Merchant Acquiring Financial Crime Oversight - AVP

hackajob is collaborating with Barclays to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

Help strengthen Financial Crime oversight within one of the UK's leading Merchant Acquiring businesses. We're seeking an experienced Financial Crime professional with Merchant Acquiring expertise to join our Financial Crime Oversight team.

This is a Second Line of Defence role responsible for supporting the independent oversight and assessment of the Merchant Acquiring Financial Crime Control Framework. Working closely with the Financial Crime Oversight Lead and key stakeholders across the business, Risk, Compliance and Audit functions, you will provide challenge, oversight and insight into the effectiveness of Financial Crime controls, helping ensure risks are identified, managed and mitigated in line with regulatory requirements and Barclays risk appetite.

You will play a key role in the delivery of the Financial Crime Monitoring Plan, conducting thematic reviews, control effectiveness assessments and Quality Assurance activities across critical Financial Crime processes. Through effective analysis and stakeholder engagement, you will help identify emerging risks, monitor remediation activity and support the continuous enhancement of the Financial Crime control environment.

This role requires a strong understanding of the Financial Crime risks associated with Merchant Acquiring, including customer onboarding, KYC and due diligence processes, payment facilitators, marketplaces, high-risk merchant sectors, transaction flows, sanctions exposure, fraud typologies and evolving regulatory expectations.

This is an exciting opportunity to develop specialist expertise within Financial Crime Oversight in a dynamic Merchant Acquiring business. You'll play a critical role in delivering oversight reviews, Quality Assurance activities and control assessments that provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of the Financial Crime Framework. Working alongside senior Financial Crime stakeholders, you'll contribute to monitoring, assurance, thematic reviews and issue oversight activities, helping Barclays identify emerging risks, strengthen controls and maintain an effective and sustainable Financial Crime control environment.

• Support the ongoing independent assessment of the Merchant Acquiring Financial Crime Control Framework, identifying control weaknesses and opportunities for enhancement.
• Deliver reviews and testing activities under the Financial Crime Monitoring Plan, assessing the design and effectiveness of key Financial Crime controls.
• Review and assess control performance, providing challenge and recommendations to strengthen the Financial Crime control environment.
• Supporting Financial Crime issue and event management activities, including remediation tracking, validation of actions and review of supporting evidence.
• Assisting with the analysis of Financial Crime metrics, incidents, monitoring outcomes and management information to identify trends, emerging risks and potential control weaknesses.
• Assisting with the preparation of high-quality oversight reports, review findings, management information and governance papers for senior stakeholders and governance forums.
• Supporting audit, regulatory and remediation activities through effective oversight, challenge and monitoring of agreed actions.
• Building effective relationships across the business, Risk, Compliance and operational teams to promote a strong and sustainable Financial Crime control environment.

To be successful as a Merchant Acquiring Financial Crime Oversight AVP, you should have:

• Experience with in Financial Crime, Compliance, Risk or a related control function within banking, payments or financial services.
• Merchant Acquiring experience preferred, including a strong understanding of merchant onboarding, customer due diligence, card acquiring and associated Financial Crime risks.
• Strong knowledge of AML, Sanctions, Anti-Bribery & Corruption and wider Financial Crime regulatory requirements.
• Experience operating within a Second Line Financial Crime, Compliance, Oversight or Assurance function.
• Experience conducting monitoring reviews, quality assurance activities, control testing, assurance reviews or thematic assessments.
• Strong understanding of KYC, Customer Due Diligence, Enhanced Due Diligence and ongoing monitoring requirements.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to assess complex risks and identify meaningful insights.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing governance and management reporting.
• Proven ability to build effective stakeholder relationships and provide constructive challenge.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and deliver high-quality outputs within a fast-paced and evolving environment.

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Experience supporting Financial Crime monitoring, oversight, assurance or control effectiveness programmes.
• Knowledge of card scheme requirements,…