FCL Director EMEA

Barclays have an excellent opportunity for a Financial Crime Legal Director - EMEA to join our Financial Crime Legal Team. This is a permanent role based in London.

About Financial Crime Legal (FCL)

FCL is a global team providing strategic, commercially focused legal advice on complex financial crime issues - including anti‑money laundering (AML), counter‑terrorist financing (CTF), sanctions, and anti‑bribery & corruption (ABC) - to all businesses and key functions across the Group. We are not business‑aligned: we provide a Group‑wide service spanning Retail Banking, Cards & Payments, Business Banking, Corporate Banking, Investment Banking, and Private Bank & Wealth Management. Our subject‑matter experts:

• Advise on transactions, products and new business initiatives with financial‑crime touchpoints.
• Lead on complex AML/CTF, sanctions and ABC advisory work.
• Shape internal policy positions and contribute to external policy engagement.
• Support with engagement with government, regulators and law‑enforcement on priority financial crime issues.

Overall Purpose of the Role

• Act as the senior regional legal lead for AML/CTF across the UK, Middle East, and Africa regions delivering authoritative, independent advice on high‑profile, complex matters with minimal supervision.
• Be a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, exercising sound legal judgement and professional independence in a fast‑paced environment.
• To provide strategic leadership on legal issues relating to AML/CTF, working with other functions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of AML/CTF risk management within the region and across the Bank.
• Drive our global remit, locally coordinating cross‑border legal advice and ensuring consistent standards across jurisdictions.
• Strengthen the region’s financial‑crime risk management by partnering with Legal, Financial Crime Compliance (FCC), Audit and the Business, providing effective oversight and credible challenge.
• Proactively seek to identify unmanaged risk and emerging trends in financial crime, (including forthcoming laws, rules, and regulations) and help deliver legal advice on procedures and controls of to anticipate those trends and deliver sustainable value within the region and to the Bank globally.
• Provide a supporting role to LI&E, the Bank’s FIU and FCC as necessary, on investigations and potential enforcement actions, specifically providing SME input including on remediation considerations.

Key Responsibilities

1) Expert Legal Advisory

• Serve as primary senior legal contact for AML/CTF in the region; lead complex, time‑sensitive matters with material legal, regulatory and reputational impact. Sanctions expertise is beneficial, but any successful candidate will be expected to develop working knowledge of financial sanctions.
• Provide cross‑border legal advice coordinating with in‑country and product counsel to ensure consistent positions and robust execution.
• Translate complex legal requirements into clear, practical advice and options that balance risk, regulation and commerciality.

2) Independence, Escalation & Credible Challenge

• Exercise independent judgement when advising senior management; escalate promptly where risk tolerance, regulatory expectations or policy are at issue.
• Provide credible challenge to business proposals and control decisions; record and communicate legal risk positions effectively.

3) Governance, Policy & Risk Frameworks

• Represent FCL at regional governance fora (e.g., Transaction Review Committees), ensuring financial‑crime risks are appropriately assessed and mitigated.
• Contribute to the design and enhancement of financial‑crime legal risk frameworks, policies and standards, support periodic effectiveness reviews.
• Produce high‑quality management information (MI) and reporting on themes, trends and emerging risks for regional ExCo and Group stakeholders.

4) Regulatory & External Engagement

• Support engagement with regulators, government and law‑enforcement on AML/CTF matters; prepare responses to supervisory queries and participate in thematic reviews.
• Support industry engagement and thought leadership, input to consultations and external policy initiatives where appropriate.

5) Transformation, Data & Technology Awareness

• Advise on the legal implications of screening, monitoring and analytics technologies (including model governance, data and privacy interfaces) and major change programmes.
• Provide legal input on control enhancements, remediation and regulatory commitments.

6) Leadership & People Development

• Lead and coach VP/AVP lawyers and other team members; set clear expectations, provide feedback and develop specialist capabilities.
• Foster a high‑performance, fast‑paced culture anchored in professionalism, inclusion and continuous improvement.

7) External Counsel Management

• Instruct and manage external counsel for complex cross‑border or niche issues; ensure quality, value and knowledge transfer.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer (Solicitor, Barrister, Attorney or equivalent).

Experience & Expertise

• Seasoned AML expert with demonstrable experience leading high‑profile, complex AML/CTF matters in financial services, ideally across multiple jurisdictions.
• Strong knowledge of UK AML/CTF legal and regulatory frameworks; familiarity with Middle East / Africa regimes advantageous.
• Track record of operating independently and advising senior stakeholders, including ExCo‑level engagement.
• Experience partnering with regulators and managing regulatory interactions on financial‑crime topics.

Skills & Behaviours

• Exceptional analytical, judgement and problem‑solving skills; ability to distil complexity into clear, pragmatic advice.
• Strong communication, negotiation and influencing skills; capable of credible challenge and effective escalation.
• Proven leadership and people‑development capability.
• Resilient, organised and responsive under time pressure in a fast‑paced environment.
• Commitment to integrity, accountability and collaborative teamwork.

Essential Skills

• In‑depth knowledge of UK financial‑crime law, with strength in AML/CTF; ability to develop or deepen sanctions expertise as needed.
• Understanding of governance, risk frameworks and three lines of defence; ability to contribute to control design, testing themes and remediation planning.
• Awareness of the legal considerations around screening/monitoring platforms and data‑driven controls.

Why this role / team

• High‑quality, high‑profile work at pace, spanning multiple businesses and jurisdictions.
• Global remit with true cross‑border exposure and senior‑level visibility.
• A collaborative, group‑servicing legal function that partners closely with FCC and the businesses to protect the firm and enable sustainable growth.

Purpose of the role

To ensure that the institution’s activities are conducted in compliance with applicable financial crime laws and regulations, and to help the bank manage legal and reputational risks associated with its activities. 

Accountabilities

• Development and implementation of best practice legal strategies for risk management and compliance.
• Legal advice and support to the business on financial crime laws, regulations, and rules, including anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, and anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) laws and regulations.
• Support other legal teams in representation, of the bank in legal proceedings that raise financial crime issues, such as litigation, arbitration, and regulatory investigations.
• Advising on financial crime compliance policies and procedures including to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Legal research and analysis to stay up to date on changes in laws and regulations that may impact the bank's financial crime compliance practices.
• To support Compliance, contributing to and delivering training to educate employees on legal and regulatory requirements related to financial crime.
• Pro-active identification, communication, and provision of legal advice on applicable laws, rules and regulations (LRRs). Keeping up to date with regards to changes to LRRs in the relevant coverage area. Ensuring that LRRs are effectively allocated to, and adequately reflected within, the relevant policies, standards and controls.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
• Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
• Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
• Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
• Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
• Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
• Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.