At Thndr we believe that investing should be easy and accessible to everyone. We started our journey to democratize investment in the region by removing commissions, account opening minimums, and launching an intuitive platform with a focus on education. This way investing opportunities can be attainable to all, no matter their income level or expertise.
Thndr is an investment platform that aims to democratize access to investing for everyday individuals in MENA. For the people who use Thndr, our app represents a seamless way for them to achieve financial independence and growth, without the need to have prior financial knowledge or access to huge capital.
The company was formed to primarily address 2 problems: 1) Existing products are not relevant and 2) Financial literacy is low. We’re looking to solve this by focusing on education, offering a seamless and intuitive product, removing barriers and building an investment supermarket.
We launched in Egypt in late 2020 and currently allow our users to learn, connect & invest in the Egyptian Exchange, Egyptian mutual funds and the US Stock Market.
The journey ahead will be long and painful - it’s not everyday that you solve a basic societal necessity and at the same time change cultural norms. But the reward will be priceless. In our short journey we’ve validated this, as illustrated by these key figures:
- 96% of our investors are investing for the 1st time through Thndr.
- 54% come from outside of capital cities and have previously had limited access to financial institutions.
- 86% of new stock market investors in Egypt during 2022 came through Thndr.
- #1 platform in terms of local trades with 25% of EGX trades happening through Thndr.
We recently raised our Series A and our next steps as a company include the following:
- Continuing to focus on building the infrastructure. Sadly, existing solutions are outdated and don’t cater to scalable business.
- Expanding beyond Egypt and into the rest of MENA. We’d like to extend our impact to all Arabic speakers.
- Adding more products for people to invest in. To be relevant, we believe that we need to cater to all walks of life.
We’re still in the very early stages of our story, but we know for a fact that we won’t stop until everyone in MENA has equally opportunity to generate and grow their wealth in an ethical manner.
About The Role
As a Compliance and AML Manager responsible for the compliance program of Thndr brokerage, you are responsible with your team for the adherence of your given scope to the applicable rules and regulations, and acting as the point of contact between Thndr brokerage and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA).
What You'll Do
This role has three main components of their responsibilities detailed below in collaboration with their team.
Regulatory Framework Monitoring and Advocacy:
- Operate a compliance program that is risk-based through finding innovative solutions that keep compliance risks at bay with minimum disruption to the business.
- Integrate with all required internal functions (marketing, customer experience, product, operations…etc.) to ensure they are aware of their compliance obligations and report and track violations.
- Install and operate internal compliance monitoring measures that ensure detection of any potential violations of legal or regulatory requirements from applicable laws, regulations, decrees…etc.
- Proactively keep connections with the regulator to understand regulatory landscape challenges and opportunities to advance the business.
- Keep abreast of rules and regulations updates and take lead on any changes needed to address new arising regulations.
- Coordinate between different stakeholders and team members to fulfill regular and irregular regulatory reports and requirements in a timely manner.
- Maintain records of internal memos and journals of all incidents for future reference.
- Completely own the FRA communications, inspections, data requests, and complaints.
- Receiving and acting upon any relevant findings, recommendations, guidance, directives, resolutions, sanctions, notices or other conclusions.
- Customize, plan, and conduct regular compliance training.
Compliance & AML Operations:
- Ensure KYC and signature requirements are fulfilled, and track proofs as needed.
- Design and execute processes to conduct EDD measures as needed.
- Check potential matches with sanctions and AML lists and act accordingly.
- Design and implement methods to monitor and identify suspicious fund-ins or transactions as per the company's approved AML policies and procedures.
- Design and implement processes to react to suspicious or violating operations in a compliant and risk-based manner (investigative calls, account suspension, regulator reporting…etc.).
Compliance Team Leadership:
- Manage the performance of the compliance team members to ensure they’re productive and growing professionally.
- Lead strategic initiatives to advance the compliance program forward.
- Support the compliance technology squad in productizing & automation of compliance.
- Track and report on the compliance team’s performance and coverage through developing and tracking KPIs, dashboards, management presentations and written reports.
- Prepare internal memos reports for the board that summarize compliance status, details long-term problems and solutions, updates on complaints and incidents…etc.
What You'll Need
- Bachelor's degree in business, law, or a related field.
- Long experience working in a compliance role, preferably within a regulated financial services industry.
- Intimate knowledge of financial products offered and their ecosystem (Stocks, Funds, Gold certificates…etc.)
- Strong knowledge of Egypt laws, regulations, and industry standards related to brokerage.
- Good knowledge of AML standards and practices.
- Experience in dealing with the FRA inspections, report requests, complaints…etc.
- Strong organizational and project management skills to handle multiple compliance initiatives and workstreams.
- Sound evaluator of regulatory risks without hyper-inflation or over-simplification
- Proactive approach to problem solving with out of the box thinking.
- Continuously improving themselves and keeping Keep abreast of rules and regulations updates.
- Excellent proactive communicator with internal, external and global stakeholders
- Proficient in using technology and tools to solve problems.
- Can instill process through a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility
- Very keen attention to the details with passion for fairness and transparency.
- Can create airtight documented processes with proficiency.
- Good relationships building, conflict resolution and negotiation skills.
- Good people management skills and growth mindset.
- Experience in reporting on the performance and effectiveness of the compliance program.
- Experience in conducting compliance training.
At Thndr, we’re looking for people invigorated by our mission, not just those who simply check off all the boxes. We’re looking for people that are hungry to become agents of change and that understand the huge responsibility associated with dealing with people’s money.
