Financial Crime Intelligence Lead

About Us:

BVNK provides modern payment infrastructure for businesses. We unify banks and blockchains in a single platform. With BVNK, businesses can send and receive stablecoin payments, convert between currencies, and add stablecoin payments to their checkout. Using our flexible platform, and robust global licensing and compliance expertise, innovators can launch new payment products quickly and compliantly.

We are a diverse team spread across the UK, Europe, South Africa, the US, and APAC, with a shared belief that all payment flows will interact with crypto in the coming decade, and BVNK will be at the forefront of this transformation of the financial system. We have raised $50M in Series B funding from top investors including Haun Ventures, Tiger Global, and Coinbase Ventures, and we're looking for smart, ambitious people to help us build the next generation of payments.

We're incredibly honored to have made Newsweek's list of The Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces 2 years running (2023 and 2024) and to have been recognised by LinkedIn as one of the Top 20 Startups in the UK in 2024.

About this role in the team:

As the Financial Crime Intelligence Lead, you will report to the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence and oversee a team responsible for transaction monitoring, screening (for both fiat and cryptocurrency), sanctions reporting, travel rule compliance, and complex investigations. You will collaborate closely with other Financial Crime Intelligence Leads.

We seek a subject matter expert in financial crime intelligence with a strong understanding of both fiat and cryptocurrency landscapes. You should have a deep interest in cryptocurrency, investigations, anti-money laundering (AML), and sanctions compliance, as well as experience working with law enforcement. The ideal candidate will possess extensive knowledge of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies, sanctions risks for crypto firms, fiat transaction monitoring, terrorist financing, fraud typologies, and forensic investigations.

Success in this role requires strong leadership and stakeholder management skills. You should be results-driven, capable of fostering relationships with senior stakeholders, and adept at managing and developing teams. Exceptional communication and time management skills are essential for delivering clear messaging across all levels of the organization. Additionally, you must be comfortable collaborating with cross-functional, globally distributed teams.

We are looking for someone who thrives in a fast-paced, evolving environment, enjoys solving complex problems, and can think strategically while managing multiple priorities. You should be confident handling senior stakeholders and drafting reports for senior management and regulators. Extensive experience managing teams and projects is essential, as is a passion for building high-performing teams aligned with our values.

Your key stakeholders will include the Chief Compliance Officer, Head of Compliance Operations, Head of Financial Crime Intelligence, MLROs, Financial Crime Product team, Account Managers, Customer Success Managers, and the Commercial team.

Key Areas of Responsibilities:

This position will support the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence driving BVNK’s financial crime investigations strategy. The wide range of responsibilities include:

• Developing industry leading financial crime procedures and processes, ensuring the implementation of adequate and effective systems and controls, in compliance with local legislative and regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions the Group operates. 
• Working closely with the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence team, BVNK’s 2 LOD and the Commercial team, providing expertise in assessing financial crime risks associated with crypto/Web3 business models.
• Supporting the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence managing the relationship with relevant stakeholders.
• Providing senior management and Board with timely updates on financial crime risks related to crypto assets, sanctions and fiat.
• Providing regular key risk indicators (KRIs) reporting.
• Providing bespoke training to FCC-related staff and senior management to raise awareness on financial crime risks.
• Performing ad-hoc investigative tasks assigned by senior management.
• Conducting and supporting proactive intelligence-led financial crime investigations and exposure assessments. 
• Conducting and supporting reactive financial crime fiat and cryptocurrency investigations that can be referred to the team internally or by external parties.
• Liaising with Law Enforcement, Financial Intelligence Units and Public, Private Partnerships which BVNK participates in, ensuring BVNK is up to date with new financial crime intelligence, and regulatory changes.
• Drafting and reviewing suspicious activity reports for authorities globally.
• Raise findings regarding bugs or necessary adjustments to the transaction monitoring fiat and cryptocurrency rules. 
• Advising the relevant teams on risks which are identified or apparent from the investigations, including suggesting new rules and scenarios, automation initiatives, and fine tuning to increase monitoring efficiency.
• Assisting with information and intelligence sharing to internal stakeholders and external partners and encouraging closer working relationships between the relevant parties.

What we need from you:

• Must have a minimum of five years financial crime intelligence experience with at least one to two years of cryptocurrency exposure. 
• Previous experience working in a faced paced start-up environment and highly advanced ability to conduct high quality reviews and investigations independently. 
• Must demonstrate evidence of being an existing leader of a small team. 
• Must demonstrate evidence of cryptoasset product knowledge.
• Must have a strong knowledge of blockchain analytic tools such as Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic or similar. 
• Experience in Travel Rule related alerts is desired. 
• Must have relevant financial crime experience in fiat transaction monitoring, in retail or correspondent banking. It is beneficial if you understand nested and embedded models within the financial crime environment. 
• Must understand the global footprint of cryptocurrency in the key financial sectors around the world (Europe, UK, US, etc.) and stay up to date with the latest technology and regulatory requirements through independent research, including Travel Rule.
• Relevant financial crime investigations’ qualifications, such as ICA or ACAMS accreditations are desired.
• Should display a keen interest in technology across the financial crime space and support senior team members in driving developments and innovation to enhance the financial crime investigations and compliance practice.
• Should be comfortable working with a high degree of autonomy and managing evolving priorities to deliver against the team's strategy.
• Must have a proven track record of establishing credibility with customers and senior stakeholders quickly and successfully managing ongoing customer relationships.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, strong work ethic, attention to detail and an enquiring mind.

What you can expect from us:

• Fair and competitive salary at every stage of your growth
• Meaningful ownership in the business through our employee option scheme
• Flexible working hours, with hybrid working at its heart
• A culture built on passionate growth minded people
• A flexible approach to holiday
• Opportunities to travel to our offices around the world, in locations such as London and Cape Town, to collaborate with your colleagues 
• An open and creative environment where you can help us define the future of BVNK, it’s culture, and it’s opportunity sets

At BVNK, we are focused on building a diverse and inclusive team. While you may not meet all of our requirements, we’d encourage you to apply if you meet the majority of our expectations. You may be a great fit for this role or another role in our team.