Head of Conduct & Compliance Policy & Advice

Sainsbury’s Bank

Flexible hybrid working from home with a base at one of our offices in: Edinburgh, London, Widnes or Milton Keynes.

We are happy for you to be based in any of the above locations but please note that occasional travel will be required to our Edinburgh office.

In a nutshell

This role will play an important role in supporting Sainsbury’s Bank, Argos Financial Services and Argos Limited in achieving their strategic objectives and delivering good customer outcomes. The role holder will provide advice and assistance to the senior leadership and support them in ensuring the customer is at the heart of all activities and regulatory obligations are being met. You will be a leader within the Conduct & Compliance function, contributing to the Leadership Team and providing thought leadership, guidance, and development support to the Conduct & Compliance Policy & Advice Team and wider function.

What you’ll be doing

• Where required, act as empowered deputy for the Conduct & Compliance Director in providing regulatory advice and direction to senior leaders across the business. This includes representing C&C at governance meetings, including SB Customer Divisional Risk & Conduct Committee and the AFS Conduct & Commercial Committee.
• Act as a trusted advisor for the SB & AFS Customer teams and provide strategic leadership to advise and support colleagues across all functions to operate in line with the C&C policy standards, regulatory requirements and guidance that are applicable to our business.
• Manage the Conduct Risk Framework and the C&C policy standards and PRCA within the remit of the team. Ensure policies are cascaded to key stakeholders to support successful implementation across SBAFS. This includes providing support to the business and 1st line risk teams, to design and implement appropriate controls to mitigate identified risks.
• Assist in the development and manage the implementation of short, medium and long-term planning of strategic compliance initiatives.
• Deliver policy and regulatory advice for the Bank, including change programmes, at a strategic and operational level to support ongoing compliance with regulatory requirements and expectations. Be prepared to provide constructive challenge to a range of stakeholders, including ExCo members, to ensure C&C risks are adequately identified, assessed, and understood.
• Lead the C&C Policy & Advice team to ensure that advice provided supports the achievement of strategic objectives in line with risk appetite and appropriate action plans are implemented to remediate issues with a regulatory or conduct impact.
• Lead and manage a high performing team, developing colleagues through stretching objectives, feedback and coaching.
• Play an active role as a member of the Conduct & Compliance leadership team to provide strategic direction across the function.
• Ensure Conduct & Compliance governance and reporting responsibilities are fulfilled through the production of accurate and timely MI and reports, and accurate records of meetings are made.

What you need to know and show

• Holistic understanding of the environment in which the Bank operates (economic, banking industry, regulatory, and organisational).

• Expert in FCA Handbook – rules, guidance, regulatory expectations, and practical application.
• Expert in conduct risk and a sound understanding regulatory expectations/what good looks like.
• Expert knowledge of the FCA functions and its approach to authorisations, supervision, and enforcement.
• Proven track record in working within a regulatory environment.
• Experience in providing input and challenge from a 2nd line/independent perspective.
• Experience in reacting to and managing live incidents and managing communications.
• Expert knowledge of the PRA, PSR and other regulators.
• Coach and manage employees to build a high performing team.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, the ability to communicate with Board and Executive level colleagues and with external stakeholders.
• The ability to flex and re-prioritise in response to incidents/requests.
• The ability to make judgements with incomplete information.
• Excellent communications skills.

Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR)

Under the SM&CR, this role has been assessed as a certified role and as such we need to satisfy all conditions as set out by our regulators (PRA and FCA). This means that we need to ensure you are fit and proper to carry out this role upon initial appointment and on an ongoing annual basis. The role holder must also comply with the conduct rules as specified by our regulators.

Rule 1: You must act with integrity

Rule 2: You must act with due skill, care and diligence

Rule 3: You must be open and cooperative with the FCA, the PRA and other regulators

Rule 4: You must pay due regard to the interests of customers and treat them fairly

Rule 5: You must observe proper standards of market conduct*

• This rule relates to both market trading activity as well as conduct (Treating Customers Fairly) in the market

Our benefits

In addition to the all- important competitive salary, pension & bonus offering, we totally get that life outside work is important to us all. So, we want to shout out some of our other great benefits…

• We offer flexible working to help you achieve a good work/life balance
• Opportunity to buy extra holidays is on the table
• Discounts on your weekly shop, buying a laptop or sofa? We’ve got it covered through your Sainsburys, Argos and Habitat store discount card
• Cycle to work scheme

A little about us & our culture

We’re proud of our heritage as the UK’s first supermarket bank. As digital technology drives the banking landscape we want to be at the cutting edge of this technology, offering award winning innovative digital banking products to our customers. Technology is where we see our growth therefore we need innovators to join us and drive the next phase of our evolution.

We’re a friendly bunch who collectively share a passion to make our customers’ financial lives easier. As part of the wider Sainsbury’s Group, being one of the UK’s most trusted brands, it brings our colleagues a wealth of opportunities to fulfil their potential. Here, you can be part of something bigger and help to create a new approach that puts the customer at the heart of everything we do.

Everyone is welcome at the Sainsbury’s Group, and we’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer that champions a diverse and inclusive culture that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve.

Work-life balance is important to us, so we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible in line with the needs of their role. We trust them to decide how, where and when they work, combining remote and collaborative working with a flexible approach to hours within their working days, giving plenty of time and space for life outside of work whilst delivering against our business goals.

If you’re interested in applying and are excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience – we’d still love to hear from you! We’d also be happy to discuss more flexible working options such as job shares and part time working.

As this role involves working within a regulated environment any offer will be subject to satisfactory background checks including criminal record check, credit check, fraud check and employment references.

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