Cross-Border Settlement Treasury Recovery Leader

The mandate

A cancellation surge forced immediate customer refunds while card processors increased reserves and airlines, hotels and ground suppliers followed different settlement calendars. Treasury forecasts treated captured sales as cash before scheme and processor deductions, then missed weekend currency and local-market cut-offs. The treasury operations leader resigned after emergency funding was required, creating a twelve-month gap before two seasonal travel peaks.

The interim executive will rebuild the booking-to-cash and cancellation-to-refund liquidity model across acquirers, wallets, alternative methods, suppliers, currencies and legal entities. Work includes reserve mechanics, chargebacks, refund timing, supplier payable states, foreign-exchange exposure, collection and settlement reconciliation, and scenario funding. The operating model must distinguish customer money, merchant cash, agent obligations and funds restricted by scheme, processor or jurisdiction.

A permanent marketplace treasurer will be selected by month seven and lead the second peak command plus one processor reserve negotiation. Handover requires the successor to resolve a cross-currency funding shortfall, approve a supplier-priority recommendation and explain forecast variance to the payments risk committee. The transfer includes cash semantics, processor economics, settlement calendars, stress scenarios, escalation routes and unresolved legal-entity constraints.

The seat can direct settlement-liquidity command, rebalance approved cash, set forecast and reconciliation standards, challenge processor reserves, prioritise funded remediation and recommend supplier timing within contractual limits. It cannot delay protected customer refunds, alter supplier contracts, set travel prices, sign banking facilities, waive sanctions or safeguarding requirements, accept FX risk outside appetite or determine customer compensation.

The remit excludes running payment product, fraud operations, procurement or permanent regional finance. Success means peak liquidity is forecast from settlement events, reserves and restrictions are explicit, refunds and suppliers reconcile, currency is funded before cut-off and the successor can operate without emergency spreadsheets. No improvement may be achieved by quietly extending customer or supplier obligations beyond authorised terms.

Why this seat is open

The former leader managed processor, supplier and currency forecasts separately, so the cancellation event created a combined gap nobody owned. Immediate permanent recruitment would not cover the next peak or repair executive confidence. A temporary leader is needed to command daily exposure, force end-to-end settlement evidence and qualify a successor under real refund and reserve pressure.

What you will own

• Map booking, capture, processor reserve, scheme settlement, supplier payable, cancellation, refund and chargeback cash events.
• Establish legal-entity and currency positions by value date, restriction, customer-money status, counterparty and operational cut-off.
• Reconcile processor statements, payment events, supplier records, refund queues, bank balances and treasury forecasts.
• Model cancellation, reserve increase, FX move, provider failure and weekend cut-off scenarios for peak funding.
• Chair daily command on cash placement, currency, refund and supplier exposure within delegated contractual and risk limits.
• Challenge acquirer economics and reserve behaviour using dispute, chargeback, cohort and performance evidence.
• Induct the successor through peak and processor decisions and transfer forecasts, calendars, routes and residual constraints.

Candidate qualifications

• Has led treasury and settlement operations for a cross-border travel, commerce or marketplace business during demand disruption.
• Understands acquiring, scheme timing, processor reserves, alternative payments, chargebacks, refunds and supplier settlement.
• Can forecast liquidity from transaction state and value date rather than revenue bookings or aggregate processor reports.
• Has managed multicurrency cut-offs, customer-money protections and legal-entity constraints without delaying protected customer obligations during peak disruption.
• Has negotiated evidence-based reserve treatment while preserving processor relationships and contingency routes.
• Demonstrates handover to a permanent treasurer tested through live peak, counterparty and currency decisions.

Non-negotiables

• Will work onsite in Mumbai and attend all processor reviews and both peak-cancellation command residencies.
• Must disclose relationships with travel marketplaces, acquirers, payment schemes, banks, suppliers and treasury vendors.
• Brings cross-border marketplace settlement liquidity; corporate treasury forecasting alone does not qualify.
• Will not improve cash optics by delaying customer refunds or supplier payments outside authorised contractual treatment.

1. 49 words maximum. Which payment event would you distrust most when translating travel bookings into available cash?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you fund refunds when processor reserves rise during a cancellation peak?
3. 49 words maximum. What live reserve or currency decision must the permanent treasurer own before handover?