Principal Counsel, FinCrime Compliance - Compliance & Ethics (Bangkok Based,Relocation Provided)

Get to Know our Team: 

In the age of technology, things are constantly changing. The travel market is much the same, being more dynamic and complex than ever. Agoda’s Legal team is well suited to take on the challenges presented, adopting a proactive mindset to tackle challenges and solve problems. We are quick on our feet, decisive, and collaborate with multiple departments. We hire out-of-the-box thinkers that are well grounded with ethics and legal knowledge to ensure that Agoda achieves the right results, the right way. 

The Opportunity:

Agoda’s Financial Crime Compliance team, under the Compliance & Ethics team, is responsible for preventing and detecting the broad range of emergency regulatory, sanctions and trade, economic, and financial crime risks attendant to our business. 

We are looking for a hands-on and business-minded Principal Counsel to lead on Regulatory and Financial Crime Risk Management (FCRM) legal advice.  In this role, you will be responsible for providing real-time advice and actionable guidance on emerging regulations and risks related to financial crime, with specific attention to economic sanctions, export controls, money laundering, tax evasion to Agoda’s business by implementing or operationalizing controls design/ implementation, training/ awareness and monitoring/testing.

You will also be charged with co-leading the continued strategic growth of the Agoda’s FCRM function - ensuring that policies, procedures and other governance infrastructure are best-in-class, partnering with FCRM colleagues at Booking Holdings Inc., Booking Holdings Financial Services, and other sister brands.

The right candidate will have extensive legal and operational experience in a broad spectrum of regulatory financial crime matters, with primary focus on economic sanctions mainly in the US and other global equivalents.  You will have experience working with senior business leaders and responding to quickly developing regulatory changes (change management experience) in a fast-paced and diverse work environment.

The role reports to the Director, Compliance & Ethics Officer.

In this Role, you'll get to:

• Provide day-to-day legal advice on financial crime related matters related to OFAC regulations and other sanctions regimes, any applicable AML directives/ regulatory requirements and other global equivalents especially in APAC.
• Develop and maintain Agoda FinCrime (along with BHI FinCrime team) related policies, procedures and processes to ensure compliance with applicable internal, legal and regulatory standards
• Effectively and collaboratively work with external (Booking Holdings Inc., Booking Holdings Financial Services and our sister brands) and internal stakeholders (FinTech, Fraud, Internal Audit, Legal, Product, IT, People, Supply) to drive the Agoda FinCrime Risk Management Program
• Provide advisory support to the Agoda Compliance & Ethics team by evaluating, strategizing several aspects of the FinCrime Program, develop and deliver customized C&E training, align FinCrime related communication & management updates where necessary
• Advise on financial crime related language in contracts etc.
• Provide oversight and management of outsourced operations and outside counsel where necessary
• Together with Agoda FinCrime Compliance team members, set risk appetite and develop risk assessment and mitigation plan
• Knowledge-share with several teams across the business (Legal, Operations, Product)
• Ensure key stakeholders are kept apprised of relevant regulations and / or increased regulatory risk

What you'll Need to Succeed:

• At least 7 years’ attorney experience, preferably in both law firm and in-house environments including experiences as FinCrime counsel in corporate, government or law firm environment.
• Experience in payments industry, specifically in FinTech landscape a plus
• Experience working in APAC environment a plus
• Ability to provide practical, strategic and business-oriented legal advice
• Ability to build strong working relationships with internal stakeholders at all levels of management and work within cross-functional teams to develop solutions to complex legal/business issues
• Ability to effectively manage multiple time sensitive tasks
• Must be detail-oriented and demonstrate strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively
• Must possess strong project management skills and able to plan and execute projects of significant scope and complexity.
• Excellent communication (verbal and written) and organization skills; English proficiency.
• Must possess the highest integrity, commensurate with a position in compliance & ethics team.
• Energetic, fast-paced, and always desire to go the extra mile.

#LI-DN2 #melbourne #london #berlin #copenhagen #hongkong #seoul #tokyo #jakarta #manila #kualalumpur #singapore #hanoi #bangkok