StoneX Group
Head of KYC Operations, EMEA
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Overview
With 4,500+ employees and over 300,000 commercial, institutional, payments, and retail clients, we operate from more than 70 offices spread across six continents. As a Fortune 100, Nasdaq-listed provider, we connect clients to the global markets – focusing on innovation, human connection, and providing world-class products and services to all types of investors.
Whether you want to forge a career connecting our retail clients to potential trading opportunities, or ingrain yourself in the world of institutional investing, StoneX Group is made up of four business segments that offer endless potential for progression and growth.
Business Segment Overview
Corporate
Engage in a deep variety of business-critical activities that keep our company running efficiently. From strategic marketing and financial management to human resources and operational oversight, you’ll have the opportunity to optimize processes and implement game-changing policies.
Role Purpose
The Head of KYC Operations, EMEA is accountable for the effective operation and continuous improvement of the KYC lifecycle across EMEA, covering new client onboarding, periodic reviews, event-driven reviews, and operational quality control. The role will provide regional leadership across KYC operations, ensuring controls are applied consistently, proportionately, and efficiently across legal entities, jurisdictions, and customer types. A core responsibility will be translating financial crime policies and standards into practical procedures, workflows, controls, and training that operational teams can execute effectively.
This is a hands-on operational leadership role requiring strong technical KYC expertise, process design, data analysis, and transformation capability. The successful candidate will improve quality, productivity, capacity planning, and client outcomes while maintaining effective financial crime risk management.
Responsibilities
KYC Lifecycle Management
- Own the EMEA KYC book of work, covering onboarding, periodic reviews, event-driven reviews, and customer offboarding.
- Set and manage operational targets across volumes, service levels, quality, productivity, backlogs, and aged items.
- Use MI, forecasting, and capacity planning to manage demand, allocate resources, and prevent avoidable backlogs or service deterioration.
- Ensure due diligence is completed to the required quality, within agreed service levels, and in line with regulatory expectations.
- Manage workflow, ownership, and escalation so information gaps, overdue reviews, and out-of-tolerance cases are identified and resolved promptly.
- Ensure material changes in customer ownership, control, activity, or risk profile are identified, assessed, and reflected in the customer record, risk rating, and due diligence.
- Ensure customer exits and offboarding decisions are executed and evidenced appropriately where KYC concerns drive or support the exit.
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Procedures and Control Execution
- Translate financial crime policies, standards, and methodologies into clear, controlled, and executable KYC procedures.
- Own procedures for onboarding and ongoing customer due diligence reviews.
- Identify policy or standard requirements that cannot be operationalised effectively, working with Policy and Advisory colleagues to resolve ambiguity and embed changes into procedures, systems, and training.
- Maintain a consistent EMEA control baseline, with approved local or business-specific variations documented and controlled.
Process Design and Improvement
- Design and maintain a scalable, risk-based KYC operating model across EMEA.
- Improve end-to-end KYC processes by reducing unnecessary duplication, hand-offs, rework, and customer friction where there is no clear control benefit.
- Standardise processes where possible and identify automation opportunities across data collection, document review, workflow routing, customer risk assessment, and quality control.
- Work with Technology and Data teams to define operational requirements and ensure changes deliver measurable improvements in efficiency, quality, and control effectiveness.
Data, MI, and Performance Management
- Define and own KYC operational data and MI requirements across onboarding, periodic reviews, and event-driven reviews.
- Develop reporting on volumes, demand, backlogs, ageing, turnaround times, service levels, productivity, quality, rework, and capacity.
- Use data to identify bottlenecks, control weaknesses, inconsistent outcomes, and emerging operational risks.
- Develop forecasting and capacity models to anticipate demand, support resource planning, and manage backlog risk.
- Establish clear KPIs and KRIs for KYC Operations, with agreed thresholds and escalation triggers covering performance, quality, risk, and control effectiveness.
Quality and Control Effectiveness
- Own the first-line KYC quality control framework, including quality standards, sampling, testing, feedback, and defect management.
- Ensure quality reviews assess both technical compliance and whether due diligence provides a reasonable, evidenced understanding of the customer.
- Identify root causes of errors, using findings to improve procedures, training, systems, and controls.
- Oversee remediation arising from quality reviews, assurance, audit, or regulatory findings, escalating material weaknesses where required.
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Leadership and Governance
- Lead and develop KYC teams across EMEA and relevant operational centres, establishing clear responsibilities, objectives, and competency standards.
- Maintain workforce, capacity, and location plans aligned to demand, risk, service levels, and business growth.
- Represent KYC Operations at governance forums, including as a standing member of the FCP Operations Committee, using MI, KPIs, and KRIs to support prioritisation, escalation, and oversight of performance, quality, capacity, control issues, and transformation priorities.
- Build strong relationships across Front Office, Client Lifecycle Management, Financial Crime, Compliance, Operations, Technology, Data, and regional MLRO teams.
- Oversee the operational use of relevant third-party providers and KYC tools, ensuring appropriate quality, performance, control, and value.
Qualifications
Experience and Capabilities
The successful candidate will have:
- Significant leadership experience in KYC, customer due diligence, or financial crime operations within a regulated financial institution.
- Strong hands-on expertise across legal entity onboarding, reviews, EDD, complex ownership structures, and higher-risk customer types.
- Proven ability to translate policies, standards, and regulatory requirements into effective procedures and operating practices across multiple jurisdictions or legal entities.
- Strong operational management capability across service levels, quality, capacity, backlogs, resource planning, and performance delivery.
- Proven use of data, MI, and forecasting to manage performance, support decisions, and drive process improvement.
- Experience working with Technology and Data teams on workflow, automation, and operational transformation.
- Strong judgement, stakeholder management, and communication skills.
- Willingness to travel frequently across EMEA and relevant operational centres, typically 15–25%.
- Experience within institutional financial services, brokerage, banking, payments, investment services, or commodities would be advantageous.
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