Group Financial Crime Manager

EMPOWERING PEOPLE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

At Howden, we employ talented individuals and empower them to make a real difference to the company, whilst building successful and fulfilling careers.

The entrepreneurial atmosphere is one of the biggest reason people love to work for us. We are a leading independent, global insurance brokers but have a noticeably flat hierarchy. It doesn’t matter how junior or senior, anyone with a good idea will be heard. This means our employees can shape their own career paths and determine their own success.

This atmosphere attracts the brightest talent in the market. If that includes you, get in touch.

A LEADING GLOBAL INDEPENDENT BROKER

Howden is a specialist commercial insurance broker. Its regional footprint covers Singapore (regional headquarters), Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines. It is part of the London-headquartered Howden Broking Group, a leading independent, global broker with offices in over 40 countries worldwide.

The job holder is responsible for supporting the Group Head of Financial Crime in providing Subject Matter Expert (SME) support for all financial crime subjects (ABC, AML, Fraud and Economic Sanctions) to the group’s entities around the world. This also includes oversight and implementation of Group financial crime policies which ensure compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements. The job holder will join an international team acting as a local business partner in the Asia region.

YOUR ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

1.Strategy and Planning:

• Act as a business partner providing support and advice to regional and local management teams to deliver the Group’s strategy and minimum standards for sanctions and financial crime, as set out in the Group’s principles for business.
• Support the Group Head of Financial Crime in preparing materials for divisional and Group level governance, including the annual financial crime plan and quarterly updates against planned activities.
• Deliver high quality advice to the business in a practical and commercially focused way in relation to financial crime and money laundering and all relevant matters that reduce risk, resolve issues and maximise the opportunity for the Local Entity to deliver on its goals
• Analyse and interpret issues in a timely fashion and advise the business how best to take account of them in its operations

2.People Management/Personal Development:

• Actively undertake personal development to ensure up to date knowledge and understanding of best practice
• Manage personal workload proactively and support both the central Financial Crime team and key stakeholders in the business in meeting agreed deadlines
• Encourage essential behaviours and maintain a high level of personal and professional confidence

3.Policy, Process and Procedures:

• Act as business partner to regional and local management delivering and advising on Groupwide initiatives
• Assist in collating MI on the design and delivery of Groupwide initiatives to report progress to the Group’s risk committee
• Support the preparation and annual review cycle of Groupwide policies related to Financial Crime
• Perform second line led assessments of financial crime arrangements at a local and regional level, including preparing recommendations for improvement where appropriate
• Assist local management in addressing financial crime related second line of defence or third line of defence findings
• Support internal record-keeping and filing internal and external reports where appropriate/necessary
• Receive and evaluate internal reports of suspicious transactions or financial crime related alerts and, where necessary, to make the required internal notifications to senior management and make external reports to the National Crime Agency (NCA) or other relevant bodies

4.Environment, Customer Focus and Relationships:

• Build and maintain close links with peers, key internal and external stakeholders, working with the business and other functions to share information, identify risks and deliver business growth
• Liaise with external auditors as required
• Solicit advice and guidance, when appropriate, from the Board or external sources (e.g. legal advice)
• Share information that could be beneficial to Local Entities, Regions or Group
• Remain aware of external, industry, legal and regulatory developments etc. to ensure practices and outputs are of a sufficiently high standard
• Conduct regular external analysis and attend external forums etc. to remain aware of industry developments and ensure practices and outputs are in line with best practice

5.Technical:

• Manage assigned projects and contribute to other projects as required
• Respond appropriately to urgent issues as they arise
• Support the Group head of Financial Crime in identifying trends and Group requirements for financial crime advice and guidance
• Review internal controls and ensure they are adequate, implementing improvements as required
• Contribute to action plans and defining controls for identified risks and bring the business on board to any changes being implemented
• Support in preparing reports to the Audit and Board/Exec Committees, collating information, interpreting findings and providing detailed analysis where necessary
• Ensure transactional activity and corporate actions are processed in a timely and accurate manner
• Management, delivery and oversight of the group’s financial crime training for management and staff in order to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, including bespoke training for higher risk areas/countries
• Undertake and regularly refresh a group wide risk assessment on financial crime
• The production, distribution, assessment, review of (and thereafter oversight that the group entities are acting on accordance with) policies in relation to Financial crime to ensure that the groups systems and controls are in full compliance with regulatory requirements

OUR IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL BE:

• Minimum 6 years experience in similar roles either in practice or in industry
• An excellent understanding of UK AML regulations and the knowledge and understanding of how to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR)
• Expertise in assessing money-laundering risk
• Track record of promoting risk management, compliance and good corporate governance
• Managerial experience preferable
• Track record of delivery results both in routine and project mode, and managing priorities to meet deadlines
• Ability to deliver and understand complex management information
• Proven leadership skills with demonstrable evidence of creating and leading in a high performance working culture

YOUR BENEFITS AND SALARY:

• Commensurate with qualification and experience
• Working in a collaborative environment with excellent learning opportunities

If you think we are the right fit for you and you are the talent we should be grooming, please send in your CV (include notice period, last drawn salary, any AWS entitlement) to impress us. We will call you for an interview.