Head of Financial Crime in London

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The UK financial crime program is being built now, and it has to stand up to the FCA. This role sits in Compliance, reports to the US BSA/AML Officer, and owns the UK framework end to end — AML/CTF, sanctions, fraud, ABC, KYC/CDD/EDD, transaction monitoring, SARs, and the operating rhythm. You will still work the hard cases. It is a builder seat with accountability, not a queue job with “strategy” in the title. If you have eight or more years inside an FCA-regulated bank, EMI, PI, or payments firm, have owned or rebuilt a financial crime control framework, and can still open a file, this is the seat. You will build the UK program from the ground up, setting the standards the team and the FCA will use. This is consumer-scale payments financial crime work – not a private-banking book – and you’ll sit directly with Product and Engineering. You’ll operate in a small team with a direct line to the US BSA/AML Officer, where scope is broad and process is lean. The measure of success is a program that still works a year later, and the role sits alongside MLRO / SMF17-adjacent duties for the UK entity.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design and run the UK financial crime programme: policy, procedures, CDD/EDD, risk rating, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, SAR handling, escalation, QA, and training.
• Turn MLR 2017, POCA, the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act, JMLSG, the FCA Financial Crime Guide, SYSC 6.3, and payments/EMI expectations into something operations and product can run.
• Own the UK business-wide risk assessment and keep it honest as the product, customer mix, and channels change.
• Handle complex cases — PEPs, adverse media, sanctions hits, high-risk onboarding, fraud typologies, escalations — then use the queue to fix the framework.
• Stand up first- and second-line controls: documentation, workflows, vendor oversight, quality sampling, MI, and issue management.
• Put UK requirements into the customer journey with Legal, Operations, Product, and Engineering. Be the UK voice in global design decisions.
• Report on quality, residual risk, throughput, and control health, and prepare the program for internal audit, skilled-person reviews, and FCA scrutiny.
• Build the operating model as the team grows. Hire, coach, and set the standard.
• Support MLRO / SMF17-adjacent duties as the UK permissions model requires.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• 8+ years of hands-on experience with financial crime in a regulated UK firm (bank, EMI, PI, payments, or e-money), including substantial KYC/CDD/EDD.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• You will still do the cases, close gaps in a small team, do not wait for a 30-page RACI.
• You know the UK regime well enough to argue a point — MLR 2017, JMLSG, POCA, UK sanctions, FCA expectations — and how it lands in a payments product.
• You have designed or rebuilt a framework, procedure, or control, not only cleared files or written a policy nobody ran.
• You have led people or a workstream. You can defend a risk decision and explain it to the Product without jargon.
• EU financial crime experience.
• Experience with the EU AML package, 6AMLD, EBA guidelines, national transposition, or an EU FIU/regulator, especially on cross-border payments, wallets, or EMI/PI products (useful because X Money will not stay inside one perimeter).

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• In-office five days a week; occasional work-from-home when needed.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

• Competitive base + equity.
• UK private medical covering GPs and specialists; pension; life insurance.
• 25 days’ paid time off; lunch and dinner allowance.

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