The Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), holding SMF16 (Compliance Oversight) and SMF17 (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) across regulated group entities, is responsible for leading regulatory, compliance, conduct, and financial crime frameworks across the organisation.
The role exists to protect the organisation, its clients, and its long-term strategic objectives by ensuring compliant growth, maintaining high regulatory standards, and embedding a strong culture of accountability and integrity.
As a member of the executive leadership team, the CCO ensures regulatory risks are clearly understood, proactively managed, and aligned with the organisation’s strategy of sustainable and scalable growth, including both organic expansion and acquisition activity. The role provides strategic challenge, independent oversight, and expert advice to the Board, executive leadership, and business units.
The role also includes:
- Promoting a strong compliance culture and high standards of conduct across all locations and business units.
- Ensuring regulated activities deliver positive outcomes for clients in line with Consumer Duty and FCA principles.
- Providing regulatory leadership and due-diligence oversight for acquisitions and corporate transactions.
- Ensuring robust systems and controls covering AML, financial crime, conduct risk, data protection, and governance.
Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities
1. Compliance Oversight (SMF16)
- Maintain and oversee the organisation’s compliance framework in accordance with SYSC 6.
- Ensure the organisation meets all regulatory obligations, threshold conditions, and reporting requirements.
- Lead the development, maintenance, and enhancement of compliance policies, training programmes, monitoring plans, and risk-based oversight frameworks.
- Ensure effective management information (MI), KPIs, and Consumer Duty outcome testing across business operations.
- Act as the primary interface with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), maintaining open and cooperative regulatory engagement.
- Oversee SMCR governance, including fitness and propriety assessments, Statements of Responsibility, and Conduct Rules training.
2. Financial Crime & AML Oversight (SMF17)
- Lead the organisation’s AML, financial crime, and sanctions frameworks in accordance with SYSC 6.3.
- Produce the annual MLRO report and enterprise-wide AML risk assessment.
- Oversee suspicious activity reporting processes, ensuring timely escalation to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and other authorities where required.
- Ensure staff receive regular training covering financial crime, fraud prevention, bribery and corruption, sanctions compliance, and data security.
- Maintain financial crime policies, procedures, and risk registers, ensuring proportionality to the organisation’s activities and regulatory obligations.
3. Compliance Leadership
- Lead the development and management of the organisation’s compliance and financial crime functions.
- Oversee regulatory due diligence and onboarding of acquired businesses into the organisation’s compliance framework.
- Ensure adherence to Consumer Duty (PRIN 2A) through appropriate governance, MI, and product oversight.
- Lead compliance monitoring across regulated wealth management and investment management activities, including MiFIDPRU and IFPR requirements.
4. Decision-Making Authority
The role holder has delegated authority for:
- Approving compliance policies, frameworks, and standards
- Approving financial crime escalations and reporting decisions
- Making recommendations regarding regulatory risk appetite
- Issuing regulatory notifications
- Approving financial promotions and client communications
- Escalating material regulatory issues directly to the Board and regulators
Leadership & Cultural Responsibilities
The CCO is responsible for shaping the organisation’s compliance culture and ensuring regulatory expectations are embedded in everyday behaviours.
Key leadership responsibilities include:
- Leading and developing a high-performing compliance and financial crime team.
- Coaching and supporting senior managers and operational leaders across the organisation.
- Promoting transparent communication, early escalation of issues, and continuous learning.
- Acting as a role model for professional standards, ethical decision-making, and responsible leadership.
The CCO should foster an environment where employees feel confident raising concerns, understand their regulatory responsibilities, and remain focused on delivering positive client outcomes.
Governance, Risk & Stakeholder Management
- Provide expert challenge and guidance at Board meetings, risk committees, and executive forums.
- Ensure the Board receives high-quality MI on regulatory risks, Consumer Duty outcomes, complaints, AML risks, and compliance monitoring activity.
- Maintain a proactive and constructive relationship with the FCA, ensuring transparent engagement and timely responses.
- Identify, assess, monitor, and report regulatory and conduct risks across the organisation.
- Lead the regulatory workstream for acquisition activity, including due diligence, integration planning, and oversight.
- Ensure effective data protection governance, including acting as Data Protection Officer where required.
- Partner with internal stakeholders including Operations, Finance, Investment Management, and HR to embed compliant operational practices.
- Represent the organisation externally with regulators, law enforcement, and professional bodies where appropriate.
Financial & Performance Accountability
- Accountability for the operational effectiveness of compliance and financial crime functions.
- Ensure compliance operations remain efficient while maintaining strong regulatory standards.
- Oversee regulatory capital and prudential reporting obligations where relevant, including MiFIDPRU / IFPR requirements.
- Monitor and report on key compliance performance indicators, including:
- Compliance monitoring outcomes
- Regulatory interactions and submissions
- Consumer Duty outcomes
- Complaints trends and root cause analysis
- Financial crime risk indicators
- Training and competence completion rates
- Ensure robust regulatory due diligence and integration processes for acquisition activity.
- Support organisational growth by enabling compliant expansion and maintaining client trust.
Experience
- Extensive experience within financial services, including areas such as retail banking, wealth management, compliance, investment management, or regulatory oversight.
- Senior leadership experience in roles such as Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Director, MLRO, or SMF16/SMF17.
- Strong experience interacting with regulators and implementing major regulatory programmes.
- Demonstrated experience designing and embedding enterprise-wide compliance frameworks.
- Experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, or organisational integration from a regulatory perspective.
Capabilities
- Strong knowledge of the FCA Handbook, including SYSC, COCON, PRIN, MiFIDPRU, IFPR, and financial crime regulations.
- Excellent analytical and risk assessment capabilities.
- Ability to translate regulatory expectations into practical, commercially workable solutions.
- Strong governance and management information design skills.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence senior stakeholders.