finance, Technology, Risk and relevant partners to resolve settlement and reconciliation breaks.
• Ensure the accuracy and completeness of operational card data used for financial, risk and management reporting.
• Monitor outstanding reconciliation items and ensure timely closure.

5. Fraud Risk and Card Security

• Work with Risk, Fraud and Information Security teams to strengthen fraud prevention, monitoring and response across Renmoney card products.
• Ensure fraud alerts and suspicious card transactions are reviewed and escalated promptly.
• Coordinate investigations and resolution of card-related fraud incidents.
• Monitor card fraud trends and recommend operational controls to reduce fraud exposure and losses.
• Ensure operational processes comply with applicable card security and data-protection requirements.

6. Dispute and Chargeback Management (this is primarily handled by the central operations team; the job of the card ops manager here will be to ensure everything is done correctly, within stipulated timelines and in line with regulations)

• Oversee cardholder disputes, chargebacks, reversals and transaction-related investigations.
• Ensure disputes are processed in accordance with card scheme rules and agreed customer service timelines.
• Monitor outstanding dispute cases and ensure timely resolution.
• Analyse dispute trends and recommend process improvements to reduce recurring issues.

7. Vendor and Partner Management

• Manage operational relationships with key card ecosystem partners, including processors, personalisation bureaus, card schemes and other service providers.
• Monitor vendor performance against contractual service-level agreements.
• Conduct regular operational and service review meetings with key partners.
• Escalate and drive resolution of high-impact service issues.
• Maintain appropriate documentation of vendor performance, incidents and remedial actions.

8. Customer Experience and Issue Resolution

• Partner with Customer Experience and other relevant teams to ensure card-related customer complaints and operational issues are resolved promptly.
• Monitor card-related customer complaints, turnaround times and recurring issues.
• Conduct root-cause analysis of significant or repeated customer issues and implement corrective actions.
• Drive initiatives that improve the reliability and quality of the cardholder experience.

9. Management Information and Reporting

• Prepare periodic card operations reports for management covering operational performance, issuance, reconciliation, fraud, disputes, customer complaints, vendor performance and key incidents.
• Maintain accurate operational dashboards and performance indicators.
• Provide timely insights on operational risks, trends and emerging issues.
• Support budgeting, forecasting and operational planning for the card business.

10. Stakeholder Management

• Collaborate with Product, Technology, Finance, Risk, Compliance, Customer Experience, Internal Audit and other internal stakeholders to support the card business.
• Support the launch of new card products, features and operational capabilities.
• Represent Card Operations in relevant internal governance forums and partner engagements.
• Ensure operational readiness before the launch of new card products, programmes or functionality.

Key Performance Indicators

Performance will be measured across the following areas:

• Zero regulatory sanctions or card scheme penalties arising from card operations.
• Timely closure of audit and compliance findings.
• 100% timely submission of applicable regulatory and scheme reports.
• Reduction in manual operational processes and card-related escalations.
• Completion of transaction reconciliation within agreed T+1 timelines.
• Reduction in confirmed card fraud losses and timely review of fraud alerts.
• Achievement of agreed vendor SLA performance.
• Timely resolution of high-impact vendor incidents.
• Reduction in card-related customer complaints and repeat complaints.
• Achievement of card personalisation and activation turnaround times.
• Prevention of material card stock-outs.
• Achievement of agreed reconciliation accuracy levels and timely closure of reconciliation breaks.
• Timely delivery of management and operational reports.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Banking, Business Administration, Economics, Accounting, Information Technology or a related discipline.
• Relevant professional certifications in cards, payments, banking operations, risk, fraud or project management would be an advantage.
• Minimum of 5–7 years’ experience in banking, fintech, payments or card operations, with at least 2–3 years in a supervisory or managerial capacity.
• Strong practical knowledge of debit and/or credit card operations.
• Experience working with card schemes such as Mastercard, Verve and/or AfriGO.
• Good understanding of card transaction processing, reconciliation, settlement, disputes, chargebacks, fraud management and card personalisation.
• Familiarity with CBN, NIBSS and applicable payment-card regulatory requirements.
• Experience managing processors, card bureaus, card schemes and other third-party service providers.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong understanding of the cards and payments ecosystem.
• Excellent operational and process-management skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Good understanding of operational risk, fraud and control frameworks.
• Strong reconciliation and financial-control orientation.
• Excellent vendor and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
• Ability to manage multiple operational priorities and incidents simultaneously.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Data-driven approach to performance management and decision-making.
• Strong customer-service orientation.
• Ability to identify operational inefficiencies and drive automation and process improvement.
• Ability to work effectively across Product, Technology, Finance, Risk, Compliance and Customer Experience teams.

Success Profile

The successful Card Operations Manager will be highly organised, control-conscious and commercially aware, with the ability to balance operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, risk management and customer experience. The individual should be proactive in identifying issues before they affect customers, comfortable managing multiple external partners, and capable of building robust operational processes that can support the growth of Renmoney’s card portfolio.