Anti-Financial Crime & Onboarding Manager – 6 Month FTC

UK-regulated challenger bank is seeking an experienced Anti-Financial Crime & Onboarding Manager to join its SME Lending function on a 6-month maternity cover FTC, offering a salary of up to £70,000pa with a hybrid working arrangement (2-3 days per week in the office).

The role sits within the bank’s SME Lending business, supporting the delivery of robust first-line Anti-Financial Crime controls across customer onboarding and ongoing customer lifecycle management.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced AML/KYC professional who enjoys working closely with frontline teams, improving processes, and acting as a subject matter expert across financial crime risk.

The Role

As the Anti-Financial Crime & Onboarding Manager, you will act as a key point of expertise for the frontline team, ensuring customer due diligence activities are completed to a high standard and in line with regulatory expectations.

You will support the ongoing development of AML/KYC processes, provide guidance on complex onboarding matters, and work closely with internal stakeholders across Risk, Lending, Operations and Financial Crime.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee and support AML/KYC reviews for new and existing SME customers, ensuring compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements.
• Review customer documentation, including identification, proof of address, source of funds and source of wealth information.
• Provide guidance and quality assurance oversight to frontline onboarding teams.
• Support investigations arising from screening and transaction monitoring alerts, ensuring appropriate escalation where required.
• Assess customer risk profiles and advise on appropriate due diligence measures.
• Identify opportunities to improve onboarding processes, controls and procedures.
• Support the creation of Financial Crime MI and reporting for senior stakeholders.
• Stay up to date with evolving AML/CTF legislation, regulatory expectations and financial crime typologies.
• Act as a trusted advisor to internal teams on customer onboarding and financial crime risk matters.

Requirements

• Strong experience within AML, KYC, Customer Due Diligence or Financial Crime roles within a regulated financial services environment.
• Experience supporting or overseeing customer onboarding processes.
• Previous exposure to SME, commercial banking, business banking or lending environments is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of UK AML regulations, including the Money Laundering Regulations, JMLSG Guidance and FCA expectations.
• Experience reviewing CDD/EDD documentation and assessing customer risk.
• Strong understanding of financial crime controls, including screening, adverse media, PEPs and source of funds/wealth assessments.
• Comfortable working with frontline teams and providing practical risk-based guidance.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders and challenge where required.

Desirable Experience

• Experience within a challenger bank, fintech, payments firm or commercial lending environment.
• Familiarity with financial crime technology platforms such as LexisNexis, ComplyAdvantage, RiskNarrative, Dow Jones, World-Check or similar.
• Experience improving AML/KYC processes and procedures.

Robert Walters Operations Limited is an employment business and employment agency and welcomes applications from all candidates