Unlocking your career in the compliance industry

It is estimated that more than half of UK firms have been impacted by some form of financial crime in the last year. This has in-turn led to a surge in demand for contingent resource within compliance teams as they grapple with maintaining BAU whilst trying to keep up with the seemingly endless flow of additional regulatory pressures.

For many professionals considering a change of roles within financial services, or those wanting to start their career in compliance, now could be the perfect time to take that next step. In this latest Momenta insight, we have listed everything you need to know to get your financial compliance career underway.

What are the top contingent financial crime roles?
There are of course many roles within compliance functions, and each is ultimately as important as the next. These roles will usually report into the head of financial crime or the MLRO.
Below, we have listed the top-5 most in demand contingent financial crime roles which as a business Momenta sees as crucial in assisting our clients, for 2021 and beyond:

1. KYC/ECDD Graduate – Financial Crime
These are exciting entry-level positions within the Financial Crime sector and the perfect opportunity to get your foot in the door. These positions offer an opportunity to start your career within one of the ‘Big 4’ banks and enjoy growth and development opportunities. Your day-to-day activities would include working within the Financial Crime team assisting with KYC / CDD / EDD onboarding, PEPs, and sanctions monitoring. The individual would need to review and undertake KYC processes on current customers & ensure ECDD is applied as well as creating customer risk profiles while monitoring transactions and reporting suspicious matters to regulatory bodies. If you have recently completed your university degree or have a background within banking/ financial services or a similar professional environment this type of role will be a great opportunity to build your career with financial compliance. These types of graduate-level roles would usually start at between £200-£250 per-day.

2. KYC/EDD analyst
KYC analysts will work within the Financial Crime team assisting with KYC / CDD / EDD onboarding, PEPs, and sanctions monitoring. They will review and undertake KYC processes on current customers & ensure ECDD is applied. KYC/EDD analysts are also responsible for creating customer risk profiles while monitoring transactions and reporting suspicious matters to relevant regulatory bodies. These roles can pay between £200-£350 per-day.

3. AML analyst / AML Transaction Monitoring Analyst
AML analysts will assist in monitoring transactional alerts generated by various detection systems as well as looking at Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) on a day-to-day basis without compromising the requirements of Global and PCB AML Policies. They will review and ensure the company meets obligations in relation to the AML/CTF Act and analyse data from the customer and financial institutions to identify any fraudulent activity. This role can start from £200 -£250 per day and requires high attention to detail.

4. Financial Crime Quality Assurance Analyst
This role requires a more experienced level of financial compliance professional and will be a good step if you are already working in compliance and want to progress your career further. These roles can pay up to £350 per day.
The day-to-day key requirements of the role could include activities such as conducting comprehensive and robust quality checking on the work completed by KYC Analysts within a Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Team. The induvial would use analytical and judgemental skills to determine whether correct decisions have been made and support their decisions with clearly laid-out rationales. It would include supporting training and inductions for new agents and encouraging individual development, as well as conducting Root Cause Analysis to identify and evaluate quality trends, contributing to the improvement of controls and reports, and ensuring correct screening has been completed for any for negative news, PEPs & Sanctions on Clients/Customers, Related Parties and Related Individuals.

5. Financial Crime Manager
If you have proven experience in a financial crime or AML management position and experience in making independent risk-based judgements on AML and fraud investigations, then this will be the perfect next-step in progressing your career within financial crime.
The individual will need to report to the Head of Financial Crime and contribute to the wider team by challenging, testing, and developing fraud and anti-money laundering controls and processes to protect the business. They are also responsible for helping to ensure the team conduct fraud and money laundering assessments. As this role will be at a more progressed level, the day rates will change according to an individual’s experience.

What are the key skills you will require to start your career in financial crime?
A background within banking/ financial services or similar professional environment will unquestionably be beneficial if you are looking to start a career within financial crime. The foundational skills you will need include:

• A strong interest in Financial Crime Compliance, Fraud and AML
• High attention to detail
• Strong experience within Microsoft packages
• You must have highly developed written and verbal communication skills
• An ability to collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders

This is a role that matters
Careers in financial crime can be exceptionally rewarding, not just in terms of personal career opportunities, but also in terms of mitigating crime that has negative impacts on people, business, and society as a whole. These types of roles are key in ensuring that the broader fight against global crime is tackled effectively, which is pivotal, especially in today’s economic climate with financial criminals circumnavigating their way around the vulnerable to leverage ever more destructive crime.

Why join Momenta?
Momenta is a global contingent resource solutions company, providing skilled professionals to the financial services, legal, technology, and training and development sectors for over 30 years. At Momenta, we understand that we are only as good as our associates, in fact our reputation depends on them. Therefore, treating them with care and respect as individuals and ensuring they are fully supported in undertaking work for our clients, is of paramount importance to us.

If you believe you may have the right skills and experience for an exciting new project with us, you can apply to join us today. By becoming one of our associates, you join a company that provides people with quality opportunities, development, and ongoing support globally.
If you are looking for a new opportunity in the financial services, technology, legal, or training and development sectors, start your contingent working journey with us today.