Financial Crimes Quality Assurance Manager

About the role

The Financial Crimes Quality Assurance (QA) Manager is responsible for overseeing and executing a quality assurance program focused on Second Line of Defense (2LoD) Financial Crimes activities, including oversight, review, challenge, and governance functions across BSA/AML, Sanctions, and Fraud. This role ensures that 2LoD processes-such as alert oversight, customer risk rating governance, policy interpretation, and escalation decisions-are performed with consistency, accuracy, and in alignment with regulatory expectations and internal standards. The Manager will assess the effectiveness of 2LoD outputs, provide credible challenge within Compliance, and deliver insights to strengthen oversight and risk management practices.

Responsibilities

• Quality Assurance Oversight
• Design and execute a risk-based QA program covering key 2LoD Financial Crimes activities, including:
• Oversight and challenge of Transaction Monitoring (TM) alerts and dispositions
• Review and challenge of Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) escalation decisions
• Customer Risk Rating (CRR) methodology application and governance outputs
• Oversight of Customer Due Diligence (CDD) / Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) reviews
• Sanctions advisory, escalation, and disposition decisions
• Assess whether 2LoD outputs demonstrate:
• Effective challenge and appropriate escalation
• Consistent interpretation of policies and regulatory expectations
• Adequate documentation, rationale, and audit trail
• QA Review Execution
• Perform detailed QA reviews of 2LoD casework, memos, and decisions to evaluate:
• Accuracy and completeness
• Appropriateness of risk-based judgments
• Alignment with internal standards and regulatory expectations
• Evaluate the quality of 2LoD oversight , including whether issues are appropriately identified, escalated, and resolved
• Identify inconsistencies in decision-making and gaps in challenge or governance
• Thematic & Horizontal Reviews
• Conduct horizontal reviews across 2LoD outputs to identify:
• Systemic weaknesses in oversight practices
• Trends in ineffective challenge or missed escalation opportunities
• Inconsistencies in policy interpretation
• Develop insights into emerging risks and control blind spots within 2LoD
• Framework & Methodology Development
• Develop and maintain QA methodologies specific to 2LoD activities, including:
• Test scripts tailored to oversight and challenge functions
• Defect taxonomy focused on governance, escalation, and decision quality
• Scoring frameworks to assess effectiveness of 2LoD outputs
• Define sampling strategies based on risk, complexity, and materiality of 2LoD decisions
• Ensure clear differentiation between 1LoD execution errors and 2LoD oversight deficiencies
• Issue Management & Reporting
• Document QA findings with clear articulation of:
• Gaps in 2LoD oversight, challenge, or governance
• Root cause and impact on risk management effectiveness
• Assign severity ratings based on risk exposure and regulatory implications
• Produce management reporting and dashboards highlighting:
• QA results and trends
• Thematic issues and repeat findings
• Opportunities for strengthening 2LoD practices
• Track and validate remediation of identified issues within Compliance
• Stakeholder Engagement & Credible Challenge
• Provide independent challenge within the 2LoD function , ensuring high standards of oversight and accountability
• Partner with:
• 2LoD Financial Crimes leadership
• Model Risk Management (for CRR and TM models)
• Internal Audit (3LoD) for alignment on assurance coverage
• Support regulatory exams by demonstrating the effectiveness and rigor of 2LoD oversight and QA practices
• Continuous Improvement
• Identify opportunities to enhance 2LoD QA through:
• Standardization of oversight practices
• Enhanced documentation and governance protocols
• Use of data analytics to identify anomalies or inconsistencies in 2LoD outputs
• Monitor regulatory developments and industry expectations related to 2LoD responsibilities
• Suppor

Benefits

Additional Information

We are a hybrid, remote-office company dedicated to growing our talent anywhere! We have onsite locations in: Sioux Falls, SD, Scottsdale, AZ, Louisville, KY, Troy, MI, Franklin, TN, Easton, PA. At Pathward, we take tremendous pride in our purpose to create financial inclusion for all™. We are a financial empowerment company that works with innovators to increase financial availability, choice, and opportunity for all. We strive to remove barriers that traditional institutions put in the way of financial access, and promote economic mobility by providing responsible, secure, high quality financial products. We are a team of problem solvers and innovators who celebrate our differences and know that our unique perspectives make us stronger and well-positioned for success. We celebrate, and embrace, our team members through our *HUMBLE*HUNGRY*SMART approach, and we believe that we are strongest when we embrace the voices of our employees, customers, partners, and the communities we serve.

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