Enhanced Due Diligence Specialist

Description

KYC Risk & Assurance, Client Onboarding | Permanent, Full-time | London (UK)

Personal Attributes

• Acts with integrity and consistently demonstrates high professional and ethical standards.

• Delivers high-quality work with energy, accountability and a strong sense of urgency.

• Commercial and solutions-focused, enabling growth while maintaining strong compliance and client protection.

Enhanced Due Diligence

• Lead holistic EDD reviews and approvals on Prime (institutional and professional) applications and other high-risk clients, building on the due diligence completed by the institutional onboarding team.

• Assess source of wealth, source of funds, beneficial ownership and control structures, occupation and wealth plausibility, PEP and sanctions exposure, and adverse media, forming a rounded, holistic view of each client's financial crime risk.

• Make and clearly document approval or escalation decisions, with reasoning that stands up to internal and external scrutiny.

• Ensure EDD assessments are proportionate, evidence-based and completed promptly, supporting timely client take-on.

Outcomes, not activity

• EDD on Prime and high-risk clients completed to a high standard, with sound, well-documented risk decisions.

• Complex and borderline cases resolved with clear reasoning and escalated appropriately where warranted.

• Prime and high-risk clients onboarded promptly, without compromising quality or compliance.

• Insight from case work shared to strengthen process, training and controls.

• Trusted working relationships across the institutional onboarding team, KYC Risk & Assurance, and second-line Compliance.

Experience & Education

• 4 to 8 years of financial crime or KYC experience in financial services, with a strong, hands-on focus on EDD and complex client due diligence.

• Solid technical knowledge of UK AML and financial crime regulation, including JMLSG guidance, and the ability to apply it pragmatically in a fast-paced, commercial environment.

• Proven experience conducting EDD on institutional, professional or high-risk clients, including complex ownership structures, source of wealth and funds, and PEP and sanctions cases.

• Confident exercising qualitative judgement and making well-documented, defensible risk decisions on complex clients.

• Bachelor's degree in Law, Business, Finance, Economics or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. A relevant AML qualification (for example ICA or ACAMS) is desirable.

Enhanced Due Diligence Specialist

• Act as a senior point of expertise the institutional onboarding team can draw on for complex EDD questions and novel client scenarios.

Collaboration and stakeholder management

• Build strong, collaborative relationships with the institutional onboarding team, the KYC Risk & Assurance function, and second-line Compliance and Financial Crime.

• Contribute to a culture where strong financial crime foundations enable safe and sustainable business growth.

Qualitative risk decisioning and escalation

• Provide senior risk judgement on complex, novel or borderline institutional and high-risk cases, including where system-generated risk ratings warrant closer examination.

• Escalate cases appropriately to the Senior Manager, KYC Risk & Assurance and, where required, to second-line Compliance, with a clear articulation of the risk and a recommended treatment.

Quality, consistency and continuous improvement

• Support consistent, high-quality application of EDD standards across the institutional and high-risk client base.

• Identify recurring themes and patterns from case work and share insight with the onboarding team and second line to strengthen process, training and controls.

• Contribute to the quality oversight and assurance activity owned by the KYC Risk & Assurance function.

• Confident exercising sound judgement and providing effective challenge on client risk.

• Committed to continuous improvement in controls and ways of working.

• Communicates clearly and manages stakeholders effectively.

• Demonstrates resilience and works well under pressure.

• Comfortable working from IG's London office a minimum of three days per week.