Compliance Supervisor - Leading Global Law Firm at Ellahi Consulting

PURPOSE

The role of a Compliance Supervisor is primarily to oversee operations and personnel of an assigned group of Compliance Assistants, Junior Compliance Analyst, Compliance Analyst, Senior Compliance Analyst and Compliance Coordinators within the overall Compliance Team.

The Compliance Supervisor is responsible for assisting the Compliance Manager (“Manager”) and providing support in the absence of the Manager in the day-to-day activities including and but not limited to providing CDD guidance to the team and any administrative issues, such as absence reporting.

The Compliance Supervisor will be working closely with and reporting regularly to the Manager and in the Manager's absence, reporting to the Head of CDD Compliance to facilitate the effective supervision of the team in Johannesburg.

The Compliance Supervisor is responsible to assess the needs of and continue to develop all reporting team members through ongoing mentoring and training.

The Compliance Supervisor is responsible to ensure reporting team members' compliance with the employer’s policies and to partake in disciplinary proceedings.

The Compliance Supervisor is responsible to manage performance of reporting team members, including but not limited to timekeeping queries, overtime, monthly work product output and performance, annual reviews and general engagement and deportment in the workplace.

The Compliance Supervisor is expected to be part of the Risk Review panel and to conduct Risk Reviews on the Firm’s clients.

The Compliance Supervisor will be expected to conduct CDD on the firms clients during “busy periods”.

On an ad hoc basis, the Compliance Supervisor may also be responsible for coordinating incoming clients, reverting to Partners and PA's on urgent queries, assigning work to team members and assisting the Compliance Manager with any other duties conferred onto them

The Compliance Supervisor will be required to advise the Compliance team on complex clients and queries and assist with reviewing junior team member’s work. The Compliance Supervisor should also act as a contact person to whom matters that need be resolved can be escalated, either by members of their own team and/or Partners and PAs.

REQUIREMENTS

Qualifications

• Grade 12 or equivalent – NQF Level 4 (essential)
• BCom, LLB or equivalent (at least in final year of studies) –NQF Level6/7 (essential)

EXPERIENCE

Education and Experience

• 5 years relevant working experience required
• 5 years operational Compliance/ AML working experience with elements of leadership or delegation required

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

SYSTEM SKILLS – MS Office

• Knowledge of a centralised/ shared services environment
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Strong organisational, administrative and time management skills
• Commercial awareness
• Comfortable to have difficult conversations with team members when required
• Strong leadership and communication skills with a personality to excel and motivate others to succeed
• Well-developed analytical skills
• Exemplary behavior in the team specifically relating to performance, diligence, teamwork and timekeeping
• Ability to multi-task and work well under tight deadlines
• Proactive, hardworking and responsible
• Proactively assists in the management of feedback and annual conversations; sets and monitors demanding but achievable objectives for self and others
• Ensures their role and contribution of the team meets business needs

BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES

• Ability to handle queries efficiently with diplomacy and tact
• Ability to follow instructions precisely
• Adapting and responding to change
• Strong work ethic with an inherent sense of urgency
• Delivering results and meeting business expectations
• Working with others
• Delivering through others

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES OF THE PERFORMANCE AREA

CLIENT RESEARCH

• Review New Business Intake forms submitted by the International LLP.
• Conduct Risk review as part of the Mailbox Risk Scoring panel of the Compliance team.
• Ensure CDD has been gathered to the appropriate standard for all new client registrations, including those clients for whom enhanced due diligence is required.
• Conduct a degree of personal research from public sources including:
  • Familiarization with a wide array of potential sources such as company registries, stock exchange websites, financial and legal regulators' websites, company search providers and external databases.
• Liaise with legal staff, support staff and research teams to obtain any outstanding CDD information.
• Liaise with the company’s support departments, notably the Finance, Research, Conflicts and also Personal Assistants.
• Where appropriate and where asked to, liaise directly with the firm's clients regarding CDD requirements.
• Document the evidence obtained during the CDD process in a clear and concise manner.
• Conduct risk rating reviews on clients taking into account the information gathered during the CDD process including research relating to ongoing investigations (adverse press) against certain clients and determining whether a risk level of a client may be lowered or should be raised.
• Utilise external subscription databases to screen clients, their directors and shareholders in order to identify PEPs, influential persons, presence on Sanctions lists, criminal activity and adverse press. Escalate these issues where appropriate.
• Investigate co-client related party checks to ensure that new matters for existing clients are registered correctly and gather CDD for those related parties when necessary.
• Obtain verify and record clients EC VAT numbers when necessary.
• Review adverse press generated on the firm’s existing clients. Discount false positive hits or escalate serious hits to the firm’s General Counsel’s Office and the relevant fee earner.

REPORTS AND DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

• Ensure that CDD is updated to the appropriate standard, including an enhanced level of due diligence where required.
• Conduct Risk Reviews
• Update and maintain 3E, including client names and addresses.
• Assist in maintaining the firm's PEP databases.
• Assist with disciplinary proceedings on reporting team members.
• Conduct probation/performance reviews on reporting team members.

ADVISORY AND PROJECTS

• Provide advice and guidance to partners, fee-earners and support staff in relation to the requirements of Compliance legislation and the interpretation and application of the firm's AML/CDD policy.
• Must have leadership skills and be an exemplary team member.
• Provide advice and guidance to team members other stakeholders.
• Own and lead administrative projects and responsible for the outcome.
• Own and lead complex team projects and responsible for the outcome.
• Prepare and deliver presentations to the wider Compliance Team or other stakeholders on a variety of topics.
• Supervise and coordinate team consisting of Compliance Analysts, Junior Compliance Analysts and Compliance Coordinators to carry out and facilitate the task of conducting CDD on new and existing clients and all associated tasks.
• Assist the Manager in ensuring that the Johannesburg team functions effectively and providing support to other team members in their day-to-day tasks.
• Review, monitor and approve overtime of Compliance Assistants, Junior Compliance Analysts, Compliance Analysts and Compliance Coordinators.
• Deal with any timekeeping queries of team members, such as team members requiring to work outside standard working hours or agile days.
• Assist with the workload management and coordinate incoming work for the wider team. This includes routing relevant queries sent to CDD Mailbox to the responsible compliance analysts and allocating work to more junior staff when required.
• Monitor output and drive performance of the team. This includes providing sufficient support and additional training where required and addressing any performance issues with team members.
• Handle probation reviews and annual performance reviews together with the Compliance Manager.
• Assist with ad hoc tasks, such as updating training material; maintaining work rotas and implementing other procedural improvements.
• Prepare and deliver presentations to the wider Compliance Team and other stakeholders on a variety of topics, including detailed investigations into unusual company structure types, refresher presentations on team precedents and procedures and new available sources, company audits
• Assist the Compliance Manager by contributing to and participating in discussions regarding potential procedural compliance developments.