Associate, External Fraud Investigator

As a member of Santander’s retail banking division, you will serve Santander’s retail and small business customers as part of one of the top banks in the United States based on deposits.  With principal presence in the northeast U.S., Santander’s retail division offers consumer and lending products to help our customers reach their financial goals.  Santander currently serves nearly 2 million retail customers and 5.2% of the 2.7 million small businesses in the US footprint have a transactional account with Santander Bank. 

The External Fraud Investigator is responsible for collecting, reviewing, responding to, and analyzing data, documentation, and other evidence to ensure compliance with department service level agreements, policies, procedures, and/or regulatory and risk requirements in a fast-paced environment.  A successful candidate will investigate various types of suspicious activity and will coordinate with internal and external partners (including law enforcement agencies) to take care of customer accounts and to reduce potential exposure to criminal activities and perform recoveries where possible.  The investigator is also responsible for documenting and filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in accordance with various regulations.

Responsibilities

• Actively interface with peer banks and industry organizations to Maintain and broaden awareness of industry risks, trends, solutions, and best practices.
• Acts as the subject matter expert in external fraud investigations and in communication with various departments to obtain/provide information for key projects and problem resolution purposes.
• Conduct interviews of victims, witnesses, and suspects (both internal and external to the Bank).
• Conducts ad-hoc reporting and analysis as required to support investigations.
• Coordination with Law Enforcement to arrest/convict suspects and recover Bank assets.
• Demonstrate technical expertise and strong knowledge base in the area of fraud prevention risk management.
• Develops and maintains comprehensive documentation for investigations.
• Develops deep subject matter expertise in fraud and other key indicators that may result in potential vulnerability/risk.
• Ensure that all Suspicious Activity Reports consistently meet heightened quality standards before being submitted.
• Identifies and monitors trends and/or abnormalities with regards to external fraud activity.
• Provide proactive recommendations to management.
• Identify and pursue process enhancements and continuous improvement opportunities.
• Investigate various types of suspicious activity to determine fraud exposure to the Bank.
• Leverage deep understanding of various financial crime schemes to mitigate losses and propose strategies to fortify the bank's defenses against threats.
• Maintain compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act by ensuring that Suspicious Activity Reports are filed on all qualified activity and within the established timelines.
• Maintain high level of performance in terms of working/closing out cases in a timely fashion, securing recoveries and achieving consistently high quality assurance scores for casework.
• Maintains an in-depth awareness of company goals and industry trends.
• Off hours availability for escalated fraud events (on a rotation).
• Participates in the evaluation of new applications and the identification of systems requirements for planning purposes.
• Perform ad-hoc analysis as potential risks are identified.
• Prepare cases for civil litigation and/or criminal prosecution.
• Recover stolen funds and/or assets.