Screening Analyst

National Bank of Bahrain; Capital Governorate; On-site; BHD 100,000 - 134,000; Full time

Job summary

National Bank of Bahrain is seeking a KYC/AML specialist to perform onboarding and periodic reviews for existing customers. The role acts as the first line of defense against money laundering, terrorist financing, and related illicit activities, ensuring compliance with CBB requirements.

The candidate will conduct reviews of alerts, document decisions, maintain case files, and escalate potential issues to the Group Head of Money Transfer & Financial Crime Compliance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Commerce, or in any other subject or equivalent is required.
• Professional qualification is preferred, i.e., ACAMS/ICA.
• Minimum 1-2 years of practical experience in a bank or same or similar function.

Responsibilities

• Conduct reviews of alerts generated by the automated transaction filtering. Document review steps performed and the rationale for decisions reached.
• Ensure alerts are actioned within SLA/TAT.
• Determine if alerts are true/false-positive, escalate sanctions issues or suspicious activity as needed.
• Create, update and maintain case files documenting information used in reviews and KYC activities.
• Respond to and remediate issues identified by QA or audit teams.
• Perform thorough assessment on new and existing customers to verify identities and assess risk profiles per CBB requirements.
• Monitor customer transactions for suspicious patterns and report via UAR when needed.
• Ensure compliance with banking laws, regulations, and internal policies related to KYC, AML and CDD/EDD.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Commerce, or in any other subject or equivalent

Job description

The role holder is responsible for conducting screening, customer due diligence/enhance due diligence (KYC) at the stage of onboarding customers and the time of periodic review for existing bank customers. The role holder is primarily required to act as first line of defense to mitigate potential risk associated with money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and other illicit activities.

Core Responsibilities

• Conduct reviews of alerts generated by the automated transaction filtering. Document review steps performed and the rationale for decisions reached.
• Ensure that the triggered alerts are actioned within stipulated SLA (Service Level Agreement) / TAT (Turn-around-time).
• Determine if the transaction alert(s) are true or false-positive, potential matches; conduct additional review when necessary; clearly and thoroughly document all decisions and findings with supporting rationale. Escalate potential sanctions issues or suspicious activity to Group Head of Money Transfer & Financial Crime Compliance.
• Create, update, and maintain case files documenting relevant information used in the review/conducting KYC any other assigned activity.
• Respond and remediate issues identified by the Quality Assurance or audit teams.
• Perform thorough assessment on new and existing customers, to verify their identities and asses their risk profiles. Collect, review and analyze relevant documentation such as identification documents, financial statements/ bank statements/ income documents, licenses and ownership structure to ensure that the identification and verification requirements of the CBB are satisfied and met.
• Perform Standard Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (EDD) on current, new and/or potential customers as assigned by the KYC Specialist. CDD is applicable for low/medium risk customers while EDD for high-risk customers.
• Monitor customer transactions and activities for any suspicious patterns or red flags that may indicate money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, or other illicit activities when conducting the KYC at the stage of onboarding customers and the time of periodic review for existing to Bank relationships. Promptly report any suspicious activities to the bank's designated team through raising unusual activity reports (UAR).
• Ensure compliance with applicable banking laws, regulations, and internal policies related to customer due diligence. Stay updated on changes in regulatory requirements and guidelines to ensure the bank's processes align with the latest standards, and the regulatory mandate include AML, Sanctions and Customer Due Diligence.
• Ensure compliance with recordkeeping requirements, data privacy regulations, and internal policies regarding document retention.
• Solve problems and investigate/resolve a wide variety of issues and requests that include gathering additional information, setting expectations, and working with other intra or inter department stakeholders to fulfil the requests.
• Proactive outreach to customers that fail KYC to encourage/assist them with the completion of the renewal process and manages unsatisfied customers, which may occur when raising KYC questions, in a professional manner.
• Attend KYC/Anti Money Laundering (AML)/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) training sessions/courses as assigned.

Governance-Related Responsibilities

• Assist with clean-up efforts to remediate key data where required.
• Assist with account closure activity of uncooperative customers undertaken by compliance/business units.
• Maintain confidentiality and observe data protection and associated guidelines where appropriate.
• Ensure that logs for different activities undertaken within the Department are recorded and kept ready for management as and when requested.
• Adhere to internal / external regulations to avoid any reputational risks and operational losses.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Commerce, or in any other subject or equivalent is required.
• Professional qualification is preferred, i.e., ACAMS/ICA.
• Minimum 1-2 years of practical experience in a bank or same or similar function.