BVNK is hiring a

Web3 Head of Financial Crime Intelligence

About us:

BVNK is a next-generation payments platform for global businesses. We bridge the gap between traditional and digital finance to make payments borderless, instant, and secure. Using the BVNK platform, businesses can send and receive payments on all major schemes and blockchain networks, incorporate stablecoins into their payment flows, and settle funds in over 30 markets.

We are a diverse team spread across the UK, Europe, and South Africa, with a shared belief that in the next five years all payment flows will interact with crypto, and BVNK will be at the forefront of this shift. We recently raised 40m in series A funding, and we’re looking for smart, ambitious people to help us build the next generation of payments.

About this role in the team:

As the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence, you’ll be reporting to the VP for Risk and Compliance & Global MLRO (linkedin.com/in/martarequeijo). You’ll be responsible for:

• managing the transaction monitoring team, located in Bulgaria, reviewing escalations relating to Money Laundering (AML) and Terrorist Financing (TF), and the subsequent completion and coordination of complex financial crime investigations.
• the relationship with banking partner’s compliance teams, ensuring an open and transparent communication, and timely responses to RFIs.
• undertaking research and analysis to assist in determining whether circumstances fall within defined criteria, particularly the threshold for statutory reporting, and must be able to formulate and communicate the result of these enquiries, both verbally and in writing, to peers not only within the 2nd line, but also senior management and business risk owners, where applicable. A core outcome of these investigations is to make recommendations in line with the relevant impacted countries’ regulatory reporting obligations for SAR/STRs to the MLRO/Nominated Officer to review and approve.

We are looking for a team player; someone who is adaptable and enjoys solving complex problems in a constantly changing environment. You must be able to think strategically, prioritise appropriately, manage numerous concurring priorities, and work well under stress. You will be comfortable managing senior stakeholders and drafting papers for senior audiences, namely senior management and regulators. You would have managed a team and are passionate about building a team who share our values, and perform to our high standards.

Your key stakeholders are the Chief Legal, Risk, Compliance Officer, the Head of FCC, the Head of Compliance Operations, and the Anti-FCC Architecture and Intelligence, which owns and manages all AML/CTF tools and scenarios, rules and parameters, including calibration and optimisation.

Key Areas of Responsibilities:

As the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence your key accountabilities include but are not limited to;

• Developing industry leading financial crime policies and procedures, ensuring the implementation of adequate and effective systems and controls, in compliance with local legislative and regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions the Group operates.
• Working closely with the senior members of the LRC team and local MLROs to build a best in class investigation team.
• Providing senior management and Board with timely updates on financial crime risks.
• Performing ad-hoc investigative tasks assigned by senior management.
• Providing regular key risk indicators (KRIs) reporting.
• Providing bespoke training to FCC-related staff and senior management to raise awareness on financial crime risks.

Transaction Monitoring (all fiat currencies, including digital assets), Law Enforcement Inquiries and Suspicious Activity Reporting

• Responsible for managing the transaction monitoring team, and for timely and accurately responding to banking partners’ requests for information, and for regularly liaising with the compliance teams to provide clarifications and supporting documentation.
• Managing multiple investigations and prioritising work accordingly.
• Conducting and supporting proactive intelligence-led financial crime investigations and exposure assessments.
• Conducting and supporting reactive investigations into a broad range of financial crime-related activities that can be referred to the team internally or by external parties.
• Collating, analysing and visualising both structured and unstructured data from various sources with a view to discovering key information and converting it into actionable intelligence.
• Responsible for the relationship with:
• Banking Partner’s compliance teams, ensuring an open and transparent communication, and timely responses to RFIs.
• Law Enforcement, Financial Intelligence Units and Public, Private Partnerships which BVNK participates in, ensuring BVNK is up to date with new financial crime intelligence, and regulatory changes.
• Advising the relevant teams on risks which are identified or apparent from the investigations, including suggesting new rules and scenarios, automation initiatives, and fine tuning to increase monitoring efficiency.
• Determining whether or not internal suspicious activity reports (SARs) have substance and require disclosure to the relevant authorities.
• Assessing external SAR filing obligations in all jurisdictions BVNK operates, and preparing SARs and other intelligence reports for review.
• Assisting with information and intelligence sharing to internal stakeholders and external partners and encouraging closer working relationships between the relevant parties.
• Preparing customer relationship exit or mitigation of risks proposals for senior management and Board, where applicable.
• Developing capacity models to determine the required resources to keep up with expected growth.

What we need from you:

• Must have proven experience working in a relevant financial crime position within law enforcement or a financial institution, with vast exposure to correspondent banking risks.
• Must have extensive experience of complex and multi-jurisdiction financial crime investigations to conclusion.
• Must have knowledge of the regulatory and legislative requirements for the relevant financial crime disciplines including AML/CTF, sanctions, ABC and Tax Evasion, with special focus on the UK SARs regime.
• Should have vast experience managing teams.
• Relevant financial crime investigations’ qualifications, such as the NCA Financial Investigator, is desired.
• Experience as a member of public private partnerships, such as the UK Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce, is desired.
• Experience with financial crime risks associated to cryptoassets, is desired.
• Should be comfortable working with a high degree of autonomy and managing evolving priorities to deliver against the team's strategy.
• Should be an inquisitive person with an investigative attitude, who is willing to learn.
• Should possess proven analytical skills and ability to undertake research and come to appropriate conclusions and present complex findings.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, evolving and demanding environment, often with competing priorities.
• Ability to work effectively within a team, cross functionally, as well as independently.
• Experience managing very senior stakeholders.

What you can expect from us:

• Fair and competitive salary at every stage of your growth
• Meaningful ownership in the business through our employee option scheme
• Flexible working hours, with hybrid working at its heart
• A culture built on passionate growth minded people
• A flexible approach to holiday
• Opportunities to travel to our offices around the world, in locations such as London and Cape Town, to collaborate with your colleagues
• An open and creative environment where you can help us define the future of BVNK, it’s culture, and it’s opportunity sets

At BVNK, we are focused on building a diverse and inclusive team. While you may not meet all of our requirements, we’d encourage you to apply if you meet the majority of our expectations. You may be a great fit for this role or another role in our team.

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