Investigation & Litigation Casework Support

Investigation & Litigation Casework Support 

Salary: National ranging from £31,600 – £35,000 and London from £34,700 – £37,000

The FCA’s Enforcement and Market Oversight (EMO) is recruiting for Investigation & Litigation Support Associates. There are vacancies in each of the EMO investigation departments; Retail and Regulatory, Wholesale and Unauthorised Business. 

About EMO 

EMO investigates and brings regulatory, disciplinary and civil cases, together with criminal prosecutions on behalf of the FCA against firms and individuals, aimed at achieving credible deterrence by changing behaviour in the financial services industry, in accordance with the FCA objectives. It plays a key role in the work of the whole organisation to reduce financial crime and ensure adherence to regulatory requirements. 

These are critical times for the financial markets, and we are continually presented with challenging and intellectually stimulating cases. Our cases attract large scale media attention and help to shape the future for the regulation of firms and markets, and the protection of investors and consumers. Our work covers a diverse range of criminal and regulatory issues including fraudulent conduct, systems and control failures, corporate governance and product mis-selling. 

Working at the FCA is a great career option if you have a strong sense of public duty and are motivated to do the right thing and make a positive difference to the lives of consumers and the UK financial market generally. 

The team / departments

Retail and Regulatory Investigations (RRI) 

RRI investigates potential misconduct by regulated firms, and individuals working within those firms, involved in retail banking, stockbroking, asset management, mortgage broking and lending, insurance intermediation, financial advice, consumer credit and payment services. We take action against firms that sell unsuitable products or services to consumers, mishandle client money and assets, or have governance and systemic issues. We also investigate financial crime matters including fraud and misconduct related to AML systems and controls. 

Wholesale 

The Wholesale department ensures that suspected wrongdoing in the wholesale financial markets is investigated and where serious misconduct by firms and/or individuals is identified they are held to account. Our investigation teams undertake criminal, civil, and regulatory investigations spanning insider dealing, market manipulation, misleading statements by listed companies and systems and controls failings. 

Unauthorised Business Department (UBD) 

UBD investigates firms that are not authorised by the FCA but are carrying out activities that require authorisation. Unauthorised firms pose a significant risk to consumers – UBD has civil and criminal powers to tackle these firms and protect consumers. UBD cases typically involve high-loss investment/Ponzi type frauds, illegal trading schemes and boiler room operations. 

What you will be doing (the role)

Investigation & Litigation Support Associates are key members of our case teams and play a vital role throughout the wider department. 

As a Support Associate, you are responsible for the overall administration of our case work, your core tasks are: 

• Managing the uploading of material onto document management systems and ensuring compliance with document management protocols
• Conducting general administrative tasks relating to investigations
• Reviewing and the categorisation of evidence
• Drafting documents (including correspondence, memoranda, reports and minutes of internal and external meetings), proof reading, preparation of bundles for interviews with witnesses and subjects, for disclosure and for court and tribunal proceedings
• Document and project management records and tasks, including recording key case decisions, carrying out intelligence checks, company house searches and other research
• Communicating effectively with team members about the progress of tasks

There is also scope for the post holder to assist with investigative tasks (e.g. interviewing and preparing witness statements) as required subject to skills and experience or, subject to core tasks being completed, as part of meeting developmental needs under the supervision of experienced investigators. 

What you will get from the role

• The chance to work on a range of high-profile cases of public importance as part of multi-disciplinary teams investigating and tackling serious financial services matters
• The role entails working as part of small case teams comprising of experienced financial investigators and lawyers, so it provides a great opportunity to develop the skills and experience required for career progression towards becoming an investigator
• A varied and interesting workload, dealing with a wide range of people both across the FCA and externally
• The chance to greatly enhance your existing skills and to develop your knowledge through on-going learning and development training

If you are successful, we will set you up for success. Your manager will work with you to help you meet your career goals. In your first six months you will attend a three-week investigators foundation course which will ensure you can learn and apply a skill set safely in the context of the FCA’s approach to investigations. 

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.  

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:  

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Private healthcare with Bupa
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
• Income protection

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.  

The skills and experience you will have 

Minimum criteria 

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.  

• Excellent organisational and administrative skills
• Experience of document, information or evidence management
• Good written and oral communication skills (i.e. communicating with internal and external stakeholders) with the ability to summarise issues in a comprehensive and concise manner

Essential criteria 

• Work proficiently with Microsoft Office applications including Excel and Word applications
• Maintain standards and focus on the overall objective across multiple projects, paying close attention to detail
• Work collaboratively and inclusively with colleagues of different perspectives and backgrounds
• Classify and organise information in a comprehensible manner
• Work on own initiative, prioritising, working under pressure and to tight deadlines whilst maintaining accuracy
• Be open to learning, challenge and change, and be prepared to be flexible to take on new tasks and responsibilities

We will be hosting three Q&A sessions, this will give you an opportunity to find out more about the roles, please see Teams links below

Tuesday 6th August – 12:00-13:00 – WUBI/RRI Campaign – Q&A Session

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 395 179 353 814

Passcode: mNGJAY

Wednesday 21st August – 12:00-13:00 – WUBI/RRI Campaign – Q&A Session

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 364 005 650 684

Passcode: Hpj46y

Monday 2nd September – 13:00-14:00 – WUBI/RRI – Q&A Session

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 320 422 933 883

Passcode: E2dmpt

About the FCA 

The FCA regulates the conduct of nearly 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.

The FCA’s Values & Diversity 

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation. 

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Senior Associate role. 

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking. 

Multi-location

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from. 

Useful information 

• Applications for this role close at 23:59 on the 8th September 2024
• This role is graded as Associate – Regulatory / Practising legal

Got a question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact: 

For internal applicants, please contact Michael Wood, michael.wood@fca.org.uk 

For external applicants, please contact Asha Gladis, asha.gladis@fca.org.uk

What to expect from our interview process 

This will consist of a one stage process involving a case study and a one hour technical and competency based interview.

Application support 

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best. 

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible. 

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