Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Financial Investigator

🎯 Role Definition

As a Financial Investigator, you are on the front lines of safeguarding our institution and the broader financial system from illicit actors. Your primary mission is to conduct in-depth, complex investigations into suspicious financial activity, leveraging advanced analytical techniques and investigative tools. This role requires a sharp, inquisitive mind and a deep understanding of financial crime typologies and regulatory frameworks. You will be a key subject matter expert, providing critical intelligence that informs risk management decisions and ensures our unwavering commitment to regulatory compliance and ethical conduct.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Compliance Analyst / AML Analyst
Forensic Accountant
Fraud Analyst / Investigator

Advancement To:

Senior Financial Investigator / Team Lead
Manager, Financial Crimes Unit (FCU) / AML Investigations
Director of AML Compliance or Financial Crime Prevention

Lateral Moves:

Internal Auditor
Risk Manager
Sanctions Officer / Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Conduct comprehensive, end-to-end investigations into complex financial activities indicative of money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and corruption.
Analyze and interpret vast sets of financial data, transactional records, and customer information to identify suspicious patterns, anomalies, and red flags.
Author, review, and file well-documented and compliant Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for submission to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Utilize a wide range of internal and third-party investigative software, including public/private databases (e.g., LexisNexis, World-Check, CLEAR), to conduct enhanced due diligence (EDD) on high-risk individuals and entities.
Meticulously document all investigative steps, findings, and conclusions to create a clear, defensible audit trail for regulatory scrutiny and legal proceedings.
Serve as a point of contact for law enforcement and regulatory agencies, responding to legal process requests such as subpoenas, National Security Letters, and 314(a)/314(b) inquiries.
Perform detailed forensic analysis of financial statements, corporate ownership structures, and transactional flows to unravel sophisticated illicit schemes.
Investigate and adjudicate alerts generated by automated transaction monitoring systems, ensuring timely and well-reasoned disposition.
Prepare and present concise, compelling case summaries and investigative reports to senior management, compliance committees, and legal counsel.
Manage a personal caseload of complex investigations, ensuring all cases are completed within established service level agreements (SLAs) and regulatory deadlines.
Stay current on emerging financial crime trends, new regulations (e.g., AML Act of 2020), and evolving typologies to continuously refine investigative techniques.
Perform deep-dive reviews and analysis of customer Know Your Customer (KYC) profiles to assess risk and ensure the completeness and accuracy of due diligence information.
Conduct link analysis to uncover hidden relationships and networks between accounts, individuals, and entities involved in potentially illicit activity.
Assess potential sanctions violations against OFAC and other global sanctions lists, escalating confirmed matches for immediate and appropriate action.
Provide subject matter expertise on financial crime risks to business units, assisting in the development of robust risk mitigation strategies and controls.
Conduct targeted look-back reviews of historical account activity to identify previously undetected suspicious behavior, often in response to a specific event or trigger.
Trace the origin and movement of funds across multiple financial institutions and jurisdictions to determine the ultimate source and beneficial ownership.
Evaluate the effectiveness of existing AML/CFT controls, providing data-driven recommendations for transaction monitoring rule tuning and system enhancements.
Assist in developing and delivering targeted financial crime awareness training to front-line staff, operations teams, and other relevant employees.
Perform peer reviews of case files and drafted SARs to ensure quality, consistency, and adherence to departmental standards and procedures.
Identify systemic control weaknesses or procedural gaps discovered during investigations and escalate them for remediation.
Collaborate with international counterparts on cross-border investigations, navigating different legal and regulatory landscapes to achieve a holistic view of financial activity.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc projects and special reviews as requested by senior leadership, audit, or regulatory bodies.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of departmental procedures, workflows, and investigative best practice guidelines.
Collaborate with data analytics and technology teams to help refine transaction monitoring scenarios and improve the quality of automated alerts.
Participate in firm-wide risk assessments to identify and evaluate exposure to various financial crime risks across different products and geographies.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Deep expertise in financial crime regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), USA PATRIOT Act, and OFAC sanctions programs.
Proficiency with industry-standard transaction monitoring and case management systems (e.g., Actimize, Mantas, Verafin, Fircosoft).
Advanced skills in using public and private intelligence databases such as LexisNexis, CLEAR, World-Check, and Dow Jones Risk & Compliance for due diligence and research.
Strong data analysis capabilities, including proficiency in SQL for querying databases and advanced Microsoft Excel skills (PivotTables, VLOOKUPs, Power Query).
Proven ability to write clear, concise, and legally defensible Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) that meet regulatory expectations.
Professional certification such as CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist), CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), or CGSS (Certified Global Sanctions Specialist) is highly preferred.
Knowledge of forensic accounting principles and techniques for analyzing complex financial records.

Soft Skills

Exceptional analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities with a strong investigative and inquisitive mindset.
Impeccable attention to detail and a steadfast commitment to accuracy and quality in all work products.
Superior written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex investigative findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Unquestionable personal integrity, ethics, and discretion in handling highly sensitive and confidential information.
Excellent organizational and time-management skills, with a proven ability to manage multiple complex investigations simultaneously under pressure and tight deadlines.
A self-starter mentality with the ability to work independently with minimal supervision, as well as collaboratively within a team-oriented environment.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree from an accredited institution.

Preferred Education:

Master's Degree (e.g., MBA, M.S. in Finance/Accounting) or Juris Doctor (JD).

Relevant Fields of Study:

Finance
Accounting
Criminal Justice
Economics
Business Administration
Law

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3-7 years of direct experience in an AML/financial crimes investigations, forensic accounting, or a related role.

Preferred:

Prior experience within a large, complex financial institution's financial intelligence unit (FIU).
Experience in a "Big 4" forensic accounting or risk advisory practice.
Previous employment with a federal law enforcement or regulatory agency (e.g., FBI, IRS-CI, SEC, FinCEN, OCC).