Head of Compliance - Saudi Arabia

Company Description

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money.

Min fees. Max ease. Full speed.

Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their lives easier and save them money.

As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money.

For everyone, everywhere.

More about our mission and what we offer.

Job Description

Wise is looking for an experienced and forward-thinking Compliance Senior Manager to join our team in Saudi Arabia. This role will be responsible for building, leading, and managing the compliance framework in Saudi.

As the Compliance Senior Manager, you will be the primary point of contact with our regulator, ensuring that our operations not only meet but exceed regulatory expectations. You will work closely with a global team of specialists across Product, Legal, Operations, and Engineering to launch and scale innovative products safely and compliantly, helping us achieve our mission of making money instant, convenient, and transparent for everyone.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Crime Compliance;

• Oversight of all regulatory developments in scope of Wise’s operations in Saudi, working with internal teams for appropriate awareness and implementation of Saudi regulatory framework requirements.

• Design and manage the financial crime risk management framework, addressing risks specific to Wise product offering in the region.

• Maintain our regulatory licence and applications in Saudi and act as the Regulatory liaison owning all regulatory reporting processes including the suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR/STR) process, managing interactions with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), regulatory queries and feedback

• Ensure appropriate training to the company senior management and the board of directors on the AML/CFT and other regulatory matters as applicable.

• Establish risk-based procedures for customer due diligence (CDD) and enhanced due diligence (EDD), and act as the point of escalation for high-risk customer approvals

Governance and Advisory;

• Localising the global compliance policies including AML policy and KYC/CDD guidelines and updating them as required pursuant to new developments in regulations in the region.

• Verify and monitor the existence of relevant controls related to the integrity and quality of the information transmitted to the FIU within the framework of the SAR reports.

• Report to the Board of Directors or equivalent on the health of financial crime and regulatory compliance, and advise the board with any emerging issue within the compliance program.

• Build trust with our regulator: manage and coordinate meaningful reporting internally and externally, respond to information requests, and proactively communicate product changes and notifiable events.

Monitoring & Testing;

• Ensure the effectiveness of the compliance programme through regular testing and monitoring.

• Regularly assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risk management and corresponding controls as well as the effectiveness and design of these measures reduce these risks.

• Review & authorise relationships with high-risk customers as required.

• Develop systems to track and monitor our regulatory and financial crime risks, compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies.

• Implement systems and key risk indicators (KRIs) to track and monitor our regulatory and financial crime risks effectively.

This role will give you the opportunity to;

• Develop an in-depth knowledge of Wise’s business and get to know many teams across the company as you liaise with them to help them understand the regulatory framework and bring together the information that our regulators need.

• Help keep compliance right at the heart of our product developments and new initiatives by horizon-scanning for new regulatory developments and sharing these with the teams.

Requirements;

• Demonstrable and Solid background and knowledge in the Saudi regulatory framework, including all related Financial crime and regulatory obligations

• Growth Mindset - you are passionate about expanding and growing Wise, in a compliant, solutions-driven manner.

• Will have a proven track record of leading and building effective teams with diverse skill sets and broad functional expertise.

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including teams outside of the compliance function.

• Excellent negotiator with the ability to bring teams and people with diverse ways of thinking together

• Ability to work in a fast-paced and time sensitive environment, and handle multiple tasks simultaneously

• Travel. You must be able to travel to London and/or other operational hubs as required.

Additional Information

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.

Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

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