Head of Product Risk and Compliance, Latin America, Middle East and Africa

Company Description

Your Mission At Wise, we are fully devoted to our Mission: Money without borders. Instant, convenient, and eventually free. Over 16 million people and businesses use Wise, which processes over £9 billion in cross-border transactions every month, saving customers over £1.5 billion a year. We serve a wide range of customers from personal users, freelancers, small businesses and increasingly even to large enterprises and banks. Wise also offers over 50 currencies for customers to hold and convert money in.

Job Description

Your mission: 

Wise has already pioneered new ways for people to transfer money across borders and currencies. Your mission is to shape the Product Risk and Compliance Program, for Wise to offer its services to many more Customers, in many more Countries. 

This is a first line of defence hands-on role, embedded in the Regional Product Squad. 

You will be growing the Product Compliance and Risk team, owning projects and making decisions in the following areas: 

Regulatory: 

• Stay ahead of the financial crime and regulatory compliance trends and the regulatory agenda in Latin America, Middle East and Africa

• Translate and implement regulatory requirements, for Product and Engineering teams to seamlessly execute on 

• Identify when local regulatory requirements can be executed by leveraging existing global controls and when unique requirements need prioritisation, optimising for utilisation of existing controls where possible

Risk and controls: 

• During exams and audits, lead Wise response by challenging any assumption that is not a correct reflection of the Wise’s Risk and Controls framework, and coordinate evidencing controls as necessary 

• Define the Regulatory and Financial Crime Risk metrics for markets in Latin America, Middle East and Africa, using your judgement to leverage global Key Risk Indicators or formulating market / region specific ones where needed

• Coordinate prioritisation and efforts on issues, ensuring any necessary remediation is executed in a timely manner

Reporting and external engagement: 

• Monitor and report on the health of the Latin America, Middle East and Africa Compliance and Risk Program, in front of internal and external stakeholders (Global Committees, Regulators, Internal and External Audit, Banking Partners) 

• Lead Emerging Markets Regulatory, Financial Crime and Risk discussions and forums with clear action plans and updates on previously identified issues

• Take part in industry associations initiatives where markets relevant to Wise are discussed, and actively represent Wise in engaging with legislative and regulatory consultations 

This role will give you the opportunity to: 

• Grow your hands-on Fintech knowledge at full speed 

• Keep Compliance right at the heart of the product and engineering development cycle, in a fast-moving environment 

• Be empowered to identify regulatory and compliance issues or opportunities and take a lead in execution 

Qualifications

• You have a Compliance background, ideally worked as Head of Risk and Compliance, Compliance Officer, MLRO (or equivalent) in a Global organisation, looking after new markets expansion 

• Your experience spans across more than one area of compliance: from permissibility to fincrime, from consumer protection to segregation of funds, and more 

• You have been building compliance programs from the ground-up and know what are the must-have controls when launching a new market

• You have the ability to drive business decisions by convincing both internal and external parties on execution 

• You are a natural owner that drives and delivers projects from inception to completion, that can go into the details of each and every problem within their domain space 

• You are an engaging communicator that can effectively present to different audiences (i.e. from Regulators to engineers) 

• You are analytical, use data to make decisions and challenge assumptions 

• You have experience (or desire) in working in a fast-growing environment and apply your previous industry experience in a new paradigm that reflects how Wise works 

• You are willing to travel as Wise offices are located across different geos globally 

• Experience in one or more of the following markets is a plus: Brazil, UAE, South Africa, Mexico, Chile. 

Additional Information

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.

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