Global Financial Crimes Specialist - MLRO Support

Job Description:

Job Title: Global Financial Crimes Specialist – MLRO Support

Corporate Title: Up to Vice President

Location: Belfast  

Company Overview:

At Bank of America, we are guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better through the power of every connection.  Responsible Growth is how we run our company and how we deliver for our clients, teammates, communities and shareholders every day.

One of the keys to driving Responsible Growth is being a great place to work for our teammates around the world.  We’re devoted to being a diverse and inclusive workplace for everyone.  We hire individuals with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences and invest heavily in our teammates and their families by offering competitive benefits to support their physical, emotional, and financial well-being.

Bank of America believes both in the importance of working together and offering flexibility to our employees.  We use a multi-faceted approach for flexibility, depending on the various roles in our organization.

Working at Bank of America will give you a great career with opportunities to learn, grow and make an impact, along with the power to make a difference. Join us!

Join Us in Belfast – A City of Opportunity and Innovation

We’re thrilled to announce the opening of our new office in Belfast—a vibrant, fast-growing hub for financial services and technology, and a strategic addition to Bank of America’s global footprint. This expansion underscores our commitment to investing in talent and driving innovation across the UK and Ireland.

Our new offices at City Quays are in the heart of a city celebrated for its rich history, dynamic culture, and thriving business community. Whether you’re local or considering relocation, you’ll find a welcoming environment, an excellent quality of life, and the opportunity to help shape the future of banking.

About Bank of America in Belfast

Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, powered by approximately 213,000 talented employees worldwide. Our new Belfast facility will strengthen our business continuity planning and risk management capabilities while reinforcing the expertise and value delivered across our global teams. We’re committed to creating up to 1,000 new roles, starting with positions in Global Anti-Money Laundering Operations and Global Financial Crimes Compliance. These teams will focus on critical areas such as client due diligence, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance support—key functions that safeguard the integrity of the international financial system.

Role Description

This role is responsible for supporting Global Financial Crimes (GFC) in submitting Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), through the review of Activity Intelligence Reports (AIRs), preparation of SAR narratives, and quality review of SAR narratives for submission to Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs).

The successful candidate will act as a key partner to MLROs and investigative teams, ensuring SAR narratives clearly articulate suspicious activity, are factually accurate, and comply with applicable regulatory, legal and policy requirements. The role requires the ability to review complex financial crime investigations, assess investigative findings, and communicate conclusions effectively through concise, high-quality written narratives.

Key responsibilities include maintaining adherence to strict regulatory and internal service level agreements, identifying potential quality concerns, supporting continuous improvement initiatives, and contributing to the effective mitigation of financial crime risk across multiple jurisdictions.

Responsibilities

• Draft clear, accurate, and comprehensive SAR narratives that effectively communicate suspicious activity, financial crime typologies, customer behaviour, transactional activity, and investigative findings.

• Perform quality reviews of draft SAR narratives to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements, internal standards, and jurisdiction-specific reporting expectations.

• Partner closely with Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) to support regulatory reporting decisions and facilitate timely filing of SARs with applicable Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs).

• Challenge and provide feedback on AIR quality, investigative findings, and narrative completeness where additional information or clarification is required.

• Ensure all assigned work is completed within established regulatory and internal service level agreements while maintaining high quality standards.

• Identify trends, recurring quality issues, and opportunities to enhance narrative consistency, investigative outputs, and reporting effectiveness.

• Support governance, quality assurance, and continuous improvement initiatives related to SAR reporting and financial crime investigations.

• Escalate risks, issues, and emerging financial crime concerns through appropriate governance channels.

• Maintain current knowledge of applicable AML regulations, financial crime typologies, and jurisdiction-specific SAR reporting requirements.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience.

• Demonstrable Anti-Money Laundering (AML), financial crimes, investigations, compliance, intelligence, or sanctions experience.

• Experience reviewing investigations, AIRs, case documentation, or regulatory reporting submissions.

• Excellent written communication skills with the ability to translate complex investigative findings into concise and effective regulatory narratives.

• Experience interpreting financial crime typologies and identifying suspicious activity indicators.

• Ability to analyse large volumes of information and exercise sound judgement in a risk-based environment

• Proven stakeholder management skills with the ability to engage effectively with investigators, MLROs, compliance partners, and senior stakeholders.

Desired Qualifications

• ACAMS, ICA, or equivalent financial crime certification.

• Experience drafting or reviewing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).

• Knowledge of global financial crimes regulations and international reporting requirements.

• Experience working with Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), regulatory reporting teams, or MLRO functions.

• Knowledge of global banking products, transaction flows, and associated financial crime risks.

Benefits of working at Bank of America

UK

• Private healthcare for you and your family

• Competitive pension plan, life assurance and group income protection cover if you become unable to work as a result of a disability or health reasons

• 20 days of back-up childcare including virtual tutoring and 20 days of back-up adult care per annum

• The ability to change your core benefits as well as the option of selecting a variety of flexible benefits to suit your personal circumstances including access to a wellbeing account, travel insurance, critical illness etc

• Use of a flex fund to use towards benefits

• Access to an emotional wellbeing helpline, and virtual GP services

• Access to the Peppy App which provides 1:1 support, consultations and resources relating to men’s health, women’s health, fertility, menopause and pregnancy & parenthood

• Access to a range of gyms, exercise classes and wellbeing Apps through Wellhub, including Headspace and Calm

• Ability to donate to charities of your choice directly through payroll and the bank will match your contribution

• Opportunity to give back to your community, develop new skills and work with new groups of people by volunteering in your local area

Bank of America

Good conduct and sound judgment is crucial to our long term success. It’s important that all employees in the organisation understand the expected standards of conduct and how we manage conduct risk. Individual accountability and an ownership mind-set are the cornerstones of our Code of Conduct and are at the heart of managing risk well.

We are an equal opportunities employer and ensure that no applicant is subject to less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, gender identity or gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, race, religious or similar philosophical belief, political opinion, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, socio-economic background, responsibility for dependants or physical or mental disability. The Bank selects candidates for interview based on their skills, qualifications and experience.

We monitor the community background and sex of our job applicants and employees in order to demonstrate our commitment to promoting equality of opportunity in employment and to comply with our duties under the Fair Employment & Treatment (NI) Order 1998. We invite you to register your information by completing the following form https://bac.avature.net/belfast

We strive to ensure that our recruitment processes are accessible for all candidates and encourage any candidates to tell us about any adjustment requirements.