Description
About Thunes: Thunes is the Smart Superhighway to move money around the world. Thunes’ proprietary Direct Global Network allows Members to make payments in real-time in over 140 countries and more than 90 currencies.
Context of the Role Reporting directly to the Global KYC Director, the CDD Team Lead will manage and mentor the CDD / Client Onboarding team based in Barcelona while conducting more complex CDD cases as well. In this role, you will lead day-to-day operations for institutional partner and customer onboarding (KYC/KYB/PDD) and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD).
Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Operations Oversight
- Lead & Mentor: Directly supervise, coach, and support the CDD officers, fostering continuous learning and high analytical standards.
- Workflow & SLA Management: Allocate, monitor, and optimize case distribution across onboarding reviews to meet agreed-upon turnaround times (SLAs) without compromising risk rigor.
- Quality Assurance (QA) & 4-Eyes Review: Act as the first escalation and sign-off point for complex files; conduct spot-checks and quality reviews to maintain consistency across analyst determinations.
- Capacity & Metric Tracking: Track team capacity, pipeline volume, and KPIs (e.g., aging days, cycle times, pass/reject rates); deliver operational reports and actionable insights to the Global KYC Director.
End-to-End CDD, KYB & EDD Execution
- Complex Case Ownership: Oversee and handle high-risk and complex corporate structures (e.g., multi-layered shareholding, funds, state-owned entities, PSPs, aggregators, and nested payment models).
- Compliance Screening & Assessment: Drive deep-dive background checks, PEP/sanctions/adverse media evaluations, and source of wealth/funds verifications using internal tools and external screening platforms.
- Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD): Conduct in-depth compliance assessments of regulated partners to evaluate AML/CTF controls.
- Policy Application: Ensure all reviews align with Thunes’ Risk Appetite, Class of Trade matrix, High-Risk Country lists, and CDD Desk Procedures.
Escalations & Stakeholder Management
- Governance Escalations: Prepare structured case summaries and risk rationales for escalation to the Global KYC Director, local MLROs, and Executive Committees where required.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: Act as the primary liaison for commercial teams (Sales / Account Managers), Legal, and Product to resolve onboarding bottlenecks and explain CDD requirements transparently.
- Audit & Regulatory Support: Support internal control audits, external regulatory reviews, and remediation exercises relating to partner onboarding files.
Professional Experience & Qualifications
- Experience: 5+ years of dedicated KYC / KYB / CDD experience within FinTech, cross-border payments, merchant acquiring, or international corporate banking.
- Leadership: Minimum 1–2 years of experience in a team lead, senior specialist, or supervisory role managing a team’s daily caseload and performance.
- Subject Matter Expertise: Deep expertise in institutional and corporate onboarding (B2B / KYB), complex beneficial ownership structures (UBO tracing), and non-bank financial institution (NBFI/PSP) risk profiles.
- Systems & Tooling: Hands-on experience with core AML/KYC platforms and screening tools.
- Analytical & Pragmatic Mindset: Ability to balance regulatory compliance standards with commercial awareness in a fast-paced scale-up environment.
- Certifications: ACAMS (CAMS), ICA, or equivalent AML qualification is strongly preferred.
- Languages: Full professional proficiency in English is required. Additional languages are a strong plus given our global network.