Operations Officer - Payments Investigations

Role Overview

Operations Officer - Payments Investigations at ADIB, Abu Dhabi. The Payment Investigation Officer is responsible for ensuring the accurate, timely, and secure processing of financial transactions by identifying, resolving, and preventing payment-related issues.

Role Purpose

The role safeguards both the bank and its customers from financial loss, operational risks, and regulatory breaches. This position acts as a contact point between the payment department and correspondent banks and internal business units to clarify all issues related to payments.

Key Responsibilities

Payment Investigation & Resolution

• Investigate failed, delayed, rejected, duplicated, or misrouted payments across all channels including SWIFT, RTGS, ACH, and internal transfers.
• Perform end-to-end tracing of transactions using internal systems and correspondent banking networks.
• Resolve payment discrepancies by identifying root causes and implementing corrective actions.

Customer & Stakeholder Communication

• Provide timely and accurate updates to branches, relationship managers, and internal business units regarding investigation progress.
• Liaise with correspondent banks and external partners through SWIFT messages and formal communication.

Operational Risk & Compliance Adherence

• Ensure every investigation complies with AML, sanctions screening, fraud monitoring, and regulatory requirements.
• Escalate suspicious or high-risk transactions to Compliance, AML, or Fraud teams as needed.
• Maintain solid controls to mitigate operational, financial, and reputational risks.

Exception Handling & Case Management

• Work through payment exception queues and ensure timely handling of pending items.
• Carry out recalls, amendments, returns, chargebacks, and indemnities according to bank policy.
• Maintain accurate, audit-ready documentation for all cases handled.

Reconciliation & Transaction Validation

• Reconcile payment breakages, unmatched entries, and pending items from related system reports.
• Validate incoming and outgoing payment information to prevent errors and rework.
• Coordinate with reconciliation teams to close outstanding items.

Process Improvement & Issue Prevention

• Identify recurring errors, system issues, or process gaps and recommend enhancements.
• Support automation, straight-through processing (STP), and operational excellence initiatives.
• Contribute to reducing turnaround times and improving investigation quality.

Reporting & Metrics

• Prepare daily, weekly, and monthly reports on investigations, bottlenecks, and trends.
• Highlight operational risks, root causes, and performance KPIs to management.
• Track turnaround time (TAT), investigation accuracy, and customer experience metrics.

Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing

• Partner with Operations, IT, Treasury, Compliance, and other teams to ensure smooth payment processing.
• Support training of new team members and share best practices.
• Act as a subject matter expert (SME) during audits, reviews, or system upgrades.

Additional Responsibilities

• Undertake any additional assignments and projects entrusted by line management and complete them as per requirement.

Skills & Competencies

• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Customer Management
• Business Development
• Financial Management
• Commercial and innovative problem solving