Compliance Monitoring & Testing - FCC Testing Vice President

Role Description

SMBC's Compliance Department Americas Division ("CPAD") is seeking a Vice President of Financial Crime Compliance (“FCC”) Testing. The Vice President will be responsible for the execution of the testing program. This position will principally serve as a Review Lead for testing reviews within the FCC Testing group, as part of the wider Compliance Monitoring & Testing function.  This role will also support the Annual Plan efforts with the Head of FCC Testing and the Head of M&T and will have coverage for SMBC's Americas Division operations.

The Vice President will perform review leadership and will work with a small team of compliance professionals to support testing engagements to validate the efficacy of regulatory compliance internal controls and processes. The candidate should have functional knowledge of applicable U.S. banking laws and regulations with specific emphasis on Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (“BSA/AML”), Sanctions Compliance, Anti-Bribery and Corruption (“ABC”), and Anti-Fraud laws and regulations. Additionally, a familiarity of the U.S. regulatory environment, risk identification / mitigation; and managing the workflows for testing engagements is essential.

Role Objectives

• Manages testing activities for all applicable financial crime compliance risks to ensure the accurate and timely execution of all testing deliverables.
• Serves as the examiner-in-charge responsible for all facets of compliance testing engagements.
• Manages ongoing development and refinement of testing scripts.
• Plans engagements and prepares information requests and announcement memos to start Testing Reviews.
• Oversees the execution of fieldwork to validate the efficacy of internal controls.
• Maintains strong communication channels with internal clients throughout the execution of testing engagements, including kick-off and closeout meetings, requests for information, vetting of potential issues.
• Ensures that fieldwork is adequately documented, and issues are properly vetted before the publication of the final testing results.
• Ensures that cohesive workpapers are prepared for each engagement in accordance with department standards.
• Oversees the drafting and publication of formal testing reports to management.

• Oversees the input, tracking, and validation of identified issues and corrective action plans to validate remediation efforts.
• Stays abreast of changing regulatory requirements and SMBC’s business model to maintain a solid foundation of the applicable regulatory framework.

• Supports the consolidation and reporting of results within local and Head Office reporting.
• Develops annual compliance testing schedules with Compliance management.

Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree required; Advanced Degree and/or Certifications is preferred.
• At least 10 years of prior regulatory, compliance testing, audit and/or risk management experience with demonstrated track record of increasing management responsibilities.
• Strong working knowledge of BSA/AML, OFAC, FinCEN, FATF, FCPA, and global financial crime regulatory frameworks.
• Professional certification in AML, sanctions, or financial crime compliance is preferred (e.g. CAMS, CGSS, CFE, CFCS).
• Financial services experience and knowledge of wholesale banking products as well as commercial leasing business, preferred.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills; adept at presenting complex issues to senior management.
• Foundational knowledge of financial crime systems and tools (e.g. Actimize, Fircosoft, Fenergo).
• Strong desire to continually deliver high-quality and meaningful work product in a timely and efficient manner.
• Motivated and action-oriented and self-starter.
• Demonstrates sound judgement, political astuteness, and sensitivity to cultural diversity.
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills to successfully interface with all levels of management and maintain solid working relationships.
• Maintains a regulatory compliance risk mindset to understand underlying risks and weaknesses to properly mitigate such risks.
• Technical competency of applicable laws and regulations and application thereof during monitoring and testing engagements.
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple assignments and reprioritize as circumstances may dictate.
• Adaptable and able toe volve and change with Bank Transformation.