As a Senior Financial Crime Investigator, you will play a critical role in protecting the organisation and its customers from fraud and financial crime risks. Acting as a subject matter expert in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and fraud prevention, you will lead complex investigations, provide specialist guidance, and act as a key escalation point for Financial Crime Investigators and wider business stakeholders. The role will also involve taking escalation calls ensuring they are dealt with in a competent and timely manner.
You will be responsible for investigating transaction monitoring alerts, suspicious activity referrals, and high-risk customer cases across a range of retail and corporate products. This includes conducting detailed Customer Due Diligence (CDD), Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), and Know Your Customer (KYC) assessments, analysing transactional behaviour, and identifying potential financial crime risks. A core part of the role involves producing high-quality rationale and ensuring decisions are accurate, consistent, and compliant with regulatory requirements.
You will also prepare and quality check Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), including Defence Against Money Laundering (DAML) submissions, and manage ongoing stakeholder communication during investigations. In addition, you will review sanctions and Politically Exposed Person (PEP) screening escalations, as well as payment filtering alerts, ensuring appropriate escalation to senior management or second-line risk where required.
Working closely with Financial Crime Operations leadership and second-line teams, you will help strengthen controls, identify emerging trends, and contribute to system and process improvements. You will play an active role in quality assurance activities, coaching colleagues, and sharing best practice to drive high performance and consistency across the team.
Alongside investigative responsibilities, you will support the delivery of management information (MI), contribute to risk and control self-assessment (RCSA) processes, and ensure adherence to regulatory and internal policy standards. You will also collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders, including operational teams and relationship managers, to support effective customer outcomes.
This role offers the opportunity to combine technical expertise with leadership and stakeholder engagement, contributing to a robust financial crime framework while enhancing the overall customer experience.
We are happy to consider flexible working approaches to help you perform at your best.
At Nationwide, we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK-wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.
For this job, you'll be assigned to our nearest regional hub. There will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration events in one of our office sites. This is anticipated to be weekly in Gosforth. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works.
Virgin Money is now part of Nationwide
Nationwide acquired Virgin Money in October 2024. Virgin Money continues to serve customers on the high street, and there will be a phased and considered integration over the coming years.
You’ll be employed by Nationwide from day one, delivering real impact and benefitting from a highly competitive range of benefits. We’re a workplace where you’re rewarded, recognised and celebrated.
Nationwide is committed to the redeployment of our employees impacted by change, as such applications for redeployment candidates will be prioritised in this recruitment process.
If you’re a colleague on long-term absence (for example, on parental leave) or a temporary worker, please use your personal email address to submit an application.
Responsibilities
What you’ll be doing
In this role, you will spend your day reviewing customer activity and investigating alerts to identify any signs of fraud or suspicious behaviour. You will gather and assess information, make decisions on customer risk, and document your findings clearly and accurately.
You will also support colleagues by answering queries, reviewing their work, and providing guidance on more complex cases. Alongside this, you will work with different teams across the business to ensure issues are resolved quickly and processes continue to improve.
About you
You must have:
Proven experience working in a financial crime, anti-money laundering, or fraud investigation role within a regulated financial services environment.
Experience investigating alerts such as transaction monitoring, customer screening, or suspicious activity, with the ability to independently assess risk and make sound decisions.
Telephony experience to take escalation calls
Hands-on experience completing customer due diligence and enhanced due diligence, including analysing customer profiles, transaction activity, and source of funds or wealth.
Experience preparing or reviewing Suspicious Activity Reports and can clearly document detailed, evidence-based rationales.
Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret complex data and draw clear, accurate conclusions.
- Excellent communication skills being able to deal with a range of stakeholders and can explain complex issues clearly, both verbally and in writing.
- Ability to manage your own workload effectively, prioritising tasks and working autonomously while supporting and guiding more junior colleagues when needed.
Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:
- Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind
- Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand
- Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development
- Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes
You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.
Qualifications
The extras you’ll get
There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:
25 days holiday, pro rata
Access to private medical insurance
A highly competitive pension to help you build a strong foundation for retirement
Access to an annual performance-related bonus
Training and development to help you progress your career
A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
Life assurance to provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones in the event of your death
Wellhub – access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness
Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society
We forge our own path at Nationwide.
As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.
If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us.
At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community, we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society.
We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.
What to do next
If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.
We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.
The hiring manager for this role is Steve Martin and the main recruitment contact is Sameena Rehman.
Contact Details:
Nationwide Building Society Recruitment Team
