The Role
The Financial Crime Specialist monitors and analyzes transactions for suspicious activity, performs customer risk assessments, and conducts enhanced due diligence reviews, ensuring compliance with financial regulations.
Summary Generated by Built In
Our Story
Hello there. We’re Zopa.
We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at Zopa.com!
We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces.
If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife
We are seeking a detail-oriented and highly motivated Financial Crime Specialist to join our Financial Crime Operations team. The successful candidate will be responsible for monitoring and analysing financial transactions to detect and prevent suspicious activity related to money laundering, fraud, and other financial crimes, performing customer risk assessments, triage and in-depth enhanced due diligence (EDD) reviews.
This role requires a strong understanding of financial regulations, excellent analytical skills, and the ability to work effectively within a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.
Working pattern:
This is a hybrid role, with the team working in the office three days a week.
Your working week will consist of 7.5 hour shifts scheduled between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm, Monday to Friday. You will also be required to work one day of the weekend every other week, from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, which will be worked remotely. If you work a weekend day, you will receive a day off during the week in lieu.
In addition, you will be required to work on two bank holidays per year, for which you will receive time off in lieu.
A day in the life:
- Transaction Monitoring: Review and analyse customer transactions to identify potentially suspicious activity, including money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing and other typologies. Desirable that the candidate has experience with investigating Mule alerts that are raised through transaction monitoring.
- SAR’s: Prepare, complete, and submit Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in a timely and accurate manner.
- Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD): Conduct in-depth investigations into high-risk customers, ensuring all critical due diligence information is collected. Understand the customer’s Source of Wealth (SoW)and Source of Funds (SoF), evaluating whether the wealth and funds align with the customer’s profile.
- Customer Risk Assessment Cases and Reviews: Conduct EDD for SIP's, PEP's, High Net Worth Individuals, and customers flagged due to a court order or external law enforcement enquiry.
- Phone-Based Interaction Requirement: The successful candidate will be required to handle phone-based interactions with customers as part of their daily responsibilities. This includes engaging with customers, addressing inquiries, and providing support or assistance, ensuring a high level of customer service. Strong communication skills and the ability to manage phone calls effectively are essential for this role.
About you:
- Previous experience in a financial crime, fraud, or transaction monitoring role within the banking or financial services industry.
- Strong knowledge of UK financial crime regulations, including the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR), and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) guidelines.
- Familiarity with transaction monitoring systems.
- Strong analytical and investigative skills with keen attention to detail.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills to produce clear, concise reports and communicate with stakeholders.
- Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong understanding of banking products and services, including payments, savings, and investment transactions.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, Outlook) and related tools.
- Highly organised and methodical with the ability to handle complex investigations.
- Strong decision-making ability and confidence in escalating issues when necessary.
- Desirable: ACAMS (Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists) certification or equivalent ICA qualification, and experience in a similar role within a regulated UK financial institution.
#LI-LH1
We’re expanding!
From September 2025, Zopa will be opening a brand-new office in Manchester at WeWork, Dalton Place, 29 John Dalton Street, M2 6WF.
At Zopa we value flexible ways of working.
We value face-to-face collaboration and a good work-life balance. This hybrid role requires you to come to our Manchester office 2-3 days a week.
You'll also have the option of working from abroad for up to 120 days a year!* But no matter where you are, we’ll make sure you’ve got everything you need to thrive, both in your work and home life, from day one.
*Subject to having the right to work in the country of choice
Diversity Statement
Zopa is proud to offer a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds leads to better products for our customers and a unique company culture for our people. We are made up of nearly 50 nationalities, have a DE&I forum made up of Zopians wanting to make a difference and we are proud of our culture where everyone can bring their full self to work. Our approach to DE&I is reflected in our hiring process so please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.
Top Skills
Microsoft Office Suite
Transaction Monitoring Systems
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The Company
What We Do
We’re Zopa, and we want to make money work better for you. Our diverse team is united in their mission of creating simple, fair and honest financial products that have the customer’s needs at their heart. We’re proud that this dedication is reflected in our excellent rating on TrustPilot. We’ve always been unapologetically honest with our customers, and value the same in return. Their feedback helps us shape what we build, so we can provide a bank fit for today, and for the future. We’re not the new kids on the block though - we’ve been a pioneering force in finance for 16 years. In 2005, we built the first ever peer-to-peer (P2P) lending company, giving our customers access to loans built for real-life and intelligent investments backed by cutting-edge tech. In 2020, we launched Zopa Bank, meaning we could offer more – like fixed term savings backed by FSCS protection and a credit card to help customers take control of their finances. We’ve lent out over £6 billion and are proud to have made money work better for over half a million people across the UK, whether they were looking to borrow or save.
