Senior Financial Crime Specialist

About the role

Bidvestbank is looking for a Senior Financial Crime Specialist to conduct incident management, incident analysis and gap identification, and to strengthen information that supports investigations, fraud risk assessments, prosecutions and intelligence-driven operations. The role helps clients and stakeholders prevent, detect crime and mitigate business risk.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct and oversee in-depth investigations into suspected money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, sanctions breaches and other financial crimes, with timely escalation and documentation in line with regulatory requirements.
• Evaluate complex customer profiles, transactional behaviour and adverse media, and recommend remediation or exit strategies.
• Use analytical tools and data sources to detect unusual patterns, support investigations and generate actionable intelligence; compile reports, affidavits and testify in court for bail opposition and aggravation.
• Propose improvements to policies, procedures and monitoring systems, and identify weaknesses in financial crime controls.
• Research fraud syndicates, build a fraud syndicate database and heatmaps, and investigate and register cases under Section 34(1) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
• Maintain records on the FCU platform, adopt Fraud Risk Assessments, report fraud trends to SABRIC, and draft executive summaries and factual findings for management and court.
• Liaise with customers, commercial and physical security clients, law enforcement, prosecuting authorities and other partners, and advise frontline teams, compliance, AML, legal and operational stakeholders.
• Support junior team members through training, guidance and quality assurance, and manage workgroups, projects and major investigations.

Required profile

• Diploma or equivalent in Forensic Investigation, Law, Crime Analysis or Criminology.
• Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
• 3-5 years of experience in a Fraud Department handling fraud and investigations.

Required skills

• Strong understanding of fraud types such as payment fraud, identity theft and account takeover, and industry-specific risks.
• Knowledge of fraud prevention frameworks, tools and regulatory obligations.
• Ability to translate technical findings into clear business insights and to anticipate fraud trends.
• Ability to work across departments (fraud ops, IT, compliance, product) and to meet deadlines while keeping quality and confidentiality.