Head of Compliance, HK Branch

About the job

You will be responsible for overseeing and handling all compliance issues of the Hong Kong Branch by providing guidance and collaborating with stakeholders and regulators to ensure the successful implementation of compliance controls.  You will respond to emerging regulatory changes and ensure regulatory compliance is achieved.  You will also be responsible for promoting compliance literacy and a culture of compliance awareness.

You will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of monitoring, surveillance and testing activities within the organisation and ensuring they are conducted regularly.  You will ensure the conducting of regular checks and reviews to identify and address compliance breaches and financial crime scenarios including AML-CFT, sanction, anti-fraud, bribery, corruption activities and/ or other irregular market and misconduct activities.  You will prepare regular reports and provide preliminary advice to stakeholders on suspicious activities and/or compliance breaches.

Familiar with monitoring and surveillance tools and methodologies used within the financial services industry, you pay attention to detail and are well versed in local and global compliance knowledge within the financial services industry.  Able to take initiative to lead activities, you are process-driven and possess integrity and adopt ethical practices.  You are comfortable working with the various stakeholders and articulating solutions and information to them.

You will develop and update organisational compliance policies, processes and procedures in relation to the operation of the HK branch.  You will refine and enhance compliance strategies, policies and frameworks to reflect changes in regulatory requirements and standards.  You will ensure the operation of the HK branch comply with the HKMA requirements and other applicable laws, rules and regulations.  You will identify and assess compliance risks and propose mitigation activities, as well as propose recommendations to address findings of scenario analyses, stress tests and compliance risk assessments.  You will disseminate updates on compliance strategies, policies and frameworks to senior management and the organisation.

You will develop financial crime and sanction-related controls and programmes, and will maintain and safe-keep all relevant compliance records.  You will develop guidelines for the implementation of compliance controls, and will review and propose activities to improve compliance controls and address deficiencies.  You will develop response activity strategies for regulatory compliance breaches, and will analyse findings of organisation-wide compliance risk assessments to identify corrective actions.  You will conduct periodic reviews and monitoring of compliance implementation across business units to identify improvements, as well as approve product advertising and/or public-facing marketing collaterals based on compliance review findings.

You will ensure monitoring and surveillance activities are conducted regularly and in accordance with procedures, and will review findings of manual surveillances and checks to assess suspicious activities for potential regulatory violations or compliance breaches.  You will review automated monitoring system findings and financial crime indicators for accuracy and will determine the need for compliance investigations.  You will review and close out monitoring alerts with determined follow-up actions.

You will promote a culture of compliance awareness and overall compliance literacy within the Branch and will distribute compliance related manuals and keep employees updated of any changes of requirements.  You will conduct compliance-related training and knowledge sharing activities and ensure all employees have completed mandatory compliance training.  You will communicate and share resources relating to compliance issues, policies and frameworks, and will conduct training to business units to enable their effective use and application of compliance controls.

You will manage the organisation’s relationships with regulatory bodies and respond to regulatory queries, as well as guide compliance professionals and business units in regulatory compliance and develop operational plans for implementation.  You will provide internal advisory expertise and respond to compliance-related queries, as well as advise business units on potential compliance breach scenarios, impact of compliance breaches, or control deficiencies and corrective actions required.  You will coordinate and report on all types of compliance issues to the Chief Executive and to the Regional Head of Compliance if needed.

You will assess and investigate suspicious transaction activities and internal compliance violations against policies, frameworks and regulations, and will conduct periodic compliance checks on employees if deemed necessary.  You will investigate compliance breaches, financial crime and/or sanction-related incidents, as well as identify compliance-related risks and propose corrective measures to mitigate compliance violations.  You will escalate identified incidents to the appropriate authorities where required and will coordinate with external stakeholders to assist with external regulatory investigations.  You will perform benchmarking against legal regulations.

You will develop and drive compliance testing checks to ensure regulatory compliance in the organisation’s daily operations, and well evaluate gaps in controls and recommend corrective steps to the compliance team.  You will identify improvement actions to strengthen the coverage of internal compliance controls and will collaborate with technology professionals to identify approaches for ensuring regulatory compliance for technology matters.  You will address issues and challenges in closing compliance gaps and in implementing corrective actions for compliance violations, and will ensure incident management strategies are aligned to outcomes of monitoring and surveillance findings.

You will define and articulate business requirements for automated monitoring and surveillance systems, and will review research and propose enhancements and integration of data analytics in monitoring, surveillance or testing mechanisms for the management’s consideration.  You will determine and implement new parameters in monitoring and surveillance tools, and oversee user testing of the Branch’s monitoring, testing and surveillance systems to ensure adequacy.

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