Head of Advisory (Anti Financial Crime) (F/M/X)

Role & Responsibilities:

The Head of Financial Crime Advisory will be leading the BL AFC team within 2LoD consisting of 7 AFC compliance officers covering broad range of tasks, such as high-risk account openings, periodic reviews, ABC, Fraud. 

• Leading Business Line AFC (BLAFC) team for the Private Bank in Switzerland and representing BLAFC in senior governance forums where required
• Acting as point of contact for all Business Line AFC queries related to the Private Bank in Switzerland, and supporting regional/global AFC teams on complex, cross-jurisdiction investigations/cases where needed
• Supporting the AFC & Compliance Management team as well as Executive Board Members in Switzerland on complex financial crime risk matters 
• Sustaining strong Business as Usual performance, providing effective second-line oversight and independent challenge to 1st Line of Defense stakeholders across onboarding, lifecycle and transaction activity
• Ensuring prompt identification, escalation and management of financial crime risks and issues locally and, where required, at Group level, including policy breaches, risk appetite concerns, dispensations and emerging risk themes
• Overseeing end-to-end KYC lifecycle governance for new and existing HR clients, including the review and challenge of onboarding and periodic KYC reviews to ensure completeness, accuracy, timeliness and risk alignment
• Overseeing escalations for high-risk clients, structures and activities (e.g., heightened risk jurisdictions, complex SoW/SoF, adverse information), ensuring robust documentation, clear decisioning and remediation follow-up
• Acting as the BLAFC representative for projects requiring AFC risk assessments, including New Product Approval (NPA) and New Transaction Approval (NTA), and operating independently as SME from end-to-end
• Reviewing, challenging and deciding on exception requests, ensuring appropriate compensating controls, clear rationale, and full documentation of AFC decisions with communication back to 1LoD
• Recommending and overseeing client exits for Financial Crime Risk, assessing legal/contractual constraints, ensuring appropriate internal reporting and relevant internal list/watchlist actions where applicable
• Supporting Operations/IT teams for UAT activities and other change initiatives from a SME perspective, ensuring AFC requirements are correctly translated into processes, controls and systems
• Leading the AFC training and awareness plan for the business line, in coordination with the Financial Crime Education/Training team and relevant stakeholders
• Managing audit and regulatory readiness for the business line, including preparation of evidence packs, walkthroughs and control narratives, and supporting responses to internal/external audit and regulatory reviews

Background & experience:

• Degree in Business Administration or Law. Any AML relevant certification and training will be a plus. 
• At least 7 years of experience in the Swiss Banking industry out of which at least 3 years of experience leading a team.
• Relevant know how and experience in Anti Financial Crime, Anti Money Laundering, CDB, tax compliance etc. 
• Strong knowledge of national and international regulations and guidance related to AML (such as FATF, Wolfsberg)
• Excellent data and analytical skills combined with the ability to interpret and draw conclusions from big data sets
• Experience working with control functions, policy teams, and external regulatory frameworks and bodies in the financial sector
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal along with stakeholder management skills as well as demonstrated ability to influence across local globally dispersed teams
• Fluent knowledge of English (spoken and written); German would be an advantage

Profile & skills:

• Robust, credible and organizationally savvy, with an ability to grasp complex issues quickly
• A strategic thinker and be capable of delivering a large change programme whilst also managing an important, growing client-facing 'run the bank' service
• A very good communicator with a ‘can do’ attitude
• Autonomous and able to manage projects and deliverables to completion
• A problem solver with good technical skills