Senior Onboarding Analyst – Financial Institutions & Capital Markets

About the Job

Join KNG, a dynamic and innovative financial services firm specialising in the secondary trading of illiquid assets. Headquartered in London and operating since 2003, KNG works with institutional counterparties across Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and other global markets.

We are looking for an experienced Senior Onboarding Analyst – Financial Institutions & Capital Markets to join our London-based Onboarding and Monitoring Team.

This role is suited to an experienced KYC and onboarding professional with a strong background in conducting due diligence on financial institutions and institutional counterparties, ideally gained within a broker-dealer, investment firm, securities business, investment bank or other capital-markets environment.

The successful candidate should have practical experience assessing complex institutional structures and financial crime risks and be comfortable independently managing onboarding cases from initial review through to completion and escalation where required.

This is a full-time, office-based role requiring attendance at KNG's London office five days per week.

Your Role

As a Senior Onboarding Analyst – Financial Institutions & Capital Markets, you will be responsible for conducting end-to-end onboarding and due diligence on KNG's institutional counterparties and supporting the ongoing review of existing relationships.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Conducting end-to-end KYC and due diligence reviews on financial institutions and institutional counterparties, including banks, broker-dealers, investment firms, asset managers, investment funds and other regulated and unregulated financial services entities.
• Assessing counterparties operating within the capital markets and securities sector, taking into consideration their business activities, regulatory status, products, jurisdictions and expected relationship with KNG.
• Obtaining, reviewing and assessing corporate, ownership, regulatory and KYC documentation to establish whether appropriate due diligence requirements have been satisfied.
• Analysing corporate and ownership structures and identifying relevant shareholders, Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs), directors, authorised representatives and other connected parties.
• Independently assessing AML, sanctions, PEP, adverse media, reputational and jurisdictional risks associated with prospective and existing counterparties.
• Conducting and critically reviewing sanctions, PEP and adverse media screening results and documenting appropriate discounting or escalation rationale.
• Assessing higher-risk and complex relationships and preparing clear, evidence-based onboarding assessments and escalation recommendations for Compliance and senior management.
• Reviewing regulatory status and permissions of financial institutions and considering whether these are consistent with the proposed nature of the counterparty relationship.
• Developing an understanding of the counterparty's business model, source of funds, expected trading activity and purpose of the relationship with KNG.
• Applying a risk-based approach to due diligence, including identifying circumstances requiring Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD).
• Liaising directly with institutional clients and counterparties to obtain outstanding KYC information, resolve discrepancies and progress onboarding cases efficiently.
• Working closely with Sales, Trading, Compliance and other internal stakeholders while ensuring that commercial considerations do not compromise KYC or financial crime control requirements.
• Conducting periodic and trigger-event reviews of existing counterparties, including reassessment of AML, sanctions, jurisdictional and reputational risks.
• Maintaining complete and accurate KYC records and ensuring that the rationale supporting onboarding decisions and risk classifications is appropriately documented.
• Keeping up to date with developments in UK AML, financial crime and sanctions requirements relevant to financial institutions and capital-markets businesses.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for an experienced, analytical and detail-oriented onboarding professional who understands that institutional KYC requires more than collecting documents and completing checklists.

Essential Experience

The successful candidate should have:

• 4-5 years relevant experience in institutional KYC, counterparty onboarding, AML or financial crime compliance within financial services.
• Demonstrable hands-on experience conducting due diligence on financial institutions and institutional counterparties.
• Experience gained within, or supporting, a capital-markets, securities, broker-dealer, investment banking, investment management or institutional trading environment.
• Experience conducting KYC on entities such as banks, broker-dealers, investment firms, asset managers, funds or other regulated financial institutions.
• Strong understanding of corporate ownership structures and experience identifying and verifying shareholders, UBOs, directors and other relevant connected parties.
• Practical experience assessing the regulatory status of financial institutions and understanding the relevance of regulatory permissions to the proposed business relationship.
• Strong working knowledge of AML, sanctions, PEP and adverse media risk and the ability to identify matters requiring enhanced due diligence or escalation.
• Experience assessing complex and/or higher-risk counterparties, including those operating across multiple jurisdictions.
• The ability to analyse information critically and produce clear, concise and well-reasoned KYC assessments and escalation recommendations.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to identify inconsistencies, gaps and potential financial crime risk indicators.
• Confidence communicating directly with institutional counterparties and senior internal stakeholders.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to independently manage multiple onboarding cases and competing priorities.

Desirable Experience

Experience in one or more of the following would be particularly beneficial:

• Fixed income, bonds, structured products or other capital-markets products.
• Emerging markets and/or counterparties operating across higher-risk jurisdictions.
• Enhanced Due Diligence on higher-risk financial institutions.
• Complex ownership structures, investment funds and institutional investment vehicles.
• Cross-border sanctions and financial crime risk.
• Periodic reviews involving institutional counterparties.
• A bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience is expected. Professional qualifications in AML, KYC, financial crime or compliance, such as ICA or ACAMS qualifications, would be beneficial.

Location and Working Arrangements

This is a full-time, office-based position in London.

The successful candidate will be required to work from KNG's London office five days per week. This role is not being offered on a hybrid or remote-working basis.

Why Join KNG?

At KNG, you will have the opportunity to develop your career within an international capital-markets business and gain exposure to a diverse range of sophisticated institutional counterparties, products and jurisdictions.

You will:

• Gain significant exposure to financial-institution and institutional counterparty due diligence.
• Work within an international capital-markets and securities environment.
• Gain exposure to a diverse range of counterparties, ownership structures and jurisdictions.
• Develop experience assessing complex AML, sanctions, reputational and jurisdictional risks.
• Work closely with Onboarding, Compliance, Sales and Trading teams.
• Take ownership of complex onboarding cases and contribute to risk-based onboarding decisions.
• Support and help develop junior members of the onboarding team.
• Contribute to the continued enhancement of KNG's onboarding and financial crime control framework.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced institutional KYC professional looking to develop further within a specialist, international capital-markets environment.