Head of Banking in London

Capi is building the financial infrastructure for emerging markets trade. Our mission is to grow GDP in emerging markets by making the global financial system fairer and more accessible. We’re tackling global trade, making it easier for importers to pay their international suppliers. Our platform enables businesses to expand rapidly, create jobs, and be engines of prosperity for their countries.

Our team is made up of approx 100 people across 10 countries; we are a group of highly ambitious, get-it-done people, who like to work hard on something that has a tangible impact in the world.

Role Overview

Capi's ability to deliver fast and reliable payments to our customers' beneficiaries outside of Africa depends on the strength of our international banking infrastructure. As Head of Banking, you will design the strategy and own the execution of our partner-bank portfolio — identifying which new partners we need, making the case for them, driving them from first conversation to launch, and ensuring a productive ongoing relationship. This is a senior leadership role at the intersection of strategy, operations, partnerships and compliance, reporting directly to a co-founder.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner strategy & identification: Own Capi's banking partner roadmap across entities, corridors, currencies and use cases — ensuring our customers can access the financial services they need, and proactively closing gaps before they become operational constraints.
• Lead market intelligence on the partner landscape: who is opening up, who is de-risking, who has the reach and risk appetite we need.
• Build the business case for new partner additions and advise leadership on portfolio-level resilience, redundancy, and sequencing trade-offs.
• Act as the central point of authority on banking partnerships across the organisation.
• Drive banking enablement for cross-functional initiatives with banking dependencies — including product launches such as card programmes or virtual IBANs.
• Provide leadership with clear, decision-ready reporting: partner status, risk flags, pipeline, and strategic recommendations.
• Onboarding & due diligence: Own end-to-end bank onboarding from first engagement to go-live: due diligence, KYB, legal review, compliance approvals, and technical readiness.
• Coordinate Legal, Compliance, Product, Treasury and Operations across every milestone, keeping dependencies visible and decisions moving.
• Represent Capi in bank-facing due diligence, compliance reviews, and contract negotiations throughout the onboarding process.
• Go-live & operational readiness: Drive readiness validation, testing coordination, access provisioning, and SOP execution.
• Define and lead go-live planning with clearly owned checkpoints and clean handovers to BAU.
• Ensure every new partner enters BAU with the documentation, escalation paths, and SLA framework in place to perform.
• Relationship management & performance: Own the post–go-live health of banking relationships: SLA tracking, incident management, escalation handling.
• Build deep relationships with counterparts at banks — at the relationship, compliance, and operational levels.
• Anticipate and manage risks to relationship continuity, including regulatory changes, policy shifts, and de-risking signals.
• Identify and act on opportunities to expand the scope, volume, or value of existing partnerships.

About you

• 8+ years in banking partnerships, financial infrastructure, treasury, or fintech operations.
• Direct experience managing relationships with tier 1 banks, fintechs, etc.
• Deep familiarity with cross-border payment infrastructure: SEPA, SWIFT, correspondent banking, FX.
• Proven track record owning complex, multi-stakeholder processes end-to-end — from strategy through execution.
• Exceptional stakeholder management: credible externally at senior level, trusted internally across Legal, Compliance, Product, Treasury and Operations.
• Clear, precise communicator — written and verbal — with the ability to distil complexity into decisions.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and experienced at building structure in fast-moving environments.

Nice-to-haves

• Familiarity with stablecoin payment rails would be a plus.
• Proficiency in Mandarin or French would be a plus.

Additional Information:

This is a full-time position with competitive salary, share options, and benefits. This is a hybrid position; we are in the office 3 days per week (Tues - Thurs). Start date: Q2 or Q3 2026 - we know people will have notice periods, and can adjust as needed. Capi is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes candidates from diverse backgrounds. We’re all about building a diverse, inclusive team at Capi.