Senior Internal Control Officer (FI & OFI) at Pishon & Brooks Advisory Services

Pishon & Brooks Advisory Services is a Professional Services firm that support our clients by managing their end-to-end HR Processes in order to enhance their productivity. AtPBAS, we have the expertise to connect and manage every business process within the employee lifecycle.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior Internal Control Officer (FI & OFI)

Location: Lagos
Reporting To: Head, Business & Support Control

Job Purpose

• The Settlement/Dispute, Financial Institutions and Other Financial Institutions Control Officer is responsible for providing independent oversight and assurance over the end-to-end processing of approved transactions on the TWO (Switch) platform and Scheme Dispute Management (Chargeback).
• This includes ensuring that transaction files and extracts are accurately and promptly generated and transmitted to all relevant stakeholders—namely the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, and AMEX), UP Settlement, and MPGS Service—through approved and secure channels.
• The role aims to safeguard the integrity and completeness of transaction processing by mitigating risks such as incomplete or inaccurate presentment, delayed submissions, incorrect receivables, financial losses (including out-of-pocket exposures), missed revenue opportunities, increased funding costs, and regulatory or scheme penalties.
• Review the efficiency and effectiveness of managing relationships and solution delivery for non bank financial institutions, including microfinance banks, mortgage banks, finance houses, fintechs, cooperative societies, and similar entities vis-à-vis Marketing and sales of UP’s transaction processing, Transfers (Inbound and Outbound), PTSA and Switching Services to other (non-Banks) financial institutions and to ensure financial targets are met.
• The Internal Control Officer (ICO) is responsible for control oversight and providing assurance of effective functioning of the UP’s internal control systems in the following strategic resource functions: Settlement/Dispute (Merchant Settlement, Dispute Management & ATM Settlement, Clearing & Settlement Operations), Financial Institutions and Other Financial Institutions (Business Support).

Key Responsibilities

• Ensure accurate and timely processing, reconciliation, and hosting of transaction files (including T464, MPGS, and settlement files) for local, international, ATM, and POS transactions.
• Monitor transaction data sources and oversee the extraction, clearing, and settlement of approved financial transactions across all platforms.
• Maintain the integrity of transaction records by ensuring all settled transactions are correctly updated in the Dispute Management System (DMS) and Inquiry Portal.
• Provide control oversight and operational support to clients, banks, non-banks, and merchants, while performing additional assigned duties as required.
• Conduct daily quality assurance by reviewing, downloading, processing, and hosting scheme (Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, AMEX) and client files (Base11, VSS) to ensure accurate, complete, and timely submission within defined windows.
• Manage exceptions and chargebacks by reprocessing rejected transactions, performing daily chargeback reconciliation, and ensuring timely settlement to prevent exposure and late presentment risks.
• Ensure timely and accurate settlement processing and reporting in line with defined service-level timelines, including prompt delivery of reports to Accounts, NIBSS, and banks for automated, merchant, VAS, agency, and manual transactions.
• Maintain control over settlement integrity by reviewing hourly reports for accuracy and promptly escalating invalid NUBAN entries or NIBSS returns to the Business team within required timelines.
• Ensure timely reprocessing and representment of merchant settlements arising from invalid NUBAN details or NIBSS returns, while reconciling affiliate settlements, preparing reports
  (including dollar merchant and TSA figures), and distributing them to relevant stakeholders
  within defined timelines.
• Maintain compliance and reporting accuracy by submitting required scheme reports
  (QOC to Visa, QMR to Mastercard, and AMEX monthly reports) within stipulated deadlines
  and ensuring timely delivery of collection reports for onward processing.
• Ensure timely and accurate ATM settlement processing, including delivery of settlement reports to NIBSS, banks, and affiliates, as well as preparation of monthly billing, revenue, and receivable reports.
• Provide oversight on dispute management and resolution across schemes (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Verve), including funds recovery, reporting (Dispute and Risk Chargeback Reports), and continuous team knowledge development.
• Provide oversight of end-to-end dispute management across schemes (Visa, Mastercard,
  etc.), including resolution of issuer and acquirer disputes, execution of representment, pre
  arbitration, arbitration, compliance processes, and monitoring of dispute stages to prevent
  financial loss.
• Ensure accurate financial control by reconciling chargeback impacts, processing fee
  collections and fund disbursements, managing scheme chargebacks, delivering timely
  dispute/chargeback reports to banks, and addressing customer complaints and
  settlement issues.
• Monitor, review, and process AMEX scheme chargebacks by forwarding them to banks and merchants, including executing second presentment for approved transactions where applicable.
• Monitor and enforce compliance with regulatory standards, policies, and internal controls across all services (transaction processing, transfers, PTSA and Switching), ensuring accurate documentation (SOPs, SLAs, product papers) and periodic reviews of product frameworks to align with business and regulatory requirements regarding Other Financial Institutions group.
• Provide independent oversight through review of financial and operational reports, assessment of project implementation processes, and evaluation of client-related activities to ensure controls support sustainable growth and risk mitigation.
• The Internal Control Officer ensures that all end-to-end onboarding processes for clients managed by the Financial Institutions Directorate (FID) team, including Issuer Processing, Card Order, Fulfilment and Personalization, Acquirer Processing (PoS, Web & ATM), MasterCard Payment Gateway Services, Agency Transaction Processing, Merchant Services, and Unified Payments Interbank Transfer (Inbound & Outbound), are properly authorized, documented, compliant, and securely implemented.
• Evaluate existing workflows, systems, and processes to identify bottlenecks and implement control-driven improvements.
• Collaborate with technology, product, and operations teams to ensure fintech processes are efficient, scalable, and secure.
• Design and monitor control systems that prevent and detect fraud, unauthorized transactions, and policy breaches.
• Ensure the organization’s operations comply with all relevant regulatory frameworks, including CBN guidelines, NDPR (Nigeria Data Protection Regulation), AML/CFT regulations, tax obligations and others.
• Providing control counseling, advisory and decision support services.
• Ensuring prompt rendition of control reports/returns including reports of unusual incidents to Head, Business & Support.
• Review new policies and products for control adequacy before implementation.
• Maintain an efficient working relationship with the assigned Departments to proactively resolve overdue open items
• Serve as a strategic advisor to executive management on business & support control matters, supporting informed decision-making and business sustainability.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Business Administration, or related field.
• Professional certification required/optional: ACA, ACCA, or equivalent.
• Others: Master’s degree, CISA, CPA, CIA, or equivalent would be an added advantage.
• Experience: Minimum of 6 years of relevant assurance experience (audit or internal control), with at least 1 year in assurance leadership or strategic role in financial reporting, governance, risk, or compliance.
• Experience in the fintech, financial services, or banking sector is strongly preferred. Strong familiarity with Nigerian corporate governance codes and CBN regulations.

Skills Necessary for Job Function:

• In-depth understanding of corporate governance principles, legal and regulatory requirements.
• People Management & Development skills and Adequate attention to detail.
• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Analytical mindset with excellent problem-solving abilities
• Ability to balance compliance with business needs in a fast-paced fintech environment.
• High level of integrity, discretion, and professionalism.
• Proficiency in data analytics and audit technologies, including demonstrated use of ACL, IDEA, Power BI, and SQL.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online