Specialist: Forensics (3S) at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• AGL Financial Crime are responsible for ensuring that the Bank manages the risks of money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions and bribery and corruption and, in so doing, protects the Bank, its customers and its employees, as well as society at large, from the negative effects of financial crime. The Financial Crime function implements a Financial Crime Risk framework to meet the requirements of anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, anti-bribery & corruption and economic sanctions laws and regulation.
• The candidate will be responsible for all aspects of monitoring, surveillance, and investigation and reporting as well as for the identification and assessment of new and emerging threats (including, but not limited to, Illicit Financial Flows, Terror Financing, Human Trafficking, Ponzi Schemes and Corruption) against the Bank making use of existing typologies, use case and indicators to detect the existence thereof in the Bank. Also assist in the formulation of the strategic direction and appropriate intelligence led activity across Africa to ensure that we have a top in class capability which enables the firm to appropriately manage financial crime and terrorist financing risk and which ensures we are compliant with all related regulatory requirements and expectations.
• A key requirement of the role is to build out a robust, firm-wide capability to enable a data driven approach to managing risk and which also drives a top-class analytics and intelligence capability to enhance and strengthen the firm's management of financial crime and terrorist financing.

Job Description

The key specific accountabilities of this role would be the following:

•  Being actively involved in delivering a robust FIU capability which meets the requirements and expectations of all regulatory stakeholders.
• Being actively involved in the development of intelligence products that are both strategic and operational in nature.
• Assessing the impact of Financial Crime threats and risks on a global scale, breaking down jurisdiction and business silo barriers – applying a risk based approach to business units, customers, jurisdictions and product.
• Taking the outcomes from intelligence led investigations and ensuring these are embedded in the business.
• Working closely with analytics in the development of a data acquisition strategy and deployment of supporting toolsets.
• Actively seek to enhance the profile of the FCIU by adding value to business in regular engagements.

Key Accountabilities

Accountability Operational Support and Coordination

• Manage and perform detailed investigations from various sources with a view to put context to data, trends and indicators.
• Assess all data, trends and indicators and escalate all issues of a significant nature to the appropriate stakeholders on a timely basis through interactions and submission of reports (content presentation, accuracy, quality and completeness are important).
• Be able to identify relevant legal-, reputational-, concentration-, regulatory and credit-risks and to verbalise same in an appropriate manner to enable the relevant business unit to manage its client-relationships accordingly.
• Capture appropriate, accurate and reliable data on the relevant case management system to allow effective MI being communicated.
• Evaluate and add value to information received from internal- and external-stakeholders with the objective of turning the information into intelligence, thereby enhancing the profile of the FCIU and improving the unit’s value proposition.
• Make meaningful and appropriate recommendations in any communications/reports/interactions becoming a relevant trusted advisor and business enabler.

Accountability: Monitoring

• Utilise the rich sources of Customer, Transactional and Geospatial data to develop flexible  rule  based  profiling  models  to  monitor  and  detect  on-going  Financial Crime red flags.
• Be actively involved in the delivery of the next generation of analytics based monitoring capabilities through the development of statistical based detection models.
• Monitor media publications to detect customers that are linked to adverse media and would pose a legal-, reputational-, concentration-, regulatory or a credit-risk to the firm.

Accountability: Stakeholder Management

• Be actively involved in engagement with key stakeholders to ensure effective partnership both internally and externally.
• Provide guidance to the Business as a consequence of outcomes and outputs from intelligence driven activity.
• Lead by example, appreciates their role in providing guidance and education and training to others.
• Able to clearly navigate and articulate the importance of the FC Control Environment to the business that is as a consequence of intelligence activity, whether internally or externally driven.
• Able to educate colleagues and skillfully provide simple explanations, real world case studies.
• Able to effectively present/ facilitate FC training if required.
• Embraces change and sponsors improvements as a consequence of the outputs of intelligence led or driven activity.
• Technology & Change – Work closely with Technology & Change functions to build an industry leading analytics capability.

Accountability:  Risk and Control

• All AGL colleagues have to ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Absa Policies and Policy Standards.

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Law, Military Science and Security (Required)