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City of Westminster, England, United Kingdom
Hybrid
About Allica Bank
Allica is the UK’s fastest growing company - and the fastest-growing financial technology (Fintech) firm ever. Our purpose is to help established SMEs, one of the last major underserved opportunities in Fintech.
Established SMEs are the backbone of local communities - representing over a third of our economy - yet have been largely neglected both by traditional high street banks and modern fintech providers.
Department Description
The Compliance function is Allica Bank's independent second line for managing regulatory compliance risk. It helps the Bank grow safely by making regulatory obligations clear, practical and evidenced, while preserving 1LOD ownership of day-to-day compliance and maintaining independent oversight and challenge.
This role sits within the compliance and conduct team, reporting to the “Senior Manager Compliance and Conduct”. The wider department includes Financial Crime, Operational Risk, and an Assurance team, all of which report to the Chief Compliance Officer (SMF16). The compliance and conduct team support the design and operation of a scalable compliance risk framework for a UK business bank serving SME customers.
Role Description
Provide independent 2LOD oversight, advice and challenge over the Bank's compliance with applicable FCA, PSR, FSCS and other relevant regulatory obligations, which can include PRA requirements in conjunction with the 2LOD Financial Risk teams.
Maintain and develop the regulatory compliance framework, obligations inventory, regulatory change process, perimeter and permissions oversight, regulatory reporting oversight, breach and notification framework, SMCR governance support, regulatory engagement processes and compliance MI.
The role supports, advises, monitors, challenges and escalates to the CCO/SMF16 and relevant governance forums.
In scope: regulatory compliance framework, obligations mapping, rule interpretation, regulatory change, compliance advice and challenge, regulatory reporting oversight, breach/notification management, SMCR governance support, policy standards, evidence management and senior governance reporting.
Out of scope: Conduct Risk ownership, Consumer Duty/customer outcome monitoring, fair value, vulnerable customer oversight, complaints root cause, DISP ownership, customer redress, Financial Crime, prudential risk ownership, operational resilience ownership, formal legal advice, Internal Audit and 1LOD control operation.
Principal Accountabilities
The role holder will own and be responsible for a number of the following accountabilities, and will support the “Senior Manager Compliance and Conduct" with the others.
The split of tasks will be determined by the experience of the role holder (i.e. you do not need to have experience for all the below, but you must be able to take responsibility for a number of these accountabilities). The ultimate Accountability remains with the SMF16.
Maintain and develop the Bank's regulatory compliance framework, including taxonomy, risk appetite, KRIs, policy standards, obligations mapping, Horizon Scanning, escalation routes and governance reporting.
Maintain the regulatory obligations inventory and map applicable requirements to accountable owners, policies, controls, MI, assurance and evidence.
Provide 2LOD advice and challenge on FCA/PRA Handbook requirements, permissions, perimeter, regulatory change, SMCR, regulatory reporting, breaches, notifications and regulatory engagement.
Support 1LOD on perimeter and permissions assessments for new products, business changes, partnerships, customer segments, distribution models, countries of operation and structural changes.
Own or support regulatory change and horizon scanning, including impact assessment, gap analysis, implementation oversight and reporting to governance forums.
Review and challenge new product papers, including product compliance checklists, financial promotions, product information, and any rule applicability.
Oversee the regulatory reporting governance requirements, including defined ownership, processes, controls, data lineage, sign-off, timeliness and breach escalation. Regulatory reporting returns are owned by relevant teams – this is an oversight responsibility in 2LOD.
Oversee regulatory breach management, including materiality assessment, root-cause challenge, remediation tracking, notification consideration and closure evidence.
Support with regulatory engagement and commitments, including supervisory correspondence, information requests, regulatory meetings, Dear CEO/portfolio letters (as part of Horizon Scanning), and the reporting for senior management updates.
Maintain compliance policies, standards, practical 1LOD guidance and regulatory training, including targeted guidance on financial promotions/social media, and relevant regulatory requirements.
Support HR on SMCR, FIT and accountability governance
Provide 2LOD oversight of FSCS/depositor protection obligations, including disclosure, eligibility, Single Customer View, exclusions view and testing evidence.
Produce clear, actionable compliance MI for senior management, ExCo, Board committees and relevant governance forums.
Maintain oversight of any other regulatory compliance requirements as required
Personal Attributes & Experience
Strong UK banking regulatory compliance experience, ideally in a dual-regulated bank, building society, SME lender, payment services environment or comparable regulated financial services business.
Detailed working knowledge of FCA and PRA expectations relevant to a UK business bank, including SYSC, SUP, PRIN, BCOBS, FIT, PERG, SMCR, regulatory reporting, payments regulation and FSCS/depositor protection. PROD/ESG knowledge is desirable where applicable to the Bank's product set.
Ability to interpret regulatory requirements and translate them into practical controls, evidence standards, committee papers and business guidance.
Data-led and evidence-led: comfortable using MI, KRIs, breach data, monitoring outputs and audit findings to identify trends and drive remediation.
Must be comfortable using analytics and using and building AI-enabled tools safely and pragmatically, with appropriate attention to data quality, governance, explainability, validation and human judgement.
Experience building or maintaining an obligations inventory, regulatory change process, compliance monitoring plan, breach/notification process and senior governance MI.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce CCO and committee-level reports that are concise, risk-based and root-cause analysis that support decisions.
Able to challenge senior stakeholders clearly while preserving the distinction between 2LOD oversight and 1LOD ownership.
Strong judgement on when to escalate, and when to seek specialist input from other departments.
Practical, disciplined and comfortable operating in a scaling bank where the control environment needs to mature without becoming unnecessarily bureaucratic
Working at Allica Bank
At Allica Bank we want to ensure our employees have the right tools and environment in which to succeed in their role and in support of our customers.
Our employees are at the heart of everything we do, so our benefits are designed with you in mind:
Full onboarding support and continued development opportunities
Options for flexible working
Regular social activities
Pension contributions
Discretionary bonus scheme
Private health cover
Life assurance
Family friendly policies including enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave
Don’t tick every box?
Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills or requirements listed on the job description. If you think you’ll be a good fit, we’d still love to hear from you!
Flexible working
We know the ‘9-to-5’ isn’t right for everyone. That’s why Allica Bank is fully committed to flexible and hybrid working. Please let us know what is best for you and, if we can, we will do our best to accommodate.
Diversity
We’re a diverse bunch here at Allica, with all kinds of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles. Our openness and differences make us stronger, and we want everybody to feel comfortable bringing as much of themselves to work with them as they like.
