Senior Investigator

at  Financial Conduct Authority

Senior Investigator
The current salary range is £51,200 to £86,600 (Regulatory) and £59,900 - £98,700 (Practising Legal)
The FCA’s Enforcement and Market Oversight (EMO) is recruiting for investigators (including Lawyers and Accountants) at Senior Associate level. There are vacancies in each of the EMO investigation departments; Retail and Regulatory, Wholesale and Unauthorised Business.
About EMO
EMO investigates misconduct in financial services that affects UK consumers and the financial markets. We bring regulatory, civil and criminal cases against firms and individuals to punish wrongdoers, deter others from wrongdoing and change behaviours. Effective, fair and impactful enforcement is critical to the success of the FCA.
The FCA receives reports from many different sources that indicate potential misconduct and we are continually presented with challenging and intellectually stimulating cases. Our cases involve critical issues that matter to consumers and market participants, and attract large scale media attention. Our work covers a diverse range of issues including fraudulent conduct, corporate governance failings, market abuse and product mis-selling.
Working in EMO at the FCA is a great career option if you have a strong sense of public duty and are motivated to do the right thing and make a positive difference to the lives of consumers and the UK financial market generally.
The team / departments
Retail and Regulatory Investigations (RRI)
RRI investigates potential misconduct by regulated firms, and individuals working within those firms, involved in retail banking, stockbroking, asset management, mortgage broking and lending, insurance intermediation, financial advice, consumer credit and payment services. We take action against firms that sell unsuitable products or services to consumers, mishandle client money and assets, or have governance and systemic issues. We also investigate financial crime matters including fraud and misconduct related to AML systems and controls.
Wholesale
The Wholesale department ensures that suspected wrongdoing in the wholesale financial markets is investigated and where serious misconduct by firms and/or individuals is identified they are held to account. Our investigation teams undertake criminal, civil, and regulatory investigations spanning insider dealing, market manipulation, misleading statements by listed companies and systems and controls failings.
Unauthorised Business Department (UBD)
UBD investigates firms that are not authorised by the FCA but are carrying out activities that require authorisation. Unauthorised firms pose a significant risk to consumers – UBD has civil and criminal powers to tackle these firms and protect consumers. UBD cases typically involve high-loss investment/Ponzi type frauds, illegal trading schemes and boiler room operations.
What you will be doing (the role)

Senior Associates are senior members of our case teams and play a vital role throughout the wider department. As a Senior Associate:

• You will help progress and, in some cases, lead investigations, taking on differing degrees of responsibility depending on their nature and complexity, and managing your work to meet competing deadlines. This could range from running smaller cases with management oversight, to working as part of a wider team on larger more complex cases
• You will be involved in all aspects of investigations from strategic planning, delegating tasks within the team, obtaining evidence using appropriate powers, drafting and reviewing all forms of documents, taking part in interviews of subjects and witnesses, analysing evidence and making judgements and recommendations throughout the lifetime of an investigation
• You will be a role model within your team, always willing to share your knowledge and expertise and have mentoring responsibilities for junior colleagues
• You will contribute to Departmental or Divisional Corporate Projects which are designed to support and improve our processes and systems and the way that we work
• You will build and maintain effective working relationships with senior colleagues in other areas within the FCA and with counterparts at key external stakeholders
• Legally qualified candidates in this role would also be expected to provide legal advice to the case team and where appropriate take responsibility for the preparation of privileged correspondence.

What you will get from the role:

• Exposure to some of the most fascinating, challenging and rewarding investigations in the UK
• A chance to work with colleagues from across EMO and other parts of the FCA
• Satisfying, worthwhile and responsible work with the opportunity to use your skills in complex situations
• Working in a high-energy and stimulating Division, within a supportive environment with exposure to a range of senior internal and external stakeholders
• The opportunity to help develop junior colleagues and positively contribute to the development of their career

If you are successful, we will set you up for success. Your manager will work with you to help you meet your professional goals. In your first six months you will attend a three-week investigation foundation course which will ensure, if you are new to investigations or have displayed your investigation or advisory skill set in a different setting, you can apply your skill set successfully in the context of the FCA’s approach to investigations.
Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Private healthcare with Bupa
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
• Income protection

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.
The skills and experience you will have
Minimum criteria

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Demonstrable significant experience working on complex investigations involving fraud/financial crime litigation within a criminal, civil or regulatory environment
• Experience of working collaboratively and communicating effectively with colleagues and motivating and assisting more junior colleagues, as well as having the ability to work independently and take responsibility for delivering against deadlines and managing operational risks
• Experience of analysing large amounts of information, drawing out key findings and producing formal written reports including making recommendations

Essential criteria

• Drive forward and coordinate work on complex investigations involving large volumes of documents/data
• Build and maintain strong and effective relationships with colleagues in other business units and with external bodies
• Work collaboratively and inclusively with colleagues with different perspectives and backgrounds
• Make clear, concise, logical and persuasive oral and written presentations on complex subjects

We will be hosting three Q&A sessions, this will give you an opportunity to find out more about the roles, please see Teams links below
Tuesday 6th August – 12:00-13:00 - WUBI/RRI Campaign - Q&A Session
Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 395 179 353 814
Passcode: mNGJAY
Wednesday 21st August – 12:00-13:00 – WUBI/RRI Campaign – Q&A Session
Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 364 005 650 684
Passcode: Hpj46y
Monday 2nd September – 13:00-14:00 – WUBI/RRI – Q&A Session
Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 320 422 933 883
Passcode: E2dmpt
About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of nearly 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found
here.
The FCA’s Values & Diversity
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Senior Associate role.
Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.
Multi-location
As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.

Useful information

• Applications for this role close at 23:59 on the 8th September 2024
• This role is graded as Senior Associate - Regulatory / Practising legal

Got a question?
If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact:
For internal applicants, please contact Michael Wood,
michael.wood@fca.org.uk
For external applicants, please contact Asha Gladis,
asha.gladis@fca.org.u
k
What to expect from our interview process
This will consist of a one stage process involving a case study and a one hour technical and competency based interview.
Application support
We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.
If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible

Senior Associates are senior members of our case teams and play a vital role throughout the wider department. As a Senior Associate:

• You will help progress and, in some cases, lead investigations, taking on differing degrees of responsibility depending on their nature and complexity, and managing your work to meet competing deadlines. This could range from running smaller cases with management oversight, to working as part of a wider team on larger more complex cases
• You will be involved in all aspects of investigations from strategic planning, delegating tasks within the team, obtaining evidence using appropriate powers, drafting and reviewing all forms of documents, taking part in interviews of subjects and witnesses, analysing evidence and making judgements and recommendations throughout the lifetime of an investigation
• You will be a role model within your team, always willing to share your knowledge and expertise and have mentoring responsibilities for junior colleagues
• You will contribute to Departmental or Divisional Corporate Projects which are designed to support and improve our processes and systems and the way that we work
• You will build and maintain effective working relationships with senior colleagues in other areas within the FCA and with counterparts at key external stakeholders
• Legally qualified candidates in this role would also be expected to provide legal advice to the case team and where appropriate take responsibility for the preparation of privileged correspondence

What you will get from the role:

• Exposure to some of the most fascinating, challenging and rewarding investigations in the UK
• A chance to work with colleagues from across EMO and other parts of the FCA
• Satisfying, worthwhile and responsible work with the opportunity to use your skills in complex situations
• Working in a high-energy and stimulating Division, within a supportive environment with exposure to a range of senior internal and external stakeholders
• The opportunity to help develop junior colleagues and positively contribute to the development of their caree

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Demonstrable significant experience working on complex investigations involving fraud/financial crime litigation within a criminal, civil or regulatory environment
• Experience of working collaboratively and communicating effectively with colleagues and motivating and assisting more junior colleagues, as well as having the ability to work independently and take responsibility for delivering against deadlines and managing operational risks
• Experience of analysing large amounts of information, drawing out key findings and producing formal written reports including making recommendation