Director of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.

Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.

Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

Job Purpose

Reporting to the CLUK CRO and Great West Lifeco (Lifeco) Chief Compliance Officer, this role leads the Compliance and Regulatory Affairs functions in the UK division (CLUK) in relation to products in wealth, insurance, asset management and home finance markets across the UK, Isle of Man and Dublin:

You will have:

• Accountability for providing compliance and regulatory oversight in relation to current and future strategic aims and commercial advice to CLUK on how these may be met within relevant regulatory and compliance requirements. Influence and set actions to mitigate regulatory and compliance risk through independent oversight of business activities and controls.
• Specific responsibilities include ownership of regulatory compliance management framework and oversight against it; management (through delegation) of MLRO and privacy team to ensure compliance with financial crime and privacy requirements; manage and report against the Code of Conduct process; and oversee complaints handling.
• Set regulatory strategy and lead delivery through relevant regulators (including PRA, FCA, CBI, IOMFSA, HKIA and OSFI)
• Act as key contact point for Compliance and Regulatory matters for CLG and Lifeco, including for input of reporting of UK Compliance and Regulatory matters to the equivalent CLG and Lifeco functions.

The role has significant exposure with regular oversight reporting and advice to senior management and boards in relation to managing regulatory and compliance risk to meet CLUK strategic outcomes.

• Support the Chief Risk Officer in ensuring that CLUK's Enterprise Risk Management Framework facilitates effective and appropriate risk management across the business with a particular focus on regulatory and compliance risk, encourages an appropriate risk culture and meets the needs of the full range of stakeholders (including Board, executive and regulators).

Desired Knowledge / Experience / Skills

Within this role you will:

• Report to CLUK CRO and Chief Compliance Officer of Lifeco
• Recruit and manage staff, carry out performance reviews and make pay & bonus decisions subject to company requirements.
• Engage with senior management, present advice and regular reports to the Boards, committees, senior management, and regulators under tight time pressure.
• Key contact point for Compliance and Regulatory matters for CLG and Lifeco (including for input of reporting of UK Compliance and Regulatory matters to the equivalent CLG and Lifeco functions), including provision of CLUK compliance reporting and relevant support to Lifeco CCO

Providing advice and/or agreeing a level of compliance which is outside of risk appetite could have a significant impact on the business and/or project deliverables resulting in potential fines, regulatory censure and damage to reputation due to non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

What you'll bring to the role:

• Proven experience of leading Compliance functions in PRA/FCA regulated environments.
• Proven experience of successfully managing regulatory relationships.
• Strong understanding of '3 Lines of Defence' models and experience of leading Compliance and Regulatory functions in such environments.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills to get desired outcome. Develop and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues, business unit leadership teams and other governance functions.
• Self-motivated, well-organised, pragmatic and able to perform tasks independently.
• Strong skills and experience of managing and motivating a team from a diverse range of professional backgrounds and with varying levels of experience including proven experience of developing and coaching individuals.
• Proven track record at delivering reporting requirements under time pressure with attention to detail.
• Strong change management skills.
• A sound understanding of compliance and conduct risk principles and philosophy, combined with risk principles, measurement and management techniques.
• Proven understanding of the key drivers and issues within Financial Services and how business solutions may be deployed to best meet all stakeholders' needs compliantly.
• Awareness of applicable laws relating to data protection (Data Protection Act (GDPR)) and Money-Laundering/ Financial Crime, together with proven ability to manage teams to deliver a strong control environment in these areas and satisfying all regulatory requirements

Job Specific Accountabilities

What you'll do:

• Accountability for Data Protection and MLRO sits within this team
• Manage and lead the Compliance function for the CL UK division (including CLL, CLAM, Stonehaven, CLP, CLI, CLII and CLIAI) to oversee operation of compliance, financial crime and privacy, policies and standards (accountable, either directly owning or via ownership by members of the Compliance Management team, for all compliance related policies).
• Provide commercial and risk-aware advice relating to compliance and regulatory requirements to influence and align CLUK strategy with expectations and obligations.
• Implement and manage the Code of Conduct process and provide associated reporting.
• To lead and oversee a proactive and effective working relationships with all regulators that the CL UK division interacts with including PRA, FCA, CBI, IOMFSA, HKIA and OSFI. Ensures understanding of the regulators' requirements and expectations of CLUK, and that this understanding is shared by the Executive and Board.
• Proactively set strategy for regulatory relationship management establishing objectives for these relationships to meet CLUK, CLG and Lifeco strategic goals and manages across the whole of CLUK to meet those objectives, including managing the process of effective and appropriate responses to regulatory requirements and requests.
• Drive the development of skills and capabilities within the function to meet current and future demands of the regulatory environment, and of the businesses within UK division, taking account of CLUK strategy.
• Oversee the relationship with 1st line compliance resources and ensure a robust model exists across the two lines, balancing totality of coverage with efficiency of delivery. Maintain focus on opportunities to make compliance function more effective and efficient including uses of new processes, systems or technology where appropriate.
• Take accountability on behalf of the COO for partnering with key senior leaders to deliver on strategic outcomes and targets. Overseeing strategic business initiatives, tracking progress and providing innovative solution to resolve issues and remove barriers.
• Delivering and tracking effective MI (financial, commercial, operational, conduct and risk) in order to lead the business safely and commercially. Reviewing MI along with the Executive team to track effective delivery of CL's strategic agenda.

Behavioural Competencies

Lead The Organisation Forward
Drive Innovation
Develop Talent
Outward Focus

Benefits of working at Canada Life

We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that's regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, you'll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with, income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance. We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.

How we work at Canada Life

Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us. We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures. Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others. Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward.

We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. That's why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.

Diversity and inclusion

Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us. We are proud of the progress we're making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus.

"At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures. Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all." Nick Harding, Chief People Officer, Canada Life UK

We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.