Money Laundering Reporting Officer

About us

Tamara is a leading fintech platform in Saudi Arabia and the GCC region with a mission to help people own their dreams built on being simple, trusted, and everywhere our customers need us. Today, more than 25 million customers and over 130,000 partner merchants depend on Tamara every day for reliable financial solutions across retail, travel, education, healthcare, and beyond. Tamara is backed by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), and SNB Capital, among others.

Tamara is Saudi’s first fintech unicorn and is backed by Sanabil Investments, SNB Capital, Checkout.com, amongst others, operating out of its headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with other regional and global support offices.

About the role

The Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) oversees the financial crime compliance framework at Tamara, a finance company licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). Reporting directly to the Head of Compliance, UAE, the MLRO operates as a senior and independent second line control function, supporting the identification, assessment, management, monitoring, and reporting of money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, targeted financial sanctions, and related financial crime risks across the company.

The role assesses internal suspicious activity referrals, submits Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) to the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) through the approved UAE reporting channels, acts as a key point of contact with the CBUAE and other relevant UAE authorities on financial crime matters, and reports to the Head of Compliance, UAE, Senior Management, and relevant governance forums.

This is a senior position, candidates should have 8 or more years of relevant experience in anti-money laundering (AML), countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), sanctions, or financial crime compliance gained within a regulated financial institution, fintech, finance company, bank, payment service provider, or similar environment, with demonstrated experience engaging with the CBUAE in a comparable financial crime compliance role.

Your responsibilities

Financial crime framework & risk assessments:

• Maintain and oversee the company’s AML, CFT, countering proliferation financing (CPF), targeted financial sanctions, and financial crime compliance framework, ensuring policies, procedures, methodologies, and controls remain aligned with UAE laws, CBUAE requirements, and internal standards.

• Assess the applicability and impact of new or amended UAE AML, CFT, CPF, and sanctions requirements and support the implementation of required changes across the company.

• Lead the company’s institutional money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risk assessment, covering risks relating to customers, products, merchants, delivery channels, geographies, technology, outsourcing, and new business activities.

• Ensure risk assessment outcomes are translated into proportionate controls, monitoring activities, and risk-based priorities.

Customer due diligence & sanctions oversight:

• Establish second line requirements for customer identification, verification, due diligence, enhanced due diligence, beneficial ownership, source of funds, and customer risk classification.

• Provide oversight and challenge of first line onboarding and due diligence controls, review material or high-risk cases escalated to the second line, and advise Senior Management before decisions are taken to onboard or retain high-risk customers.

• Maintain oversight of sanctions, politically exposed persons (PEPs), watchlist, and adverse media screening requirements, and review material sanctions escalations and advise on appropriate action.

• Oversee compliance with applicable UAE targeted financial sanctions requirements, including the implementation of funds freezing measures, the handling of search and freeze instructions received from the relevant UAE authorities, and related reporting obligations

Transaction monitoring & suspicious transaction reporting:

• Oversee the effectiveness of the company’s transaction monitoring arrangements, including scenarios, thresholds, alert handling, investigations, and case management, and review material or complex cases escalated by the first line.

• Escalate control weaknesses, backlogs, data issues, or system limitations affecting financial crime controls and monitor remediation through to closure.

• Assess internal suspicious transaction and activity referrals, determine whether external reporting is required, and submit STRs, Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), and other applicable reports to the UAE FIU through the approved UAE reporting channels.

• Implement appropriate follow-up actions after reporting, maintain strict confidentiality, prevent tipping off, and maintain records supporting decisions to report or not to report.

Regulatory engagement & governance reporting:

• Act as a key point of contact for the CBUAE, the UAE FIU, and other relevant UAE authorities on AML, CFT, CPF, sanctions, and financial crime matters, including requests from law enforcement agencies.

• Coordinate financial crime regulatory reporting, notifications, inspections, information requests, and supervisory reviews, ensuring submissions are accurate, complete, supported, and completed within applicable timelines.

• Prepare and submit the semi-annual MLRO compliance report to Senior Management and the CBUAE in line with applicable UAE requirements.

• Provide regular reporting to the Head of Compliance, UAE, Senior Management, and relevant governance forums on financial crime risks, control effectiveness, suspicious activity, sanctions matters, breaches, regulatory developments, and remediation progress.

• Escalate significant financial crime concerns, control failures, or regulatory matters to the Head of Compliance, UAE, and Senior Management without undue delay.

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