Overview

Position: Senior Director, FinTech and Digitalisation

Organisation: Loan Market Association (LMA)

Location: London, United Kingdom

The Loan Market Association (LMA) is the authoritative voice of the syndicated loan market across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). With over 800 member organisations from more than 65 jurisdictions, the LMA plays a critical role in promoting the development and integrity of the loan market by producing documentation, driving market standards, and engaging with regulators and policymakers.

As the syndicated loan market undergoes significant transformation, digitalisation and emerging technologies offer new opportunities to enhance efficiency, transparency, and interoperability. The LMA is seeking a visionary and technically fluent leader to shape its digital strategy and support its members through this period of innovation.

Role Overview

The Senior Director, FinTech and Digitalisation will lead the LMA’s strategy and initiatives on technology adoption, digital transformation, and innovation within the loan market. This senior role requires a forward-looking technologist with strategic insight into the evolving financial technology landscape, including distributed ledger technology (DLT), tokenisation, artificial intelligence (AI/GenAI), data standardisation, sustainable finance technology and automation.

The successful candidate will work closely with member institutions, regulators, policymakers, FinTech providers, and industry consortia to define the future digital infrastructure of the syndicated loan market.

The successful candidate will not simply respond to change but will set the agenda, driving the industry’s digitalisation strategy, influencing regulatory debate, and building the partnerships that will define how loans are originated, traded, and managed in the decades to come.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Develop and execute the LMA’s FinTech and digitalisation strategy, ensuring alignment with members’ needs and broader market developments.
• Technology Adoption: Drive initiatives that support the use of emerging technologies in loan markets, including DLT/blockchain, tokenisation, digital identity, data standards, and generative AI applications.
• Industry Coordination: Lead the LMA’s FinTech Working Group and cross-industry digitalisation projects to build consensus on standards, best practices, and interoperability frameworks.
• External Engagement: Represent the LMA in consultations with regulators, central banks, and supranational bodies on technology-related issues, including digital assets, wholesale CBDCs, and regulatory frameworks for innovation.
• Innovation Research & Thought Leadership: Produce white papers, technical guidance, and research reports on the impact of emerging technologies on the syndicated loan market, positioning the LMA at the forefront of industry thinking.
• Stakeholder Management: Build and maintain relationships with senior executives across LMA member institutions, technology providers, and investors to ensure industry-wide collaboration.
• Advocacy & Education: Support member firms in understanding and adopting new technologies, including through training, workshops, and conferences.
• Future Market Infrastructure: Explore partnerships with technology providers and market infrastructures to modernise primary syndication, secondary trading, settlement, and loan administration processes.
• Increase engagement with current members, use LMA platform to source new membership and sponsorship opportunities.

Candidate Profile

Essential Experience & Skills:

• Strong background in technology strategy, financial innovation, or digital transformation (e.g., consulting, venture capital, or industry innovation function).
• Deep understanding of emerging technologies and their application in financial markets, particularly DLT, blockchain, tokenisation, digital assets, and AI/GenAI.
• Strategic thinker with demonstrable experience shaping industry initiatives or large-scale technology adoption programmes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and consensus-building skills, with experience navigating complex industry dynamics.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with ability to convey complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Track record of engagement with regulators, policymakers, or industry consortia on technology or market structure issues.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with the syndicated loan market, wider debt capital markets, or financial market infrastructure.
• Prior leadership in a high-impact, strategic role within consulting, venture capital, or a financial institution’s innovation/digitalisation unit.
• Established reputation as a thought leader in the FinTech/financial innovation ecosystem.

Why Join the LMA?

This is a rare opportunity to play a leading role in shaping the digital transformation of one of the world’s most important financial markets. The successful candidate will influence global standards, engage directly with regulators and policymakers, and guide the adoption of next-generation technologies across the syndicated loan market.