Associate, Business Integrity & Corporate Governance (Responsible Investing)

About BII

British International Investment is the UK’s development finance institution, owned by the UK Government. With a mission to solve the biggest global development challenges, we aim to create a virtuous circle of investment and impact. Your contribution will be essential. 

It won’t be easy: we do the hardest work in the most complex markets. Be prepared to test your skills, get creative and say your piece as you take on high-profile work as part of a diverse team of exceptionally smart, passionate people. 

In return, you can take your career to all-new places in a culture that rewards curiosity and collaboration, and balances high performance with wellbeing.

BII at a glance

Over 75 years supporting sustainable business growth in developing and emerging markets

More than £8.8 billion in net assests

1,400+ businesses invested in

950,000 workers in the businesses we support 

650+ people in our diverse global team

3 key development objectives: Productive | Sustainable | Inclusive

Team and role overview

This position will be in BII’s Responsible Investing team, with a focus on the Business Integrity and Corporate Governance (BI & CG) workstream. The team plays an important role in reinforcing BII’s reputation as a responsible investor. The BI&CG workstream ensures BII meets its regulatory commitments regarding the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and support our investees in meeting the standards and requirements set out in BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing.

We do this by identifying and managing integrity risks in BII’s investment pipeline and portfolio and working to enhance private sector corporate governance and integrity risk management standards in our target geographies. Business Integrity issues can include financial crime matters, including money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery & corruption, fraud, breaches of international sanctions, and tax evasion, alongside other integrity matters, e.g. data protection and privacy, customer protection and modern slavery/human trafficking. We believe BI & CG risk management aligned with best practice can have a developmental effect by enhancing a company’s reputation, improving internal controls, and ultimately helping it seek commercial backing. Robust business integrity practices help mitigate reputational, operational and compliance risks, support environment and social outcomes, and protect companies from the large fines that can result from unethical behaviour. Our work is critical to safeguarding BII's reputation, meeting the BII Board's low-risk appetite for integrity issues, and meeting our shareholders' expectations.

The candidate will have a direct reporting line to a Responsible Investing Manager and a dotted reporting line to the Coverage Director for the region.

Purpose

The successful candidate will support BII’s integrity risk management by identifying, assessing and mitigating integrity risks and corporate governance sufficiency in the pipeline and portfolio stages of BII’s investments as well as meeting BII’s financial crime regulatory obligations. The Associate will also proactively monitor BII’s portfolio investments, engaging with investees to strengthen their capacity to mitigate operational integrity risks and improve their corporate governance. The Associate will focus on investments in Africa in our Industry Technology & Services (ITS) pillar.

Responsibilities

• Undertake and lead business integrity and broader ESG-related research and due diligence for pipeline investments and engage with external consultants where required
• Conduct integrity due diligence for individual investments, providing written and oral analysis of the business integrity risks to investment teams and senior management
• Monitor for integrity issues in specific parts of our investment portfolio, managing relationships with portfolio companies or funds;
• Conduct country or sector-specific research to identify integrity and broader ESG risks with implications for BII’s pipeline and portfolio investments
• Work closely with the London team to share and coordinate market intelligence and activity that supports the wider team’s business plan
• Identify and promote anti-corruption, anti-money laundering or counter terrorism-financing controls to help improve business integrity outcomes at Investees, fund managers and their portfolio companies
• Support the strengthening of BII’s internal Responsible Investing policies and procedures for assessing risks in the pipeline and portfolio
• Support the Responsible Investing and Africa Coverage teams’ involvement in external engagements in Nigeria and other locations in Africa as required
• Work closely with colleagues focused on Environmental and Social risk management as required
• Build and maintain a network of external contacts/stakeholders in Africa more broadly relevant to enhancing the BI team’s knowledge, effectiveness and impact
• Support the RI team with data/information management,reporting and record-keeping as per internal procedural requirements

The candidate

• Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous roles.

Background, skills, aptitude

Essential skills:

• Significant experience in identifying, assessing and addressing financial crime & integrity risks, preferably within private equity or banks, involving clients in Africa across a wide range of sectors e.g. manufacturing, technology, consumer services
• Knowledge of operational and political risks in Africa that may drive or exacerbate integrity or financial crime risks
• Experience in conducting financial crime focused research / due diligence, both remotely and onsite;
• Excellent written and oral communications skills, including in distilling complex or sensitive topics for strategic audiences.
• Knowledge of, and experience with, aspects of the UK regulatory requirements on anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CFT), and/or anti-bribery and corruption;
• Experience in the delivery of financial crime prevention solutions and controls in a wide range of scenarios;
• Experience of developing and managing client relationships;
• Experience in developing and/or evaluating financial crime compliance programmes and risk assessment frameworks;
• University degree and preferably a postgraduate qualification in a relevant discipline;
• Experience developing and/or delivering BI/ESG-focused training sessions and related materials;

Desirable/Technical skills:

• Knowledge of internal control frameworks and techniques in one or more of anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, counter terrorism financing, sanctions, and/or fraud prevention risks
• Knowledge of and experience with international legislation or standards to address money laundering, terrorist financing, and/or corruption
• Knowledge of French/competency in one or more languages relevant to BII’s target geographies
• Basic knowledge of Environmental and Social (E&S) performance standards and frameworks and the ability to provide support to E&S workstreams where required.
• Experience in at least one or more of the following:
• managing fraud and/or sanctions issues
• evaluating and developing financial crime compliance policies and procedures
• contributing to investigations of financial crime-related matters
• developing anti-corruption solutions and/or applying adequate procedures in line with the UK Bribery Act

Personal and Professional Competencies:

The successful candidate is likely to have several of the following attributes:

• Systematic approach to work with keen attention to details
• Proactive and clear ability to look and plan ahead
• Demonstrated ability to independently manage and prioritise a busy and diverse workload with a range of deliverables for a variety of stakeholders
• Flexible and agile work style, with the ability to work on multiple workstreams/topic areas as required
• Confident and articulate, with excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong team player who enjoys working as part of a close team and is willing to collaborate and support the team on a variety of different initiatives and tasks
• Demonstrable alignment with BII’s mandate, mission, and values

Our cultural values

We look for team members who aspire, as we do, to work at our best and to be:

• Impact-led, commercially rigorous
• Tenacious in the face of challenges
• Collaborative and caring

British International Investment is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation or educational background. 

Please provide a cover letter with your application

Salary: Competitive