Hiring a Head of Regulatory Affairs for an EU PI or EMI
Licence applications, passporting, EBA consultation responses. The hire that has actually argued a position with a regulator - not the one with a polished LinkedIn.
# Hiring a Head of Regulatory Affairs for an EU PI or EMI
A Head of Regulatory Affairs at an EU payment institution or e-money institution is the person who owns the licence. Day to day this means licence applications, passporting workflows, EBA / ESMA consultation responses, and the relationship with the home-state regulator. Get this hire wrong and the licence becomes a permanent operational drag.
Why hiring this role is hard
Most "regulatory affairs" CVs in the EU come from one of three buckets: - Career civil servants who have written policy but never owned a private-sector licence file. - Lawyers who can argue the law but have never sat through a final-stage application call with a regulator. - Consultants who advised on five different licence applications but never carried one over the line.
None of these are automatically wrong - but they are all incomplete on their own. The hire who actually performs in a PI / EMI is usually the one who has been on both sides of the desk at least once.
What to screen for
1. **Licence application history.** Has the candidate personally argued a section of a PI / EMI / EMI-equivalent application with a national regulator (FCA, BaFin, MFSA, CySEC, Banca d'Italia, Central Bank of Ireland, AFM, DNB)? Ask for the section. Ask what changed in the redrafted application. 2. **Passporting in anger.** EU passporting is mechanically simple and operationally messy. Has the candidate stood up a passport notification process from scratch? Have they handled a host-state regulator pushback? 3. **Consultation receipts.** EBA, ESMA and EIOPA consultations produce final rulebooks that bite. Has the candidate authored or co-authored a public consultation response that subsequently appeared in revised text? 4. **Build-vs-buy on regulator monitoring.** They should have a strong opinion - and the receipts to back it.
Three screening questions that filter fast
- *"Walk me through the last licence application or variation you personally owned. What was the regulator's first-round feedback and what did you redraft?"*
- *"Pick one EBA / ESMA / EIOPA consultation in the last 18 months you actually responded to. What was your position and what was the final text?"*
- *"You learn a peer firm has been thematic-reviewed for an issue your licence application is silent on. What do you do in the next 48 hours?"*
Red flags KICKFIND filters out
- Pure government-relations background with no private-sector licence ownership.
- Names regulators but cannot describe a specific interaction.
- Treats consultation responses as a press exercise rather than a draft-then-defend exercise.
Submit your role
If you are hiring a Head of Regulatory Affairs for an EU PI or EMI, [submit a structured hiring brief](/submit-hiring-brief) and KICKFIND will calibrate within one business day.