Compliance Operations Manager

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.

---

This role is based in Hyderabad.

Since 2011, Wise has had a clear mission: money without borders. Built by and for people who live global lives, we’re the fairest, easiest way to manage your money across borders.

We’re just at the beginning of our story and we’re growing at an incredible pace. We won’t stop until anyone, anywhere can send, spend and receive money wherever they are, whatever they’re doing. There’s still heaps to do and we can’t do it alone.

We’re looking for a Compliance Operations Manager focusing on reviewing our higher risk customers for our APAC entities. Based in Hyderabad, you will work with a growing team of multidisciplinary specialists (Product, Banking, Operations based in our offices in APAC, Estonia and HQ in London) to help deliver world class products and services in APAC. You’ll help manage and strengthen our control environment, by having a clear overview of our highest risk customer portfolios and how our control environment is working to effectively mitigate financial crime risk and meet regulatory obligations locally. 

You will be working closely with teams across Wise (including first line FinCrime Operations, second line FinCrime Compliance, Product, and Banking teams) to review customers who meet the policy requirements for Senior Manager approval, provide advice on customer due diligence, oversee quality framework and decision quality for enhanced customer due diligence, and provide input into first line operational teams’ training and procedures. You are responsible for reporting to the respective MLROs of the local entities on decisions made and provide insights on CDD/EDD control effectiveness.  

Wise has already pioneered new ways for people to transfer money across borders and currencies. Our customers can also manage their hard-earned money with the world’s first platform to offer true multi-currency banking. Your mission is to play a key role in supporting a financial crime program that is driven by Wise’s mission for money without borders, transparency, and protecting customers. We are looking for a seasoned professional who can bring both in-depth financial crime compliance expertise and commercial foresight to our team. This role is for a natural investigator and collaborator who is passionate about fighting financial crime while delivering world class customer service, and contributing to building efficient and effective risk management programs and communicating those solutions clearly to a wide range of stakeholders.

Here’s how you’ll be contributing to the Wise mission

• Review and make decisions on cases escalated for Senior Manager approval.
• Be 1st point of contact for operational teams into 2LoD when advisory is required on KYC/CDD matters. Liaise with/escalate to regional compliance officers for complex situations as required.
• Own the definition of Senior Manager approval escalation criteria for specific regions assigned. This involves working with local Compliance teams to understand upcoming changes, review issues/findings from internal and external reviews, and make necessary adjustments to the escalation criteria.
• Review and validate issues relevant to the Senior Manager approval process and participate in incidents and complaints where there is Senior Manager input.
• Oversee the decision quality of Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) and provide regular reporting to the MLRO. This involves performing routine sample checks focusing on the decision quality where an ‘approved’ outcome is assessed by EDD.
• Provide input into the 1st line quality framework applied to EDD, monitor and report outcomes and insights to local MLRO.
• Review EDD training materials to ensure adequate consideration of local typologies and relevant obligations
• Drive process improvement initiatives relating to customer due diligence where required.

This role will give you the opportunity to:

• Develop an in-depth knowledge of Wise’s business and get to know teams across Wise as you work with them to understand the product and regulatory framework.
• Help keep compliance right at the heart of our product developments by managing our compliance obligations in Australia and New Zealand, managing regulatory change, driving second line monitoring and oversight, and providing assurance to the Senior Leadership team and local entity Boards.
• Take on and own initiatives that arise in customer due diligence on a project basis. Take a problem-solving approach, whether designing a new process to be implemented or driving an effort for multiple teams to work together to remediate control gaps or process enhancements.
• Global cross team collaboration with focus on delivering impact for our fastest growing APAC markets - Singapore, Japan, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India and more.

A bit about you:

Our ideal candidate will have over 4 years experience in FinCrime Operations or Compliance relating to customer due diligence and risk assessments, great communication and organisational skills, tons of motivation and positivity. More specifically, we’re looking for someone who can demonstrate they have these attributes:

• Theory. You are an experienced financial crime practitioner having a background in financial services and a thorough knowledge of the AML/CTF regulations in APAC markets as they relate to customer due diligence(such as Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore).
• Practice. You have worked in the first line FinCrime operational function dealing with most complex customer cases, and ideally have worked in a compliance advisory role in the second line of defence. You have experience in dealing with regulatory inspection/audits and FIU reporting. You understand how to establish policy requirements and maintain oversight on policy adherence.
• Passion. You get a kick out of improving current practices and processes and have the drive to apply different compliance strategies to develop multiple compliance frameworks. You have thought deeply about the Wise mission and how it intersects with compliance.
• Get the job done. You are a problem-solver. You have a sense of urgency and an ability to work well under pressure, prioritising, taking responsibility and working to tight deadlines. Given this is a business-critical and ownership-driven role, you are flexible to work in different shifts to support our APAC regions (and if needed, other regions) and available to work on weekends when required.
• Communication. You’re a strong relationship builder across all levels of the business and externally. You lead by example and can demonstrate the Wise values in all your actions.
• Development. You’ve considered the challenges and development opportunities of working at a fast growing scale-up and are looking to get into FinTech or payments compliance.

• Project management and communication. You have the ability to write and communicate clearly about our products, processes and controls as well as how they can be improved. You’re able to analyse different viewpoints across stakeholders and tailor your communication to get the message across.
• Autonomous. You’re a proactive problem solver and able to work independently to contribute to the team’s overall objectives. You’re adaptable to evolving priorities and have a strong ability to project manage such changes effectively.
• Curious. You have an insatiable curiosity about Asia/Hong Kong products, processes and puts our customers interests at the forefront. You’re excited to make an impact at Wise and enjoy working with cross functional teams to fuel the revolution.

---

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.

Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.