Senior Policy Officer Visa Europe

Brussels, Belgium

Company background

Visa Europe is a membership association owned and operated by 3,745 members. We are the exclusive European licensee of the Visa brand, products and technology. We partner with Visa Inc. to enable global Visa payments to take place. Our members are banks and financial institutions that have been approved to issue Visa card products and/or sign up merchants to accept Visa card products for payment. Our headquarters are in London and there are local offices in Amsterdam, Athens, Bucharest, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, Istanbul, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Prague, Ramat Gan (Israel), Sofia, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich. We employ some 1,700 employees who liaise with members in 36 European countries. We are run by the Visa Europe Board who make major decisions and charge the Executive Management Committee with looking after all day-to-day matters.

For more information see: http://www.visaeurope.com/aboutvisa/overview/whoweare.

The Team

The Lobbying and Regulatory affairs Team is a team of European affairs lawyers, economists, lobbyists and public affairs specialists. We seek to influence the policies of legislators and regulators so that card payments can flow as freely and effectively as possible.

The Opportunity

As we are going through a time of real change this is a very exciting opportunity for the Senior Policy Advisor to join one of the strongest brands in Europe, in one of the fastest growing segments of financial services.

Principal Responsibilities

• Identify and monitor EU or domestic related political, legislative and regulatory plans and activities likely to affect Visa’s activities;
• Develop and enhance relations with e.g. Commission and ECB officials, MEPs, European banking associations and other stakeholders to improve co-operation and to ensure a better understanding of the Visa organisation;
• Formulate Visa’s policy and response to EU related issues affecting Visa and/or its Members;
• Formulate position papers, and conduct research in relevant areas in view of establishing pro-actively company positions on selected topics;
• Advise Visa Europe staff and Members on the potential implications of relevant EU legislative initiatives for their area of responsibility to ensure the company’s products and services operates within appropriate legal and regulatory framework;
• Review products, services and externally published materials to ensure compliance with relevant regulations and legislation to ensure the company’s products and services operates within appropriate legal and regulatory framework;
• Deal with queries from regulators such as the EU Commission, ECB and other European Central Banks to protect the interests and profitability of Visa Europe and its members.

Candidate Profile: Essential criteria

• The candidate will ideally be educated to Masters degree level (or equivalent) in Law, Economics or political science;
• A self-starter, self-sufficient as well as true team player with a high degree of integrity and empathy;
• Ability to represent Visa externally with regulators, lawmakers and Members;
• Requires a developing understanding of Visa Europe’s business and strategy;
• A minimum of 6-8 (ideally more) years in-depth experience in dealing with EU institutions and other European regulatory bodies and formulating and initiating policy (from inside or outside the institutions);
• Banking experience (ideally payment systems knowledge as well as knowledge of e.g. the Payment Service Directive, Money Laundering Directive, oversight framework, Data Protection Directive, SEPA and the Internal Market for Payments);
• In-depth understanding of how Brussels works, knowledge of the European Institutions and the EU decision making process) to:
  • Spot looming issues and problems;
  • Analyse and suggest policy proposals.
• Detailed understanding of the internal processes of Brussels Institutions (who, what, where, when, how) – within and between Commission, Council, Parliament, Member States (in detail) to:
  • Establish personal and institutional relationships at various levels;
  • Anticipate upcoming initiatives and identify opportunities for Visa to participate.

Desirable criteria

• Experience in dealing with the full spectrum of business, technical and regulatory aspects of payment systems in order to be able identify issues, asses impacts, react and interact with relevant regulators and lawmakers.

Remuneration

The successful candidate will receive a competitive and attractive compensation package.

Qualified candidates should send their application to Fiona.mccowan@connaughtsearch.com.