Head of Credit Risk

Location: London / hybrid Reports to: CFO Type: Permanent, full-time Level: Head of role About Pockit and Monese Pockit and Monese are all-in-one money apps that make it easier for people to access and manage the financial tools they need to take control of their money. We provide vital financial services, from accounts and cards to income advance solutions. In October 2024, Pockit acquired Monese, bringing together two complementary businesses and creating a leading fintech company focused on serving people who are underserved by traditional banks. Together, we serve more than three million customers across the UK and Europe. We're a diverse, international and energetic team, with colleagues based across London, Newcastle, Tallinn and remote teams across Central Europe. We value curiosity, ambition, accountability and resilience, and we want everyone to feel at home, have a voice and know that their contribution matters. We give people the trust and space to take ownership, share ideas, influence decisions, and make a real impact on our customers and our business. The role We hold a UK consumer credit licence and are now building a regulated lending business in our own right. This is a rare, genuinely greenfield mandate: you will stand up the credit risk function from the ground up and play a central role in shaping the lending products themselves: not inherit someone else's book and policy. You'll be the senior owner of credit risk, accountable to the executive team and central to our engagement with the FCA. Equally, you'll sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Product to turn early product concepts into responsible, commercially sound, regulator-ready propositions. We're looking for someone who has done the hard 0-to-1 work of launching a new UK credit product before, and wants to do it again, but better. Because we serve financially underserved customers, good customer outcomes and responsible lending aren't a compliance afterthought here; they're the point. You'll set the standard. What you'll do • Shape the product: Partner with Product, Finance, Legal & Compliance to take our lending propositions from concept to launch: defining what we lend, to whom, on what terms, and how we price for fair value. Your credit thinking will directly inform product design, not just sign off on it after the fact. • Own credit strategy and policy: Set our risk appetite and credit policy for a new regulated consumer credit product: lending criteria, affordability and creditworthiness assessment, and the decisioning approach: built on credit bureau data, Open Banking, and our own rich account-behaviour data. • Build the decisioning and affordability models: Design and stand up the affordability/creditworthiness assessment and decisioning logic, CONC-compliant from day one, with vulnerable-customer identification built in. • Lead procurement of the loan management system: Own the selection and procurement of our loan management / decisioning platform end-to-end — requirements definition, RFI/RFP, vendor evaluation, commercial negotiation and implementation oversight, working with Tech and Product on bureau, Open Banking and payments integration. • Design and stand up collections: Build our arrears and collections strategy in line with CONC 7 (forbearance, vulnerable customers, fair treatment), spanning early, mid and late-stage. Select and manage outsourced/third-party collections partners, and own the commercial and oversight relationship with them. • Meet our FCA obligations: Ensure the product and all credit processes satisfy FCA requirements: CONC, the Consumer Duty (target market, fair value, outcomes monitoring) and the Consumer Credit Act. Support our regulatory engagement, including the Principle 11 notification and any Variation of Permission, and be ready to hold the relevant Senior Managers & Certification Regime function. • Own portfolio performance: Establish credit risk MI and reporting; own loss forecasting, IFRS 9 provisioning,