Enforcement – Senior Associate
Salary or salary range: Competitive
Contract type: Full-time
Location of position: London
Application deadline: 07/07/2024
Job Description
To find out more about this role, and other opportunities, in the Supervision and Compliance Monitoring Division at the PSR join our recruitment webinar on Monday 1st July at 2pm. You'll get a chance to meet the Enforcement and Compliance Management team, find out first-hand what the role involves and ask any questions you might have. Scroll down to the bottom of the advert for full Teams details.
About the PSR
How payments work affects the society we live in; the challenges faced by the vulnerable; how likely we are to fall victim to fraud; and how easily we can manage our money. Payments underpin our economy.
Behind these payments are several important payment systems. We rely on these systems to support markets, facilitate competition and drive innovation. This helps to deliver new products, find new ways to protect people from harm, and deliver services that give people and businesses more choice and control about how to pay and be paid.
We need the technology, the rules governing the use of these systems and the markets they support to all work well. This is where the PSR plays an important role – we are the economic regulator of, and competition authority for, those systems. We protect people and businesses and promote competition and innovation in these systems and the markets that they support.
The PSR is an independent economic regulator led by Managing Director, David Geale. We are directly accountable to Parliament and funded by the payments industry. We work closely with other regulators involved in this sector, notably the Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the Competition and Markets Authority. Operationally we are an independent subsidiary of the Financial Conduct Authority.
Purpose of the role
The PSR is covering larger and more complex areas of work than ever before. Through active monitoring, supervision and enforcement, we will make sure people and businesses can continue to have confidence in the payment systems they use every single day.
The Supervision and Compliance Monitoring (SCM) Division is responsible for ensuring that the PSR’s regulatory requirements are complied with and improving outcomes for everyone that uses payments systems by challenging poor practice within firms. The SCM Division was established in June 2023 and carries out three main functions:
Supervision: develops relationships with those we regulate to understand how they take decisions, manage risk and deliver the right outcomes for users of payments systems
Compliance Monitoring: focuses on ensuring compliance with the PSR's directions, requirements and regulations through the gathering of evidence, fieldwork and data analysis. We use this knowledge to ensure that any non-compliance is quickly resolved and to decide if formal regulatory intervention is more appropriate
Enforcement: investigates potential breaches of our directions, requirements and regulations, with the power to impose fines and publish details of identified breaches
We are recruiting for a Senior Associate to work in our Enforcement team within the SCM Division. The role reports to the Enforcement Manager and the multi-disciplinary enforcement team includes experienced investigators, qualified lawyers and financial professionals.
You will play a leading role in investigations into potential breaches of PSR regulations, rules, and directions. You will manage your own cases and will be accountable for regularly reporting on progress.
You will be involved in all aspects of investigations from strategic planning, delegating tasks within the team, obtaining evidence using appropriate powers, drafting, and reviewing all forms of documents, leading interviews of subjects and witnesses, analysing evidence and making judgements and recommendations throughout the lifetime of an investigation.
You will lead your investigations to deliver case outcomes either taking cases through to settlement agreements or presenting the outcome of our investigation to the Enforcement Decisions Committee (EDC). This will involve making decisions about how we present our case and engaging convincingly and with confidence at a senior level, both within the PSR and with the firms you are investigating.
You will build and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues in other areas within the PSR and with counterparts at key external stakeholders.
Key accountabilities:
You will play a key role in the PSR’s investigations and will be accountable for and regularly report on progress internally
You will be responsible for the management of cases and delegation of the work to other team members, ensuring effective progression to reach high quality outputs to agreed deadlines, escalating issues where necessary and keeping the manager apprised
You will be responsible for communicating with parties under investigation and other relevant persons as part of the investigation process
You will be responsible for drafting all relevant case documentation, including statutory requests and notices
You will contribute to the development and implementation of the PSR’s enforcement strategy
You will be an active role model for PSR colleagues demonstrating behaviours in line with the PSR values and capabilities
The skills and experience you will have
We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.
Minimum
Demonstrable ability to lead on significant aspects of highly complex regulatory investigations or litigation, preferably in a financial services environment
Proven ability to analyse large amounts of information, drawing out key findings and producing formal written reports including making recommendations
Experience of effective stakeholder management, demonstrating the ability to build and develop strong relationships with other stakeholders
Essential
Excellent project management and planning skills including the ability to successfully organise and prioritise work to meet expected works standards and deadlines
Substantial experience of planning the strategy and scope of investigations
A demonstrable understanding of enforcement and the role it plays in promoting effective and proportionate regulation
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, negotiate and collaborate effectively internally and across a wide range of external organisations including subjects and parties to an action, and their legal representatives
Experience of making clear, concise, logical and persuasive oral and written presentations on complex subjects
Open to learning, challenge and change, flexible and responsive to changing priorities and responsibilities and sharing know-how/best practice
Excellent interpersonal skills, with experience of contributing through working as part of a team and the ability to coach more junior team members
Identifying and managing risks across investigations
Desirable
Knowledge of the financial services industry including what you have gained from conducting investigations involving firms and consumers who are within or engage with the industry
Experience of information gathering techniques such as use of compelled powers, interviews and/or search warrants
Experience in formulating and developing enforcement policies, processes and procedures and being able to contribute to the formation of the same
PSR Values
All members of PSR are expected to demonstrate the PSR Values of Integrity, Unity, Engagement, Knowledge & Purpose.
In order to represent the people and organisations that we serve, we are committed to building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our commitment includes disability, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ and gender identity, mental health, and social mobility issues.
We are proud signatories of the e Women in Finance Charter, we hold the Level 2 Carer Confident accreditation from Carers UK and we signed the Social Mobility Pledge in June 2020.
As an inclusive employer, we are open to considering flexible working arrangements. Please contact our recruiter if you wish to apply for this role on a flexible basis.
Useful information
This role is graded as Senior Associate – Regulatory Level 7
This role is based in London
The role offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package
Applications close at 23.59 on Sunday 7th July 2024
If you are interested learning more about these roles, please contact Katie Ayling on katie.ayling@fca.org.uk
Want to know what it is like to work at the PSR? Check out this short video PSR recruitment video 2022 - YouTube
Please note – Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted
Conflicts of interest
All applicants to the PSR are required to demonstrate that they do not have other interests likely to conflict with their responsibilities as an employee of the PSR.
You should declare any potential conflict of interest as early as possible in the selection process (via the named recruitment contact), and also disclose information or personal connections that, if appointed, might be open to misperception.
Any potential conflicts of interest will not prevent candidates going forward to interview but may, if appropriate, be explored during the interview to establish how the candidate would address the issue(s) should they be successful in their application.
For more information on conflicts please visit:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/conflict-of-interests.pdf Recruitment webinar
To find out more about this role, and other opportunities, in the Supervision and Compliance Monitoring Division at the PSR join our recruitment webinar on Monday 1st July at 2pm. Full Teams details below:
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How to apply
Via the link to the job board