Head of Anti-Financial Crime Compliance (AFCC)

About Us

Finmo is a next-generation Treasury Operating System that enables CFOs to see their financial operations in real time and forecast what's coming next. It unifies payments, cash and liquidity management, FX risk management, and financial reporting into a single intelligent platform, transforming fragmented data into connected, actionable intelligence.

Finmo is backed by leading fintech investors. Our oversubscribed US$18.5M Series A was co-led by PayPal Ventures and Quona Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures, bringing total funding to US$27M. We are also recognised by respected industry institutions, including:

• CB Insights Fintech 100 (2025) - named among the 100 most promising private fintech companies
• Forbes Asia 100 to Watch (2025)
• Grand Award – Cross-Border Fintech Unicorn Potential (2026) by Asia FinTech Alliance
• FinTech of the Year (2026) by Asia FinTech Awards

Founded in 2021, Finmo is headquartered in Singapore, with additional offices in Australia, Malaysia, and India, and plans for further global expansion. We are committed to upholding core values such as curiosity, integrity, attitude and customer-centricity. We foster a culture that encourages thoughtful risk-taking and problem-solving, aiming to balance perfection with timely execution.

For more information, please visit our website at www.finmo.net

About the role

As Head of Anti-Financial Crime Compliance (AFCC), you will own Finmo's financial crime compliance function end to end, covering AML/CFT, sanctions and fraud. You will build and lead the AFCC team in Kuala Lumpur, run day-to-day operations including transaction monitoring and fraud case management, and be accountable for Finmo's compliance with financial crime obligations across our cross-border payments, treasury and digital asset activity.

You will report to the Head of Legal, Risk & Compliance and keep senior management informed on financial crime risk. You will be the main point of contact on financial crime matters for regulators and banking and payment partners, and the person the business turns to when the question is: can we do this, and how do we do it safely?

This is a hands-on leadership role. We need someone who has run an AFCC operation and still enjoys being close to the work: reviewing difficult cases, making the call on high-risk activity, and defending those decisions to partners and regulators. You will also own and keep strengthening the framework, but we are not looking for someone whose experience is mainly policy writing or advisory.

We will prioritise candidates who have, in a B2B payments or fintech environment:

• Led an AFCC function and managed an operational team
• Owned transaction monitoring, investigations, escalations and STR filing
• Managed fraud cases end to end, from detection and investigation through to customer, partner and recovery actions
• Made sound judgment calls on suspicious, unusual or high-risk customer and transaction activity
• Worked closely with KYB/onboarding teams on high-risk merchants, and challenged merchants when activity doesn't match their expected profile
• Handled challenges from banks and payment partners, and clearly explained the rationale, due diligence and controls behind a risk decision
• Improved the quality and effectiveness of AFCC processes, controls and monitoring, with measurable results
• Dealt directly with regulators, including inspections, reviews or remediation

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and ownership

• Build, lead and develop the AFCC team in Kuala Lumpur, including hiring, structure, capacity planning and performance
• Own Finmo's AFCC framework and keep it aligned with MAS, AUSTRAC and the requirements of other markets where we operate
• Report on financial crime and fraud risk, key metrics, cases and issues to the Head of Legal, Risk & Compliance and senior management
• Own the AFCC budget and decisions on screening, monitoring and blockchain analytics vendors and systems

Operations

• Run day-to-day AFCC operations, including alert review, investigations, escalations and case decisions
• Own the transaction monitoring programme end to end: rules, tuning, escalation, STR filing and continuous improvement
• Own sanctions, PEP and adverse media screening for fiat and digital asset activity
• Manage fraud cases, including investigation, containment, liaison with banking partners and law enforcement, and root cause fixes to prevent repeat cases
• Own fraud detection controls and monitoring alongside AML transaction monitoring
• Set governance standards for CDD, EDD and KYB, and act as the escalation point for high-risk merchants and customers
• Use blockchain analytics tools to monitor on-chain activity and manage digital asset risk

Regulatory and external engagement

• Own STR/SAR filing and other AML regulatory reporting, making sure it is timely and accurate
• Lead engagement with regulators, FIUs and law enforcement on financial crime matters
• Represent Finmo with banking and payment partners on due diligence reviews, queries and escalations
• Lead preparation for and responses to regulatory inspections and internal and external audits, and own remediation of findings

Risk assessment and advisory

• Own the Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment (EWRA), financial crime risk reviews and control testing
• Advise senior leadership on financial crime risk in new products, markets, partnerships and digital asset offerings
• Partner with Product and Engineering to build compliance into the platform from the start
• Own financial crime training across the company
• Track regulatory and enforcement developments and update our approach as risks change

What you bring

• 10+ years in AML/CFT compliance, fraud, financial crime investigations or regulatory risk in fintech, payments, banking or digital asset services
• At least 4 to 5 years leading an AFCC team, with direct ownership of operations
• Experience in a regulated B2B payments, e-money or remittance business. You understand what holding a Major Payment Institution licence involves and what it takes to keep one
• Hands-on transaction monitoring experience. You understand rules-based and risk-based monitoring and can explain why a given threshold or scenario exists
• Hands-on experience managing fraud cases and fraud controls in a payments environment
• Direct experience with financial regulators, ideally MAS and/or AUSTRAC. Southeast Asia exposure is a plus
• Familiarity with digital assets and blockchain analytics tools such as Chainalysis, TRM Labs or Elliptic
• Comfortable with ambiguity and building processes that don't exist yet. Large bank experience is welcome, but you'll need to build something lean and fit for a growth-stage business, not replicate a big-bank setup
• A clear, confident communicator. You can explain a complex regulatory position to the CEO in two sentences and to a regulator in twenty pages

Nice to have

• ACAMS, ICA or equivalent AML/CTF certification
• Prior experience as MLRO or equivalent accountable role
• Digital asset compliance experience (Finmo holds a DCE registration in Australia)

Why Finmo

• A Series A fintech scaling across APAC
• Real ownership: you set the direction for the function
• A leadership team that sees compliance as part of how we compete
• Based in Kuala Lumpur with close exposure to our Singapore HQ and wider APAC operations

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (hybrid)

Our Commitment to Fairness

Finmo is an inclusive, people-first workplace that values merit and performance. We are committed to providing equal opportunities for all and to fostering a work environment free from discrimination. We evaluate all candidates on the basis of merit, performance, and role fit without regard to age, race, gender, religion, marital status, disability, or any other characteristic unrelated to job performance.

We provide a supportive environment where our people can grow, contribute meaningfully, and thrive. All hiring decisions are made in accordance with applicable employment and fair employment laws in the country of hire.

Note: Submissions by recruitment agencies will not be accepted. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Thank you for your interest in pursuing a career with Finmo!