Job Summary

The role of Associate Director, FCR, Sanctions, GCNA, based in China, offers a pivotal opportunity to serve as a Sanctions Subject Matter Expert within Standard Chartered, reporting directly to the Head of Sanctions for the region. This position demands providing comprehensive, high-quality advisory services to both first and second line teams concerning the application of the Group's sanctions policies, standards, and relevant legal frameworks—specifically focusing on US, EU, UK and UN sanctions laws and regulations as well as export controls. The individual in this role will be the primary escalation point, trusted to resolve complex sanctions-related queries with precision and strategic insight.

This position encompasses a broad array of responsibilities beyond direct advisory functions, including preparing management information and detailed reports for senior leadership, engaging with regulatory bodies and audits, conducting risk reviews of high-profile clients, and contributing to the design and implementation of sanctions controls. The role also involves crafting customized training materials and communication strategies to elevate sanctions awareness and compliance across the organization. Additionally, support will be provided to global and regional initiatives requiring sanctions expertise, reinforcing the bank’s commitment to robust financial crime compliance.

This role is ideally suited for a seasoned professional who thrives in a dynamic compliance environment and is motivated by challenging regulatory landscapes.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy

•    Awareness and understanding of the Group's business strategy and model appropriate to the role

Business
•    Ensure that key changes on Sanctions (to laws, rules, regulations) are communicated and cascaded (in region/country), in coordination with group communications.
•    Support relevant stakeholders to make decisions based on current and possible future policies, practices, and trends.
•    Keep track of and provide advice to relevant stakeholders on the interpretation and application of regulatory expectations, laws, best practices and policies related to Sanctions, FCC.
•    Be updated on current events, regulatory issues and new and changing Sanctions regulations, in country, in the UK, US, EU, UN and internationally.
•    Provide advice and guidance to businesses and functions in a timely, effective and constructive manner on client relationships, transactions, products and all other issues escalated to the Regional FCC Sanctions
Processes
•    Providing governance and oversight over the implementation of relevant FCC-related policies and procedures in Region/Business to ensure compliance with such policies and procedures.
•    Provide support to ensure Sanctions Advisory team operates in compliance with the relevant Sanctions Policies, Procedures and Departmental Operating Instructions. 
•    Ensure process controls are commensurate to the risk and effectively working for Sanctions Advisory team in compliance with the procedures and regulatory timescales.
•    Actively support projects and inititives involving CDD, transactions review and products / services ensuring risks are adequately highlighted and mitigated appropriately thereby enabling smooth implementation.

People & Talent
•    Identify training needs of Regional Sanctions team and deliver the necessary training on a continuous basis.
•    Deliver/support /Sanctions/ training programs to meet the training needs of FCC.
•    Deliver/support Sanctions/ training programs to meet the training needs of the business.

Risk Management
•    Understand technical aspects of systems relevant to Transaction and Name Screening, Case Management, Monitoring, CDD and Client Risk Assessments.
•    Establish and maintain watch lists used for customer and transaction screening and various other due diligence and investigative purposes (local/regional internal and external).
•    Apply Group and FCC policies and processes to manage risks.
•    Make recommendations (and/or implement) to relevant stakeholders on possible risk management responses to identified risks and/or findings of concerns from investigations.
•    Assess risks arising from geographies / customers / transactions.
•    Identify financial crime risk indicators through various internal/external sources that impact SCB and its clients.
•    Implement Sanctions risks identification and assessment methodologies. 
•    Advise relevant stakeholders on outcomes of Sanctions risks identification and assessment methodologies. 
•    Conduct a root cause analysis on the control/other failures to ensure lessons are learned across the bank.
•    Provide intelligence (to internal forums) on specific clients, client-types and emerging risk typologies.
•    Escalate immediately to Regional Head of Sanctions material breaches or potential breaches of sanctions laws, regulation or Group procedures.
•    Escalate key risks and issues timely to  Regional and Country Management on Sanctions matters that require their attention.
•    Partner with legal counsels for advice on technical matters.

Governance
•    Support all control checks undertaken by FCC under the Operational Risk Framework (ORF) from sanctions perspective.
•    Be accountable for identification and escalation of potential risks and issues to senior management through appropriate governance channels and the Quality Assurance framework.
•    Analyse and interpret data to produce reports that help the bank identify and manage emerging areas of risk / vulnerability and thus drive remediation action within the FCC function.

Regulatory & Business Conduct

•    Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct. 
•    Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
•    Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Key stakeholders

•    Country FCC and CFCR Advisory 
•    Regional and Group CFCR
•    Relationship Managers and Front Office
•    CDD Ops and Middle Office
•    Audit/ Assurance and other Quality Control Functions

Other Responsibilities
•    Embed Here for good and Group’s brand and values in GCNA Sanctions Advisory team;
•    Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Country, Business or Functional policies and procedures;

Skills and Experience

•    Strong working experience in Financial Crime Compliance in a financial institution, law firm and/or consulting firm, preferably with experience in sanctions compliance in financial institutions. 
•    Sound project/change management experience 
•    Sound knowledge of sanctions related laws and regulations and their applications in client review, transaction review and product review 
•    Excellent interpersonal and communication skills across all levels of stakeholders 
•    Professional level of English writing skills 
•    Knowledge in Chinese language is preferred but not mandatory 
•    Positive attitude to work in a time sensitive environment 
•    Good team player and self-motivated 

Role Specific Technical Competencies

•    Compliance Polices and Standards
•    Compliance Advisory
•    Investigations
•    Compliance Risk Assessment
•    Regulatory Liaison 

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.