About Fairlo
Fairlo began when our founders, Jimmy and Shamon, saw first-hand how unfair and predatory lending can trap people in cycles of debt. Their mother had been misled by a large bank and pushed further into financial difficulties. That injustice sparked an idea: to build a company that reimagines credit, rooted in transparency, flexibility and respect.
That company became Fairlo.
Where we are now
Since launching in 2018, Fairlo has helped tens of thousands of customers access responsible credit. With approximately 50,000 active users, a 4.8 Trustpilot rating from 4,700+ reviews and an incredibly low churn rate, we are proving that transparency and flexibility are a winning model.
We are around 50 people across Stockholm, Crete and the UK, backed by experienced Swedish investors and driven by kindness, courage, collaboration and common sense.
Where we are going
Fairlo is entering the most exciting chapter in our journey so far: we are becoming a bank.
This will allow us to scale responsibly and expand our offering, while raising the bar on governance, legal risk and regulatory requirements without losing our pragmatic, entrepreneurial approach.
At the same time, Fairlo is becoming an AI-native company, where AI is part of how we think, work and solve problems. We believe these transformations reinforce each other: better systems make a stronger bank.
That is where you come in.
Are you our Head of Legal?
As Head of Legal, you will be Fairlo’s senior legal expert and own the legal function as we transition into becoming a bank.
Reporting directly to our CEO, you will work closely with the Board, Executive Crew and teams across Fairlo, providing pragmatic legal advice and ensuring our governance, decision-making and legal framework meet the standards expected of a regulated bank.
You will also hold the role of SUB (Särskilt utsedd befattningshavare), with responsibility for Fairlo’s work to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
This is broader than a traditional in-house legal role. You will move between strategic advice, governance, financial regulation and AML/CTF, while staying close to the business and helping us move fast and excel responsibly.
Legal as a system, not a queue
Most legal functions work like a queue: a question arrives, a lawyer answers it, and everything else waits. We think AI fundamentally changes what is possible.
A lawyer with great judgment can now build systems that answer recurring questions, do the first pass, keep the compliant path open and escalate only what genuinely requires human judgment.
That is the legal function we want you to build. Your expertise should compound inside the company, while your time goes to the decisions that deserve it. In a regulated bank, accountability stays human.
Some of the things you will do
Build the systems that do the work
- Build, not brief. Create working tools and systems yourself.
- Put agents on the work. Build systems that review agreements, draft redlines, analyse contracts and escalate what genuinely requires legal judgment.
- Make regulatory change actionable. Turn changes from Finansinspektionen, the FCA, EBA or EU into clear impacts on policies, processes, products and controls.
- Keep the golden thread intact. Board decision → policy → instruction → process → evidence. Build it so it can be checked continuously and produced on demand.
- Red-team us. Use AI to challenge our governance, contracts and processes before a supervisor, dispute or complaint does.
- Turn judgment into infrastructure. Build systems that learn from recurring decisions and make guidance available where decisions happen.
- Build compliance by construction. Work with Tech so regulatory requirements are built into products and processes rather than reviewed afterwards.
Legal & corporate governance
- Act as primary legal advisor to the CEO, Board and Executive Crew across corporate law, financial services regulation, commercial agreements, data protection, outsourcing and other relevant legal matters.
- Ensure Fairlo’s governance framework, decision-making structures, Board documentation and corporate formalities meet applicable requirements.
- Own the legal perspective of our internal governance framework, including policies, instructions and guidelines.
- Own group and subsidiary governance, intragroup agreements, related-party transactions and conflicts of interest.
- Monitor legal and regulatory developments and support new products, partnerships and strategic initiatives with practical legal advice and risk assessments.
- Draft, review and negotiate commercial agreements and coordinate external legal counsel when needed.
AML/CTF & SUB responsibility
As Fairlo’s SUB, you will help ensure the bank meets its obligations to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. You will:
- Oversee Fairlo’s AML/CTF framework, processes and controls.
- Own and regularly update the general AML/CTF risk assessment.
- Ensure appropriate processes for customer risk classification, customer due diligence and transaction monitoring.
- Ensure Fairlo has sufficient resources, systems and controls to manage AML/CTF risks.
- Report regularly to the Board on AML/CTF risks, deficiencies, incidents and required actions.
- Take responsibility for relevant periodic AML/CTF reporting to Finansinspektionen.
- Act as Fairlo’s Sanctions Responsible (sanktionsansvarig), owning the sanctions exposure assessment and screening framework, Board and FI reporting, and effective PEP and sanctions screening.
We expect AI to change much of this work, while you remain clear on where it cannot be used and ensure decisions are explainable, auditable and defensible to Finansinspektionen.
Make our AI ambitions legally possible
Becoming an AI-native bank raises real legal questions, and you will own them, including:
- AI use involving personal data and its legal basis.
- Our obligations under the EU AI Act, particularly around creditworthiness assessment.
- Confidentiality, data processing agreements and vendor risk when using external models.
- Automated decision-making, transparency and customer rights.
- Frameworks that allow Fairlo to move fast with AI without getting it wrong.
You will work closely with Compliance and Risk while maintaining a clear division between Legal in the first line and our independent second-line control functions. As Fairlo grows, you will shape the Legal function. We would rather you build leverage than headcount.
We believe you have
- A Swedish law degree (juristexamen) or equivalent legal qualification.
- At least 5 years of relevant experience from an in-house legal function or law firm, focused on banking, financial services or another regulated environment.
- Strong knowledge of corporate and commercial law, financial services regulation and AML/CTF legislation.
- Experience with corporate governance in the financial sector, advising senior management and working directly with Boards.
- Strong commercial judgment and the ability to turn complex legal and regulatory requirements into practical advice.
- Hands-on experience using AI in legal work, with sound judgment about where it helps, where it does not and where it should not be used.
- Experience building something with AI that other people use.
- The confidence and integrity to challenge when needed while remaining pragmatic and solution-oriented.
- Excellent communication skills in Swedish and English.
- The ability to work independently, take ownership and prioritise in a fast-moving environment.
Nice if you also have experience from
- A bank or credit institution regulated by Finansinspektionen.
- Acting as SUB or holding another senior AML/CTF responsibility.
- Regulatory applications, authorisation processes or interaction with supervisory authorities.
- UK regulation and consumer credit.
- Consumer credit regulation, data protection, technology or outsourcing.
- AI governance, the EU AI Act, model risk or algorithmic accountability.
- Legal operations, contract lifecycle management, automation or internal tooling.
- Working across multiple jurisdictions.
- Building or developing an in-house legal function.
Joining Fairlo means
- Being part of building the financial world you would like to live in.
- Significant ownership and the opportunity to build the legal and governance foundation of a new bank.
- Working closely with our CEO, founders, Executive Leadership Team and Board.
- Health insurance, pension at ITP level and a health and wellness allowance.
- 30 days of vacation per year plus klämdagar off.
- The possibility to use the Fairlo Cretan house for work and vacation stays and to lease a bike.
- A hybrid working model with a top-location office in Stockholm.
- A team that supports one another, has fun together and thrives.
Where you will work
You will mainly work from our Stockholm office and may travel to our teams and offices in Greece, the UK and other locations as we grow.
If you are excited by combining law, governance, AML, AI and business to help build a bank where fairness, transparency and flexibility are built into everything we do, we would love to hear from you.