About the job

Department: ComplianceLocation: London

Description

Overview of the role

The Financial Crime Investigations Specialist is a key role within our organisation, dedicated to investigating and mitigating activities related to financial crime and fraud. This position requires a detailed-oriented individual with strong investigative skills and a deep understanding of AML (Anti-Money Laundering) practices. The ideal candidate will work closely with various Compliance departments, including the Transaction Monitoring (TM) Team and the Client Risk Oversight Team (CRO), to ensure a robust defence against financial crime and fraud, and the wider business, providing insight and analytics to support fraud prevention and operational efficiency.

Key Responsibilities

• Financial Crime InvestigationsConduct complex financial crime investigations arising from transaction monitoring alerts, internal referrals, external intelligence, banking partner queries and law enforcement requests.
• Analyse transactional activity, customer information, payment flows, corporate structures and open-source intelligence to identify potential money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, bribery and corruption risks.
• Identify patterns, typologies and connections across customers, counterparties, accounts and payment flows to support financial crime intelligence development.

• Reporting & Case ManagementProduce clear, evidence-based investigation reports outlining findings, key risk indicators and recommendations.
• Ensure all investigations are fully documented and maintained to an audit-ready, regulator-defensible standard.
• Assess whether investigations meet the threshold for suspicion in line with POCA, the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, FCA expectations and internal policies.
• Draft Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), Defence Against Money Laundering (DAML) requests and supporting case files for review and submission by the DMLRO and MLRO.

• Stakeholder Management & EscalationPresent investigation findings and recommendations to the DMLRO, MLRO and senior stakeholders where escalation is required.
• Act as a key escalation point for complex financial crime matters, providing guidance and effective challenge to Transaction Monitoring, Client Risk Oversight and wider business teams.
• Support regulatory enquiries, Requests for Information (RFIs), banking partner requests and law enforcement investigations.

• Continuous ImprovementContribute to the ongoing enhancement of financial crime investigation methodologies, intelligence capabilities and control effectiveness to strengthen the firm's financial crime framework.
• Success MeasuresDelivering high-quality financial crime investigations within agreed service levels, with accurate, audit-ready case documentation and minimal remediation required.
• Identifying, assessing and escalating financial crime risks appropriately, supported by clear evidence, high-quality investigation reports and robust SAR submissions.
• Maintaining strong compliance with regulatory requirements, internal policies and quality assurance standards, resulting in positive audit and QA outcomes.
• Producing actionable financial crime intelligence that identifies emerging risks, typologies and opportunities to strengthen the firm's control environment.
• Building trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders through timely responses, effective guidance and valuable support for regulatory, audit and banking partner requests.
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Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Experience in financial crime intelligence, AML, fraud or investigations within a regulated financial services environment.
• Strong analytical and pattern-recognition skills.
• Ability to distil complex intelligence into clear, defensible narratives.
• Good understanding of SAR obligations and regulatory expectations.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and complex risk scenarios.
• Ability to work collaboratively with various departments to achieve common goals.
• A true team player with a winning mentality and strong work ethic committed to continuous improvement and high performance.