Financial Crime Prevention
- Description
- Tasks
- Skills
- Useful Knowledge
- Entry Qualifications
- Professional Qualifications
- Trends
- Resources
Inevitably, financial organisations are targets for criminals wishing to defraud individuals and companies. People working in banking, insurance and credit fraud teams play a pivotal role in policing and identifying fraudulent activities. Part of their job is prevention. The other is to look for discrepancies and transactions that just don’t add up; for instance, a chip and pin being used to pay for goods in two very different parts of the world or a suspicious loan, life insurance policy surrender or mortgage application. Using leading-edge technology, industry insight and profiling techniques, analysts, screeners and investigators try to mitigate exposures to loss by pre-empting the criminal minds. They also analyse transactions to try and spot subtle patterns of fraudulent activity.
Salary
Entry level positions, such as a junior fraud analyst, start at approximately £15,000 per annum. With the right experience, qualifications and skills you could progress to management roles and earn in excess of £50,000 per annum. This does not include potential bonuses and additional benefits. Salaries will vary considerably based on location and employer.
- Developing strategies and policies to counter financial crime
- Implementing risk controls and fraud prevention systems
- Gathering, analysing and responding to financial crime information
- Following the internal protocols when a suspected fraudulent activity is suspected
- Responding to and resolving customer enquiries
- Close liaison with fraud operational and fraud risk strategy teams, as well as external empowered authorities
- Record keeping and producing reports on investigations
- Monitoring the effectiveness of systems and controls to counter financial crime
- Confident using IT
- Good with numbers
- Attention to detail and strong analytical skills
- Ability to adapt to changing priorities
- Good communicator, verbally and in report writing
- Common sense and trustworthy
- Confidence to lead and take the initiative for assigned projects
- Problem solving
A new entrant will not always be required to have this knowledge. Employers usually provide training to acquire skills for:
- Financial anti-fraud systems commonly used, notably, Hunter, Falcon, SAS and SPSS
- Payment solutions and processing
- Emerging fraudulent challenges and credit risk
- Understanding of financial crime law and regulation
It is likely that before working in credit fraud, you will have previously worked in financial services payment processing, credit risk or possesses experience working with data. Anti-fraud jobs require an understanding of numbers and data, specifically how to recognise patterns. Qualifications in maths and other business related topics are useful. IT skills are also essential. For entry into strategic level anti-fraud jobs, employers often ask for a degree in maths, statistics or another quantitative discipline. Some senior roles require practical experience combined with an accounting or audit qualification. In order to gain an entry level position, employers will look for people who have:
- GCSEs or A Levels, Scottish Standard Grades or Highers, or equivalent qualifications such as Business, Administration and Finance (BAF) Diploma, Welsh Baccalaureate (BAC), Scottish National Qualifications at Intermediate 2 (SCQF Level 5), SVQ Level 3 or Higher National Certificate (SCQF Level 7)
Qualifications undertaken once in the job vary widely.
In the credit sector the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) offers a Level 3 Diploma and Level 5 Diploma in Credit Management.
In retail banking, the International Compliance Association (ICA offers qualifications specifically focused on countering financial crime and endorsed by the British Bankers’ Association:
- Certificate in Financial Crime Awareness (Introductory level)
- International Advanced Certificate in Compliance and Financial Crime (Intermediate level)
- Diploma and International Diploma in Financial Crime Prevention (Advanced Level).
Specific knowledge and qualifications may be needed in some banking jobs.
- People analysing transactions may have a familiarity of working with data systems, the Data Protection Act and the CIFAS register and APACS reporting procedures.
- Investigative roles are experience-based and require a full understanding of the data protection rules. Taking Professionalism in Security (PINS) qualification may be appropriate. A degree in criminal justice or criminal law or numeracy may be needed.
- Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Officers detect and prevent anti-money laundering risks to a business. This typically requires excellent knowledge of Anti Money Laundering laws and regulations with experience in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. The ICA offers an introductory Certificate and Advanced Certificate and a Graduate Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering.
Many professional courses are equivalent to university level study. The ICM Diploma in Credit Management offers an accelerated route to:
- Level 5 Foundation degree in Credit Management, offered by University of West London
- Level 6 BA (Hons) in Credit Management (top up)
- Level 6 BA (Hons) in Business Studies with Credit Management – University of West of England
The ICA’s Level 6 Graduate Diplomas offers an accelerated route to
- Level 6 BSc (hons) in Management and Compliance offered by the University of Manchester Business School
Banks, credit card and loan companies employ people to analyse transactions and applications within their fraud strategy and risk management teams. Large retailers, using online transactional facilities may employ a small number within their accounting and finance teams. Anti-fraud positions also exist within corporate banking and investment functions, as well as insurance claims departments. Opportunities are nationwide in large administrative and operational centres. There may be a global dimension in senior jobs, as investigators can liaise with international counterparts. Financial fraud and mitigating loss remains very relevant in today’s climate, providing a growing number of opportunities within credit risk departments. Career development may take the form of specialising in certain areas of strategic fraud or people management. In large firms, department head, consulting or Board level opportunities may arise.
