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- Fulfil the responsibilities of a Senior Manager Function (SMF) under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR), in accordance with the associated Statement(s) of Responsibilities (SOR).
- Comply with the company’s SM&CR requirements, including timely completion of mandatory training, adherence to all company policies and procedures and participation in the annual attestation process.
- Adhere to the SM&CR framework, including FCA/PRA Conduct Rules and Senior Manager Conduct Rules.
- Embed Consumer Duty requirements and responsibilities into day-to-day practices, ensuring alignment with the expectations and standards set by the FCA and PRA.
- Document any delegated tasks to ensure accountability and transparency.
- Recognised as a Material Risk Taker under the regulatory framework, with responsibilities and decision-making authority that have a significant impact on the firm’s risk profile.
- Ensure alignment with remuneration and governance requirements applicable to MRTs.
- To provide expert and strategic advice to the UK Board and Senior Management team on regulatory, compliance SM&CR, corporate governance issues and evolving regulatory expectations ensure the organisations full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
- To co-chair the Executive Risk committee contribute to relevant business executive and Board committees.
- To manage the compliance function, including liaison with the FCA, PRA, ICO and other regulatory bodies (where required) and to ensure the firm has an open and transparent relationship with its regulators.
- To liaise with industry bodies including the FLA and BVRLA and attend forums as appropriate.
- To set the strategic approach for the management of regulatory topics, including the development of appropriate policies, procedures, controls and training materials. Taking account of Group Policies and Procedures.
- To review relevant customer and dealer documentation for existing and new products and standard letters to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements (where applicable).
- Accountable for Compliance monitoring and Assurance Framework, with regular cadence to Executive Committee, and Board.
- Oversight of key financial crime and third-party frameworks, specifically anti-bribery corruption (ABC), conflicts of interest and whistleblowing.
- Collaborate with HR on SMCR Framework, recruitment and regulatory readiness of certified functions.
- Responsible for compliance function operations and growth, embedding a culture of compliance and ethical conduct across the organisation.
- Identify, assess, and mitigate key risks within the remit of the role.
- Ensure adherence to relevant risk management policies and procedures.
- Escalate issues and report risks appropriately.
- Current or recent SMF16 responsibility within a consumer lender/retail bank.
- Comfortable approving Financial Promotions to ensure compliance with requirements.
- Prior experience acting as a key participant in business change, projects and system developments.
- Experience in setting firms strategy for the management of conduct risks and to promote a compliance culture throughout the organisation.
- Experienced in receiving, investigating, reviewing and responding to whistleblowing alerts raised within a company in accordance with the whistleblowing procedure.
- Pension: Employee contribution of 3.5% Employer contribution of 7.22% (50% reimbursement of employee contributions)
- Bonus up to 15% (non contractual)
- ECOP Car Scheme (1x free vehicle)
- Loan Plan Scheme – up to 2 vehicles at any one time
- Private Healthcare – Family Cover
- 27 days annual leave
- Annual medical screening
We are delighted to be partnering with a Hertfordshire based consumer lender to assist them with the appointment of a newly created Compliance and Risk vacancy within their First Line.
You'll play a key role in supporting the Customer Services Department (Customer support at each step of the customer journey; including but limited to General Contact, Complaints, Collections, End of Agreement options, Remarketing and Operational Resilience) in embedding its first line of defence risk management framework.
You will collaborate with risk owners, Management and senior stakeholders to identify, assess, and mitigate risks across the Customer Services Department, ensuring independence from daily business as usual operations while providing tailored risk management support.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Risk Identification and Documentation:
- Support the identification and documentation of risks in line with the organisation’s framework, responsible for the completion and assessment of Risk and Control Self Assessments (RCSAs).
- Lead identification of root causes of risk events and incidents and deliver remediation of risks and issues.
- Review and draft department policies, procedures, and processes to ensure regulatory alignment and business effectiveness.
- Mapping of customer journeys to identify, assess and mitigate risks across key processes to ensure appropriate controls.
- Review of key customer communications.
Advisory and Support
- Collaborate with risk owners and Head of Departments to provide risk oversight for change and transformation projects, including defining risks and controls and ensuring effective governance and documentation is in place to demonstrate customer outcome considerations.
- Collaborate with business stakeholders and the Compliance Function to conduct regulatory impact assessments and support the department in implementing and adapting to new rules and expectations.
Governance and Reporting
- Represent risk in department governance committees, forums, and working groups, and provide insights and management information to support effective decision-making and risk oversight.
- Analyse department Risk Appetite, Customer Outcomes and management information and data to assess and identify risks for mitigation, presenting reports to relevant committees and forums.
- Identify and monitor the departments Top Risks, Emerging Risks and Issues Under Management for reporting to Operations Committee and Executive Risk Committee; including preparing papers for the Operations Committee.
- Responsible for department external regulatory reporting.
KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS
- Strong experience working across multiple risk domains in a first line capacity, with a good understanding of banking and customer operations, especially lending, financial crime, underwriting, IT and operational resilience.
- Sound knowledge of the FCA handbook, particularly CONC and Consumer Duty.
- Proven experience in a consumer credit, or a similar FCA-regulated financial services firm/sector.
- Experienced in advising business stakeholders, providing advice and guidance on internal matters, procedures and policies, and participating in internal committees and contributing risk insights.
- Experience in managing/supporting business projects/initiatives, particularly relating to operational efficiency, business change transformation and regulatory change.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management and collaboration, and influence/problem-solving skills.
- Previous experience of leading and managing others is highly desirable.
We are delighted to be partnering with a high-growth Fintech start-up seeking to appoint a Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO). This is a key hire and the role is of a remote nature with occasional travel to London as and when business needs arise. An equity component is offered in addition to a competitive salary.
Job Summary
The MLRO will be the firm’s statutory Head of Financial Crime Compliance, directly responsible for oversight of all anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing (CTF), and sanctions compliance activities. The successful candidate will be instrumental in the FCA authorisation process, embedding a robust financial crime framework, and ensuring the firm meets all regulatory requirements under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (EMRs) and the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs).
Key Responsibilities:
Regulatory and Strategic
- FCA Licence Application: Act as the lead for all Financial Crime elements of the FCA EMI licence application, including drafting the Financial Crime Chapter of the Regulatory Business Plan, conducting gap analyses, and interacting with the FCA during the application process.
- Regulatory Accountability (SMF17): Hold the SMF17 designation, maintaining the required Statement of Responsibilities (SoR) and being personally accountable to the FCA for the firm's financial crime controls.
- Governance: Report directly to the Board of Directors on the effectiveness of AML/CTF systems and controls, at least annually.
AML/CTF Systems and Controls
- Risk Assessment: Develop, implement, and maintain the firm’s formal Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment (MLTRA), ensuring it is current and covers all products, services, customers, and geographies.
- Policies & Procedures: Establish, implement, and maintain comprehensive, written AML/CTF policies, procedures, and controls, covering Customer Due Diligence (CDD), Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), Sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring.
- Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs): Act as the statutory point of contact for external communication with the National Crime Agency (NCA), receiving internal suspicious activity reports, evaluating them, and submitting SARs to the NCA where appropriate.
- Transaction Monitoring: Oversee the design, tuning, and operation of the automated transaction monitoring systems, ensuring appropriate risk typologies are covered.
- Sanctions: Ensure the firm’s Sanctions screening program is effective, covering customers and transactions against global sanctions lists (OFSI, OFAC, UN, etc.).
Training and Culture
- Training: Develop and deliver mandatory, bespoke, risk-based AML/CTF training programs for all staff, management, and the Board of Directors, ensuring they understand their personal responsibilities.
- Oversight: Foster a strong financial crime compliance culture throughout the organisation.
Required Knowledge and Experience:
Category Requirement
- Experience: Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in Financial Crime/AML Compliance within the UK financial services sector. Must have prior experience as a Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) or Deputy MLRO (DMLRO) in an FCA-regulated Payments Institution (PI) or Electronic Money Institution (EMI).
- Regulatory Deep, practical working knowledge of the MLRs 2017, EMRs 2011, Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), and the FCA Handbook (especially SYSC and SM&CR rules).
- Technical: Proven experience in drafting and implementing AML/CTF policies, performing MLTRAs, managing Transaction Monitoring systems, and reporting to the NCA.
Qualifications:
- A recognised AML/Financial Crime professional qualification (e.g., ACAMS, ICA Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering).
Skills:
- Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills, capable of influencing the Board and challenging senior management.
- Ensure the accurate and timely recording of customer complaints as they come into the organisation in line with policy, procedures and FCA regulations.
- Own the end-to-end process for regulated complaints, including the complaints investigation handling and FOS interaction
- Plan and manage workload of teams to ensure timescales and expectations are managed and prevent regulatory breaches
- Provide informal advice and assistance on complaints to customers, where possible resolving without the need for formal complaints and to ensure and instil customer confidence
- Own the root cause analysis process and create transparency across the business
- Drive change; ensuring complaints data is easy to access, understand and used to educate teams how to analyse complaints data and provide guidance on how we can drive improvement
- Continually measure, monitor, and improve overall performance of the Complaint function, giving regular feedback to management team, and providing visibility on company level standards and metrics
- Gather, analyse, and interpret data related to Net Promoter Score (NPS) and other customer satisfaction metrics.
- Monitor trends and changes in customer feedback over time to identify patterns and areas for improvement.
- Establish benchmarks for customer experience by comparing the firms UK's performance against industry standards and competitors.
- Proven regulated complaints management experience
- Demonstrable commercial acumen and experience, mainly within a B2B environment
- Exemplary stakeholder management skills, dealing with and influencing senior executive level managers at a global level in a matrix organisation
- Evidence of strategic planning, analytical and execution skills with an ability to assess and communicate priorities and drive actions and delivery through others
- Excellent understanding of Financial services and the full regulatory environment
- Ability to quickly assimilate information from disparate topics/functions and connect together to bring business conclusions or highlight risks
- Proven ability to collaborate across multi-disciplinary teams
- Ability to master multiple complex topics, make quick decisions and remain a clear thinker and communicator under pressure
- Successful experience in developing and retaining critical talent and building an effective team
- Ideally experience of managing and working in Risk/compliance or operational resilience
- Experience of building a team, leading and improving an organisation’s capability
This is a hybrid role with the expectation to work in the office 2 days each week.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
ICARA Ownership & Oversight:
- Lead the end-to-end ICARA process, including scenario analysis, stress testing, and capital planning.
- Ensure alignment with regulatory expectations under the Investment Firms Prudential Regime (IFPR).
- Collaborate with senior stakeholders to assess material harms and mitigation strategies.
- Maintain documentation and evidence to support ICARA conclusions and regulatory submissions.
Financial Risk Management:
- Identify, assess, and monitor financial risks including liquidity, credit, market, and operational risks.
- Partner with Finance teams to embed risk-aware decision making across the business.
- Develop and maintain financial risk dashboards and reporting tools.
Business Partnering:
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior management, providing insights on financial resilience and risk appetite.
- Support strategic initiatives with financial risk analysis and capital impact assessments.
- Facilitate cross-functional collaboration between Finance, Risk & Compliance.
Governance & Reporting:
- Prepare and present risk and ICARA-related reports to Risk Committees and Boards.
- Ensure timely and accurate regulatory submissions and responses to supervisory queries.
- Contribute to the development and refinement of the firm’s Risk Management Framework.
SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
Essential:
- Strong understanding of ICARA, IFPR, and UK regulatory capital frameworks.
- Proven experience in financial risk management within a regulated financial institution.
- Excellent analytical, modelling, and scenario planning skills.
- Ability to communicate complex risk concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Desirable:
- Professional qualification (e.g., ACA, CFA, FRM).
- Experience with ICAAP/ICARA in investment firms or asset managers.
- Familiarity with enterprise risk management tools and methodologies.
Personal Attributes:
- Strategic thinker with a hands-on approach.
- High integrity and attention to detail.
- Strong interpersonal and influencing skills.
- Proactive, resilient, and adaptable in a fast-paced environment.
Our client is seeking a Compliance Assurance Officer/Manager, posessing 2-3yrs experience in credit lending to support compliance monitoring.
The person will oversee consumer duty outcomes testing and support delivery of the compliance monitoring plan.
Overall purpose of the role:
The focus of this role is to lead on assurance monitoring, deliver quality assurance monitoring in support of the 2LOD compliance risk management framework and operational processes within 1LOD. The Compliance Assurance Manager will support thematic and assurance monitoring reviews with a particular focus on regulatory risk providing an appropriate balance of support, guidance, and challenge to achieve regulatory compliance and good customer outcomes.
Responsibilities and accountabilities:
- Support and deliver on the compliance assurance monitoring programme, delivering high quality risk based monitoring and reporting in support of evidencing regulatory compliance
- Contribute to the Compliance Assurance Plan and other Compliance initiatives and manage the framework for delivery of compliance risk thematic reviews and ongoing monitoring activities.
- Deliver assurance monitoring and works closely with other risk functions to support all monitoring activity.
- Deliver customer outcomes testing in accordance with the regulatory requirements of the consumer duty regulations and second line assurance framework.
- Identify and report on compliance risks and provide insightful advice and recommendations in support of risk mitigation
- Maintain policies and standards for testing and monitoring of compliance controls across all functions and business activities.
- Develop standards for scoping, performing and documenting compliance assurance activities.
- Act as an advocate for compliance with all legal, regulatory and company standards and promote a positive risk culture within the first line of defence where transparency, action and rigor are evident – particularly in relation to customer outcomes.
- To frequently liaise with first line business areas to ensure that you understand key processes and how controls support the achievement of compliance, identifying gaps and weaknesses that need to be addressed – particularly in relation to Arrears Management, Vulnerable Customer Management, Complaints Handling, ensuring good customer outcome is at the heart of everything you do
- Maintain up-to-date knowledge of the FCA Handbook and key regulatory requirements (e.g., Consumer Duty, CONC, DISP, SMCR, and the “CCA”) and apply these to advice, guidance, and assurance activities
You:
- Minimum of 2 years compliance monitoring experience in an consumer credit environment
- Focused on customer outcomes and sound understanding of the Consumer Duty and other relevant regulation.
- Strong audit or assurance testing background.
- Proven ability to write detailed policies and procedures, regulatory updates for publishing across the business, and breach reports.
- Strong interpersonal skills, able to establish effective working relationships at all levels.
Our client is seeking someone to work remotely on a 9-month fixed-term-contract basis who possesses proven File Review/Checking experience.
The role has arisen to cover a team member moving onto a project over this time scale.
You will be tasked with reviewing both pre and post-sale reviews on new business with pension switching, drawdown and investment business the bulk of the work.
IHT trust work and Business Relief investment/corporate protection/VCT/EIS knowledge is an advantage but not essential.
In terms of a start date, they are looking at either September or early October. They are willing to consider someone to work either 4 or 5 days per week, with some flexibility in working hours (core hours expected).
You must hold the level 4 diploma in financial planning or equivalent.
- Assisting with development and embedding of a fit for purpose risk management framework to enable the business to manage its financial and operational risks, including conduct risk, and adhering to Consumer Duty requirements.
- Assisting the Risk Manager with ensuring that the business adheres to the organisations Group regulatory standards and risk management framework requirements.
- Being a point of contact for the first line Risk Champions to provide guidance and support on risk management activities.
- Assisting in the setting the standards for risk management and promoting a risk centric culture within the business.
- Demonstrating a high work ethic and possess core knowledge and skills to support strategic objectives.
- Assisting with actions and recommendations from all relevant audit reports, including Internal Audit to ensure timely delivery and closure.
- Assisting in the formation of the Risk Management Framework which includes, Risk Appetites, Emerging Risks, Risk Events.
- Providing support in the gathering of risk data and analysing trends for reporting to Board and Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee.
- Supporting the Risk Manager in administrative duties in keeping the risk registers up to date.
- Assisting with risk requests (including from the Group) in relation to adoption of policies, procedures, and other ad hoc risk queries as and when applicable.
- Liaising with internal and external stakeholders to provide support and guidance on risk management.
- Assisting with annual review of the taxonomy, policies, and procedures to ensure they are up to date from a regulatory perspective.
- Assisting in all other tasks, periodic, ad hoc, or otherwise.
- You must act with integrity.
- You must act with due care, skill and diligence.
- You must be open and cooperative with the FCA and other regulators.
- You must pay due regard to the interests of customers and treat them fairly.
- You must observe proper standards of market conduct.
- You must act to delivery good outcomes for retail customers.
- Ensure all work and activities performed in this role adhere to the organisation's information security policies, standards, and procedures.
- Proactively identify and mitigate information security risks associated with assigned duties and responsibilities.
- Participate in regular security awareness training and apply best practices for securing data, systems, and applications.
- Report any suspected security incidents, vulnerabilities, or policy violations to the information security team immediately.
- Support the Information Security program, understand and manage information security responsibilities delegated to your department, ensure team comply with all Information Security policy and procedure, report on team performance against security training requirements. (Managers only).
- Previous experience in developing and embedding risk frameworks within the insurance sector.
- Understanding of the Managing General Agent model specifically in relation to risk management would be advantageous.
- Excellent knowledge of the Risk Management Cycle.
- Experience with risk analysis and reporting.
- Analytical mind with problem-solving aptitude.
- Excellent communication and presentations skills.
- A proactive approach to work, in terms of suggesting changes and improvements to processes and systems.
- Commercial awareness and the ability to understand broad business issues.
- Pension - Employee 5%/Employer 10%
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (additional holiday after 3 years service)
- Leisure Allowance - £1000 (post probation)
- Medical Cover - Benefit in Kind (post probation)
- Group Income Protection/EAP (post probation)
- Group Life Insurance (post probation)