What are the responsibilities and job description for the Investigative Specialist II, OPS position at Edward Jones?
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Acting with supervisory responsibility over reviewing, approving, and processing of retirement corrections.
· Requires in-depth understanding of area systems, processes/procedures, reporting requirements, and regulatory guidelines.
· Completing error correction requests timely and accurately.
· Works in collaboration with internal business areas including Advisory, Compliance, Field Supervision, Trading, and Operations while also understanding the impacts to these areas.
· Coach and educate branch teams on correction requests, best practices, and complex client situations.
· Adapts to changing and complex regulatory and reporting requirements in a fast paced environment to ensure corrections are handle accurately.
· Investigate, analyze, and report suspicious activity related to potential violations of laws, regulations (including the USA PATRIOT Act, OFAC, etc.), firm policy or procedure.
· Review account/customer exceptions and take inbound calls from branch associates in order to identify potential concerns, explain policy and remove restrictions.
· Identify concerns and report them to the appropriate parties and take further steps that could include making account closing determinations, restricting accounts, and terminating certain account privileges in order to mitigate risk and prevent losses due to irregular or suspicious activity.
· Perform enhanced due diligence and document results in order to mitigate risk posed by clients and their activities utilizing industry resources and vendor tools.
· Collaborate with and share information with Legal, Compliance, Audit and other internal departments, governmental agencies and law enforcement in order to support confidential investigations and improve the control environment.
· Responsible for initial account/customer investigations from multiple inputs including judgement to escalate to a case, prepare a suspicious activity report (SAR) or escalate potential internal fraud/policy concerns to FSD.
· Act in compliance with existing firm policies and procedures, and assist with development and implementation of new firm policies and procedures, regarding movement of funds and applicable regulations, including the USA PATRIOT and Bank Secrecy Acts.
· Develop test scripts and perform testing on system changes and enhancements to ensure desired results are achieved, system integrity is maintained, detection scenarios produce alerts accurately, and data completeness.
· Review high risk events such as incoming criminal and grand jury subpoenas and analyze related account activity to determine if there is a reportable event.
· Perform monthly supervisory reviews of team members' work to ensure quality/accuracy and compliance with written supervisory procedures.
· Collaborate with associates in department to ensure exceptions are reviewed timely, including adjusting assignments as necessary.
Qualifications Required in the Job:
· Knowledge of retirement regulation is critical including the application/interpretation of the regulation regarding certain account types (both IRA and qualified plans), asset movements, and deadlines.
· Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience, required.
· Two to three years of brokerage or financial services industry or related experience required.
· Must have strong working knowledge of major operations and compliance functions, specifically the movement of funds and securities and related regulations.
· Requires knowledge of managing risks and controls by conducting account and/or customer based research.
· Must be able to demonstrate attention to detail, conduct thorough reviews of account activity, analyze concerns, and resolve problems using seasoned judgment.
· Strong analytical skills – combining information from multiple sources – to conduct investigations, recognize fraudulent or inappropriate activity, interpret results and apply regulations and firm policy to reach independent conclusions.
· Excellent verbal and written communication skills required to collaborate with branch associates, home office associates, and external parties.
· Must be able to make decisions in gray areas where little or no guidance is available.
· Multi-tasking – ability to adapt during times of high volume, prioritize tasks, and work concurrently on multiple efforts.
Problem Solving:
· Must be able to apply a risk based approach as decision making is complex, non-routine, and may have a direct impact on the client, financial advisor, and firm.
· Analyze activity and respond to inquiries on escalation issues, including requests from auditors, law enforcement, self-regulatory agencies, or internal groups such as Compliance and Legal.
· Identify data quality issues while working daily exceptions to determine if existing controls are operating appropriately and collaborate to resolve issues.
Decision Making:
· Must be able to make decisions involving a moderate to high degree of risk independently. These decisions are at a level of risk that may be reviewed and scrutinized by internal auditors, external audit, FINRA, SEC, as well as during potential legal proceedings.
· Some decisions may at times be routine, however, the majority of decisions are dependent on a specific set of facts related to the issue in question. Although some guidance may be available through past experiences and/or Edward Jones policies, many decisions are of a more complex, non-routine, nature, and often fall into more of a gray area. Incorrect decisions could result in legal or regulatory issues.
Span of Influence:
· Span of influence is moderate as work performed can directly impact clients, raise compliance issues, and subject the firm to regulatory action or client complaints.
· Scope of position involves monitoring associate and/or client transaction activity, conducting research and investigation of issues, and working in collaboration with leaders and associates in related internal departments/divisions, auditors, regulators, and law enforcement.
· Investigators may research and resolve issues that could impact a Financial Advisor and/or firm policies and procedures, and are reportable to the regulators and government agencies. Risk of non-compliance can extend to regulatory actions and penalties.
· Degree of risk is high. Relaying incorrect decisions or information, or delayed actions, can be dangerous and costly to the client, Financial Advisor, or the firm. Investigators decisions can be questioned during regulatory investigations, arbitrations, or even court cases.
· Key contributor to department projects and objectives.
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