Assistant Vice President, Sanctions Programs - Payment Project - 6 Month FTC

MUFG Americas; Greater London; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A global financial institution in Greater London is seeking a professional to join the Sanctions Advisory team. The role involves supporting compliance with sanctions and payment regulations, delivering system changes for financial crime compliance, and through collaboration on various projects. Ideal candidates will have at least 2 years' experience in sanctions functions and project management. Strong communication and risk management skills are essential, as is the ability to manage multiple stakeholders effectively.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years in a central sanctions function.
• Strong knowledge of banking and financial crime controls.
• Minimum 2 years' experience in project management.

Responsibilities

• Support compliance with sanctions and payment regulations.
• Deliver changes to systems and controls for financial crime compliance.
• Collaborate with teams for system updates and process improvements.

Skills

Attention to detail

Project management

Risk management

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Education

Degree

Relevant Qualification

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Introduction

Do you want your voice heard and your actions to count?

Discover your opportunity with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups. Across the globe, we’re 150,000 colleagues, striving to make a difference for every client, organization, and community we serve. We stand for our values, building long‑term relationships, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.

With a vision to be the world’s most trusted financial group, it’s part of our culture to put people first, listen to new and diverse ideas and collaborate toward greater innovation, speed and agility. This means investing in talent, technologies, and tools that empower you to own your career.

Join MUFG, where being inspired is expected and making a meaningful impact is rewarded.

OVERVIEW OF THE DEPARTMENT/SECTION

We are MUFG. 360 years of heritage. A world‑class set of businesses. And more than 180,000 employees in 50 markets. It’s no surprise that MUFG has grown to become one of the top five banks in the world. Our services include commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing. MUFG offers stability in an ever‑changing market, providing services to high‑profile clients worldwide.

Our vision? To become the world’s most trusted financial group. You’ll help us achieve it.

The Financial Crimes Office for EMEA (FCOE) in London is part of the Global Financial Crimes Division (GFCD) headquartered in New York. It works to ensure that our organisation conducts its business such that we protect our reputation, our business, and our clients within the regulatory and legal framework. It is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of effective systems and controls to protect clients’ assets and to mitigate the risk that MUFG might be used to further financial crime.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

Within the Sanctions team of FCOE, the Sanctions Advisory team is responsible for providing sanctions advise on the relevant regulations, client relationships, transactions and deals; to ensure that the bank remains compliant with laws and regulations. Whilst all members of Sanctions Advisory are responsible for all aspects of sanctions compliance, this particular team is predominantly focused on payment and transaction escalations as well as payment projects. In support of this they provide oversight, SME knowledge and support to other Sanctions Teams and the delivery of key projects.

This includes:

• Driving the implementation of MUFG Bank’s financial crimes risk appetite, policies and standards through working with Transformation and Technology partners, Country Compliance teams, Operations and Business stakeholders.
• Ensuring that our organisation conducts its business such that we protect our reputation, our business, and our customers within the regulatory and legal framework.

As part of a leading global financial group, MUFG is required to act with integrity and meet our corporate responsibilities in the fifty‑plus countries and regions where we operate. Ensuring we have a comprehensive financial crime compliance program is one of our most important responsibilities.

MUFG has established the Global Financial Crimes Division in New York, USA to lead the program and each region under this program has a Financial Crimes Office.

Financial Crimes Office EMEA (FCOE) is the regional office responsible for the establishment and maintenance of effective systems and controls to protect customers’ assets and to mitigate the risk that MUFG might be used to further financial crime in EMEA. MUFG’s financial crime compliance framework includes control processes designed to help the Bank detect, deter, and prevent financial crime as well as assess and mitigate related risks (i.e., money laundering and terrorist financing risk, sanctions risk, and bribery and corruption risk) in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws, rules, regulations, supervisory guidance, and commensurate with the Bank’s risk profile and risk appetite.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

In this role, you will support the effective and timely delivery of changes that are required to enable continued compliance with sanctions and new payment regulations. This will be achieved through the timely delivery of an ambitious project which will require changes to payment and sanctions controls/systems. The evolution of the SEPA scheme will offer customers the option to settle payments in 10 seconds or less, 24 hours per day, seven day per week, 365 days per year. This development is a top priority and has high visibility across the EU and broader Eurozone. You will be supporting MUFG to deliver the process and system changes required to achieve this key regulatory commitment across EMEA. You will work with the Sanctions teams, MUFG EMEA branches, payment operations teams, and other project teams to ensure that this project delivers appropriate changes to financial crime controls, whilst considering key dependencies with other payment and sanction projects.

• Provide subject matter expertise on economic sanctions, and the related controls, in particular HMT, EU, and OFAC.
• Seeking to identify actions / tasks in order to implement improvements to relevant financial crime procedures or processes.
• Being responsible for ensuring that actions are delivered in a timely manner
• Collaborating and communicating with various teams and key stakeholders across the Bank.
• Working with the Sanctions Team and other action owners on the implementation of new controls and uplifts in procedures or processes.
• Supporting the delivery of payment‑related projects, on behalf of Sanctions
• Assisting action owners in developing and delivering more detailed plans, in consultation with the appropriate stakeholders
• Providing the necessary status updates and reporting to Regional Sanctions leadership team consistent with agreed timelines
• Managing and escalating Risks and Issues
• Conducting continuous regulatory horizon scanning for changes in sanctions and payment regulations and guidance.
• Assess MUFG’s sanctions control framework against applicable regulations and guidance to identify areas for potential improvement or enhancement that may become requirements to be delivered through the project.
• Participate in MUFG and industry working groups to ensure that MUFG remains aligned with the latest industry developments and its peers
• Engage with senior stakeholders in local, regional, and global teams.
• Support other components of the sanctions team as appropriate.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Essential:

• A minimum of 2 years in a central sanctions function
• A strong knowledge of banking and associated systems and controls for financial crime
• A minimum of 2 years’ experience in project management
• Previous experience in delivering both business change and system related projects on behalf of the business

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Functional / Technical Competencies: Core

• Manages priorities effectively and delivers efficiently
• Demonstrates strong attention to detail
• A good understanding of the concepts of risk management and control
• A good understanding of Banking and Investment products
• Broad understanding of financial crime risk (Sanctions, AML and ABC)
• Proactively identifies and communicates improvements to process
• Planning
• Project delivery
• Risk and issue management
• Presenting to senior management
• Powerpoint creation

Preferred

• AML or Sanctions process knowledge
• Project management
• Experience of interacting with stakeholders at a senior level
• Strong understanding of sanctions systems and controls
• Strong relationship building and management skills
• Experience with payments or payment related projects

Education / Qualifications

Preferred:

• Degree
• Relevant Qualification
• Project related qualifications

PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Results driven, with a strong sense of accountability
• A proactive, motivated approach.
• The ability to operate with urgency and prioritise work accordingly
• Strong decision‑making skills, the ability to demonstrate sound judgement
• A structured and logical approach to work
• Strong problem‑solving skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• The ability to manage large workloads and tight deadlines
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy
• A calm approach, with the ability to perform well in a pressurised environment
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills

PERFORMANCE AND DUTIES

The role holder will be assessed in accordance with their employing entity’s performance framework and process with relevant input obtained from the dual hatting entity as relevant.

As duties and responsibilities change, the job description will be reviewed and emended in consultation with the role holder. The role holder will carry out other duties as are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the role as requested by their line manager or Department Head.

MANAGING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

• The role holder will have responsibilities for both MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc.
• The role holder will be required to perform their duties and responsibilities on an entity neutral basis, without favour.
• The role holder is required to follow regulatory requirements applicable to ensure each business is appropriately supported and to maintain the legal entity integrity of each of MUFG Bank and MUS.
• Working terms are dictated by functional mandates, the terms of the Dual‑Hat Arrangement Agreement in place between MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc and any other relevant agreements entered into between MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc.
• The role holder will have responsibility for identifying and resolving where there may be a difference or conflict in needs between MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc, escalating to their manager where required.

We are open to considering flexible working requests in line with organisational requirements.

MUFG is committed to embracing diversity and building an inclusive culture where all employees are valued, respected and their opinions count. We support the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion in recruitment and employment, and oppose all forms of discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief and marriage or civil partnership. We make our recruitment decisions in a non‑discriminatory manner in accordance with our commitment to identifying the right skills for the right role and our obligations under the law.