Assistant Manager

Bachelor of Business Administration (Management)

Nationality: Any Nationality

Vacancy: 1 Vacancy

Job Description

Responsibilities:

• Ensure compliance with applicable sanctions laws and regulations as well as applicable sanctions international lists. Provide the Head of Compliance with assurance that controls required under sanctions regulations are embedded within the Bank's processes to avoid any sanctions breach and/or establishing relationship with a sanction listed party.
• Responsible for advising on a wide range of international trade, regulations, economic sanctions and other compliance-related issues. Good knowledge of EU, UK and international law and regulations.
• Manage external communication with correspondent banks to ensure timely responses are provided.
• Escalate sanctions-related cases to the Head of Compliance to ensure awareness and report to CB where necessary.
• Review and investigate all breaches, discrepancies and irregular activities, and recommend corrective actions to ensure compliance with the Bank's Sanctions policies/procedures and mitigation of identified risks for the bank.
• Support the effective management of key compliance systems used by the team to conduct customer and transaction sanctions screening.
• Define and ensure integrity of all Sanctions Lists for payment and onboarding systems to ensure the bank is not exposed to any risk of dealing with a sanctioned person and/or entity.
• Supervise the handling of sanctions alerts process based on the Management Information (MI) reports. Prepare periodic Sanctions reports to provide the Bank's senior management with an update on the operations and effectiveness of the Sanctions function.
• Manage sanctions-related entries in the internal watch lists used for customer and transaction screening.
• Assess the effectiveness of the parameters set up in the systems for sanctions screening and the percentage for matching dependent on the type of screening conducted.
• Ensure the right level of governance around the implementation of sanctions lists. Define a change management process to ensure there is sufficient governance and oversight of changes.
• Ensure that all transactions are subject to sanctions screening.
• Assess on a periodic basis the customer screening procedures at the time of onboarding as well as the ongoing screening of the Bank's customer base.
• Manage the implementation of new Sanctions systems including designing and developing rules that are fit-for-purpose and define system requirements, parameters, scenarios, logic and underlying rules.
• Stay abreast of new sanctions regulations and communicate all relevant changes to the business lines. Conduct bank-wide sanctions training on relevant sanctions regulations.
• Provide guidance and training to sanctions investigation analysts and relevant staff on implementation of sanctions regulations, policies and procedures.
• Liaise with legal and external counsel on sanctions matters that arise when required.
• Provide updates to the wider AML/CFT and Sanctions team on current events or regulatory changes.
• Ensure the Sanctions-related policies and procedures remain updated and communicated as required to all stakeholders.
• Implementation of a Sanctions escalation matrix, in order to ensure that all approvals, exemptions to the policy and requests for information (RFIs) are addressed in a timely manner.
• Support the team by reviewing transactions or Requests for Information (RFIs) from Correspondent Banks when the volume is higher than the average or when there are staffing constraints that would limit the team’s capacity.
• Provide guidance to the Sanctions Senior Officers on their investigations.
• Supervise the Quality Assurance process to review closed alerts and cases on a sample basis.
• Review Sanctions-related training materials (i.e. e-learnings and face-to-face) and participate in the delivery of face-to-face trainings.
• Log and escalate all Sanctions breaches or potential breaches.
• Manage the available resources efficiently and prioritize system enhancement/upgrades.

Desired Candidate Profile:

• Bachelor's Degree as a minimum from a recognized university.
• CAMS or ICA or CFCS or CRCMP is mandated.
• At least 12+ years of experience in the banking/financial services sector (including four years in a sanctions compliance role).
• AML/CFT, Sanctions, Training, Rule Management, Written Communication, Regulatory Relationship, Quality Control Analysis, Critical Thinking, Judgment and Decision Making, Complex Problem Solving, Social Perceptiveness.
• Familiar with OFAC, EU, UN, UAE and OFSI sanctions regime.