With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.
Job Summary
Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of fraud prevention and detection strategies across card, fleet card, and merchant acquiring portfolios within business banking. The role ensures robust and effective fraud risk management while enabling sustainable business growth, excellent client experience, and regulatory compliance through data driven insights and advanced fraud technologies.Job Description
Key Accountabilities
Fraud Strategy Development
Develop, maintain, and execute the end-to-end fraud strategy for business card, fleet, and merchant products.
Identify emerging fraud trends, attack vectors, and vulnerabilities within payment and acquiring channels.
Balance fraud prevention controls with customer experience and commercial objectives.
Drive innovation using analytics, AI/ML, and behavioural monitoring solutions.
Fraud Risk Governance
Support the establishment of fraud risk appetite metrics and Key Risk Indicators (KRIs).
Ensure compliance with internal fraud risk frameworks and external regulatory requirements.
Represent business banking fraud in governance forums and risk committees.
Develop and present fraud trend and performance reports to senior management.
Operational Effectiveness
Partner with fraud solutions, technology, and product teams to ensure effective fraud monitoring and case management.
Lead periodic reviews of fraud rules, thresholds, and strategies for optimal detection-to-loss ratios.
Support incident response and post-event root cause analyses for significant fraud cases.
Collaboration & Stakeholder Management
Work closely with Product, Operations, Compliance, and Data Science teams to align fraud controls with product design and market strategies.
Liaise with external stakeholders such as card schemes, payment networks, merchants, and regulators on fraud-related initiatives.
Provide subject matter expertise on new product launches and system enhancements.
Data & Analytics
Leverage transaction data, behavioural analytics, and third-party intelligence to identify fraud patterns and enhance predictive detection.
Monitor the performance of fraud systems (e.g., Falcon, SAS, etc.) and recommend tuning or enhancement opportunities.
Develop insights dashboards and track key performance indicators (KPIs) across all business banking payment channels.
Innovation & Continuous Improvement
Drive adoption of advanced fraud prevention technologies (AI, behavioural analytics, device intelligence, real-time decisioning).
Lead initiatives to optimize fraud strategy tuning and improve customer friction points.
Represent the bank in industry forums and networks to benchmark and adopt best practices.
Preferred Education
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Risk Management, Statistics, IT, or related field (advanced degree preferred).
CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) advantageous
Preferred Experience
7–10 years’ experience in financial crime or fraud risk management, with at least 3 years in a leadership or strategy role.
In-depth knowledge of payment card systems, merchant acquiring, and fleet card products.
Experience with fraud detection technologies, analytics tools, and rule engines (e.g., Falcon, SAS, FICO).
Understanding of regulatory frameworks (e.g. PSD2, PCI DSS).
Ability to interpret complex data and present actionable insights to senior stakeholders.
Knowledge and Skills
Strategic thinking - ability to translate fraud risk intelligence into actionable strategies.
Analytical problem-solving - skilled in interpreting complex data to identify trends and anomalies.
Influencing and communication - can articulate complex fraud issues to senior non-technical stakeholders.
Change leadership - capable of driving transformation and innovation in fraud management.
Customer focus - balances protection with customer experience and commercial goals.
Education
Bachelor's Degree: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.
Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised