VP, FCO Governance, Quality, and Capability

Role Overview

Vice President, Head of FCO Governance, Quality, and Capability at First Abu Dhabi Bank. This is a senior leadership position based in the UAE, responsible for establishing and leading a centralized control, governance, and intelligence capability across the Financial Crime Operations (FCO) division.

Company Overview

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) is the largest bank in the UAE and one of the world's largest and safest financial institutions. FAB offers a comprehensive range of personal and private banking services, including credit cards, Islamic banking, investments, loans, and mortgages. The organization is committed to excellence and innovation, delivering top-tier financial solutions to clients globally. FAB fosters a performance-based culture that emphasizes customer focus, continuous learning, and career development.

Role Purpose

The VP – Head of FCO Governance, Quality, and Capability acts as the control tower for FCO operations, ensuring they are data-led, consistently governed, quality assured, and continuously improving. The role is critical to ensuring FCO operates in line with the Bank's risk appetite, regulatory expectations, and strategic transformation agenda while driving efficiency, standardization, and scalability across all locations.

Key Responsibilities

Governance & Control Oversight

• Design and implement a robust FCO governance framework ensuring clear accountability across all processes.
• Establish and oversee control standards, procedures, and operating models across audit, regulatory, and internal audit findings.
• Act as the central point for governance forums, including preparation of materials and articulation of key risks and themes.
• Provide credible challenge and oversight to FCO AML Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Monitoring, TBML Monitoring, and Fraud Monitoring teams to ensure adherence to policies and control effectiveness.

Management Information & Reporting

• Own and deliver a comprehensive MI and reporting framework across FCO.
• Define and implement KPIs and KRIs covering productivity, quality, risk, and customer outcomes.
• Ensure reporting is accurate, timely, and insight-driven, supporting decision-making at senior management and Executive Committee level.
• Drive standardization of reporting across geographies and teams.
• Develop forward-looking dashboards and early warning indicators to proactively identify risks and performance issues.

Quality Control & Outcome Assurance

• Establish and lead a global quality control and outcome testing framework ensuring consistency and defensibility of investigations.
• Define quality standards, review methodologies, and sampling approaches.
• Identify systemic issues and control weaknesses, ensuring root cause analysis and sustainable remediation.
• Provide independent assurance over alert investigations, STR quality, and decision-making consistency.
• Embed a continuous feedback loop between quality control, operations, and training.

Training, Capability & Education

• Design and implement a comprehensive training and capability framework across FCO.
• Develop a training needs analysis and training plan ensuring all staff are trained on AML/CTF typologies, sanctions risks, fraud typologies, investigation standards, and regulatory expectations.
• Develop role-based learning paths and certification frameworks.
• Drive continuous professional development and capability uplift across onshore and offshore teams.
• Ensure effective knowledge management and dissemination of emerging risks and best practices.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Drive standardization, simplification, and optimization of processes across FCO.
• Identify and lead efficiency and transformation initiatives, including automation and workflow enhancements.
• Ensure alignment between governance, analytics, quality control, and FCO teams to deliver a cohesive operating model.
• Establish a culture of performance discipline, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Stakeholder & Regulatory Engagement

• Act as a key interface with Group Compliance, Internal Audit, and first line of defense stakeholders.
• Support regulatory reviews and audits, ensuring clear articulation of FCO control environment and performance.
• Provide data-led insights and transparency to senior stakeholders.

Frameworks, Boundaries & Decision-Making Authority

• Define and maintain the FCO governance, MI, quality control, and training frameworks.
• Define KPIs, KRIs, and reporting standards across FCO.
• Approve quality control methodologies, sampling approaches, and quality thresholds.
• Escalate material risks, control weaknesses, and systemic issues to senior governance forums.
• Recommend and drive control enhancements and process changes.
• Operate as a senior control function within first line of defense with independence from day-to-day operations to ensure effective oversight and challenge.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree or higher in management, banking, finance, or related field, preferably with certification in compliance, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, KYC/AML/CTF, financial crime, or risk management.
• ACAMS and/or ICA Certification.
• 12 to 15+ years' experience in Financial Crime, AML, Sanctions, Trade Based Money Laundering, Fraud Risk Management, Compliance, Audit, or Risk within global financial institutions.
• Proven experience in governance and control frameworks, management information and reporting, data analytics, quality assurance and testing, audit, and large-scale operations or transformation programs.
• Strong understanding of AML/CTF/TBML/Sanctions/Fraud regimes and typologies, and investigative processes.

Skills & Competencies

• Lead large multi-location teams.
• Influence senior stakeholders and operate at executive level.
• Translate data into strategic insights and decisions.
• Technology-enabled transformation, including analytics and automation, is highly desirable.

Additional Information

FAB offers unique career choices, learning and development initiatives, and a chance to innovate and express yourself in a performance-based culture. The Bank has structured plans for recruitment and career progression of Emirati talent to enable them to make a mark in the financial and banking sector both regionally and globally, rewarding hard work and dedication.