Head of Legal

Why PayNet / Why Now

• PayNet operates at the centre of Malaysia’s national payments infrastructure, where legal, regulatory, and commercial decisions directly shape ecosystem trust and adoption.
• Growth of the organization, including via subsidiaries, JVs, and cross-border structures requires strong legal ownership for structuring, governance, and risk clarity.
• Regulatory expectations are evolving rapidly (BNM discussion papers, exposures, policy frameworks), requiring deep in-house interpretation and response.
• Legal must move from reactive support to a business-shaping capability that enables speed with clear risk visibility.

TL; DR

• Own PayNet’s enterprise legal judgment, structuring, and risk visibility.
• Advise the CEO and leadership team on all matters with legal implications, providing clear legal guidance to support sound decision-making and strategic legal positioning.
• Build business-oriented legal capabilities embedded in decision-making across the company.
• Lead legal architecture across entities, agreements, and ecosystem relationships.
• Interpret regulatory developments into clear legal and compliance implications for the enterprise.

Why This Role Matters

• PayNet’s structure and agreements define how risk, control, and value are distributed across the ecosystem.
• Regulatory shifts must be understood early and translated into action, not reacted to late.
• Without strong in-house legal capability: decision-making slows, external counsel becomes over-relied upon, risk is either hidden or overly conservatively managed.
• This role ensures clarity, speed, and discipline in how PayNet makes legally-informed strategic decisions.

What You Will Actually Do

• Own enterprise legal judgment, advising CEO and leadership on risks, trade-offs, and decision implications.
• Structure and govern entities (subsidiaries, JVs, entities), defining ownership, control, and risk allocation.
• Lead all material agreements, ensuring they reflect commercial intent and protect PayNet’s strategic position.
• Build and lead a lean team of senior counsels that can operate across both routine and complex matters.
• Interpret BNM and regulatory papers, translating them into clear legal and compliance implications for the business.
• Operate across the Legal–Compliance interface, ensuring alignment without duplication and no gaps in coverage.
• Define and control use of external counsel, reserving it for specialised or high-stakes matters only.
• Make risk explicit and actionable, ensuring leadership decisions are always risk-informed, never assumed safe.
• Act as a trusted advisor to the CEO, providing independent, candid judgment on critical issues.

Examples of This Role in Practice

• Designing and negotiating commercial agreements with partners and vendors, ensuring performance expectations, SLA discipline, and enforceable consequences are clearly defined and upheld.
• Structuring a new JV entity, defining governance, shareholder rights, and exit provisions.
• Reviewing a BNM exposure draft and translating it into concrete implications for PayNet’s products and operations.
• Advising the CEO on a regulatory-sensitive decision, framing legal and compliance risks clearly.
• Designing a standardised contracting model while preserving flexibility for strategic negotiations.
• Deciding when to resolve legal matters internally vs engage external counsel.

What Will Help You Succeed

• Strong experience in entity structuring (subsidiaries, JVs, cross-border arrangements).
• Proven ability to handle complex commercial and regulatory environments.
• Ability to interpret regulatory materials into clear, actionable implications.
• Strong commercial instinct; balancing legal rigor with business outcomes.
• Credibility to operate as a trusted advisor at CEO and Board level.
• Comfort operating in grey areas (Legal vs Compliance), with clear judgment and ownership.