Director, Trade Surveillance & Financial Crimes Compliance

Futu US Inc. stands at the forefront of financial services, housing two SEC registered broker-dealers alongside a cryptocurrency brokerage — all operating under the reputable wing of Futu Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: FUTU). Our core mission revolves around innovating the investing landscape through a digitized brokerage and wealth management platform designed to elevate the investment experience.

Key entities include:

• Futu Clearing Inc.: An SEC registered FINRA member dedicated to delivering top-tier clearing and execution services globally.
• Moomoo Financial Inc.: An SEC registered FINRA member providing retail investors access to both U.S. and Asian securities markets.
• Moomoo Technology Inc.: Offering a data-rich trading platform with unparalleled insights and tools (not a licensed broker-dealer).

About the role

The Director, Trade Surveillance & Financial Crimes Compliance leads, oversees, and enhances the firm's Trade Surveillance and AML programs. This role provides strategic and operational leadership over market abuse surveillance, supervisory review, financial crime investigations, transaction monitoring, customer due diligence, regulatory reporting, and program governance. The position ensures compliance with SEC, FINRA, BSA, USA PATRIOT Act, OFAC, and other regulatory requirements while proactively identifying emerging risks through data analytics, technology, and industry best practices. The role partners closely with Compliance, Risk, Operations, Legal, Technology, Product, Internal Audit, and executive leadership.

Responsibilities

Trade Surveillance & Supervisory Oversight

• Lead and oversee the firm's Trade Surveillance and supervisory review programs across equities, options, ETFs, and digital asset products.
• Supervise daily review, investigation, escalation, and resolution of surveillance alerts and exception reports.
• Ensure surveillance activities identify and investigate potential market abuse, including:
  • Insider Trading
  • Front Running
  • Spoofing and Layering
  • Wash Trading
  • Cross-Product Manipulation
  • Marking the Close/Open
  • Momentum Ignition
  • Manipulative Trading Practices
  • Employee Trading Violations
  • Other prohibited trading activity
• Establish investigation standards, documentation requirements, quality assurance procedures, and supervisory controls.
• Oversee case prioritization, assignment, escalation, documentation, and timely resolution.
• Ensure surveillance activities satisfy SEC, FINRA, exchange, and internal supervisory obligations.
• Evaluate new business initiatives, products, and trading functionality for appropriate surveillance coverage prior to implementation.

Anti-Money Laundering Program Leadership

• Lead and enhance the firm's AML Program to ensure compliance with BSA, USA PATRIOT Act, FINRA, SEC, FinCEN, and OFAC requirements.
• Oversee and strengthen:
  • Customer Due Diligence (CDD)
  • Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)
  • Transaction Monitoring
  • Ongoing Customer Monitoring
  • High-Risk Customer Reviews
  • Suspicious Activity Investigations
  • Sanctions Screening
  • OFAC Investigations
  • AML Risk Assessments
• Ensure customer risk ratings reflect evolving risks and regulatory expectations.
• Oversee periodic reviews of higher-risk customer relationships and complex onboarding decisions.
• Conduct periodic AML program effectiveness reviews and implement enhancements.
• Partner with Technology and Operations to improve AML systems, monitoring capabilities, automation, and investigative workflows.

Investigations, Escalations & Regulatory Reporting

• Oversee complex Trade Surveillance and AML investigations from initial detection through resolution.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for significant market abuse, suspicious activity, sanctions concerns, fraud, and other financial crime matters.
• Establish and maintain risk-based escalation protocols to executive leadership, the Chief Compliance Officer, Legal, and regulators.
• Oversee Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) governance, including investigation, documentation, decision-making, filing, and post-filing monitoring.
• Chair or participate in SAR review committees, as applicable.
• Ensure regulatory reporting obligations are completed accurately and within required deadlines.

Regulatory Examinations & Governance

• Serve as the primary business owner for Trade Surveillance and AML during SEC, FINRA, state regulatory, and internal examinations.
• Coordinate responses to regulatory inquiries, document requests, examinations, and audits.
• Lead remediation efforts resulting from regulatory examinations, internal audits, and compliance reviews.
• Own and maintain the firm's AML Program, Written Supervisory Procedures (WSPs), surveillance procedures, and related compliance policies.
• Monitor regulatory developments and recommend enhancements to policies, procedures, controls, and governance frameworks.

Program Strategy & Continuous Improvement

• Develop and execute the strategic roadmap for Trade Surveillance and AML program enhancements.
• Evaluate emerging regulatory expectations, financial crime risks, market abuse trends, and surveillance technologies.
• Improve surveillance effectiveness through ongoing alert calibration, scenario development, data analytics, and automation.
• Identify opportunities to leverage artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to strengthen surveillance, investigations, and monitoring.
• Develop meaningful management reporting, key risk indicators (KRIs), and program metrics for executive leadership and governance committees.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Lead, mentor, and develop Trade Surveillance and AML personnel while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Partner closely with Compliance, Risk, Operations, Legal, Product, Engineering, Data Analytics, Customer Experience, and Internal Audit.
• Provide subject matter expertise for new product launches, strategic initiatives, and regulatory change management.
• Promote a proactive compliance culture through collaboration and effective risk management practices.

Training & Compliance Culture

• Develop and deliver Trade Surveillance, Market Abuse, AML, and Financial Crimes training programs for Compliance, Operations, and business personnel.
• Ensure annual AML training requirements are completed in accordance with regulatory expectations.
• Provide ongoing guidance to business partners regarding emerging regulatory risks and supervisory responsibilities.
• Promote a culture of ethical conduct, compliance, and proactive risk identification.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, Criminal Justice, or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in Trade Surveillance, Market Abuse Investigations, AML, Financial Crimes, or Regulatory Compliance within a broker-dealer, exchange, regulator, or financial institution.
• Demonstrated experience leading Trade Surveillance and AML programs within a FINRA- and SEC-regulated environment.
• Deep knowledge of:
  • SEC Rules and Regulations
  • FINRA Rules
  • Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
  • USA PATRIOT Act
  • OFAC
  • FinCEN Requirements
  • Market Abuse and Trade Surveillance practices
• Experience leading regulatory examinations and managing remediation activities.
• Strong leadership, investigative, analytical, and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting a self-clearing or introducing broker-dealer.
• Experience with retail brokerage platforms and customer trading activity.
• Knowledge of options, margin, futures, and digital asset trading.
• Experience implementing surveillance technologies, case management systems, and AI-driven monitoring solutions.
• Previous regulatory experience with FINRA, SEC, CFTC, NFA, Nasdaq, NYSE, or another exchange.
• Systems & Technology Experience with one or more of the following:
  • Nasdaq SMARTS
  • NICE Actimize
  • ACA ComplianceAlpha
  • Eventus Validus
  • SteelEye
  • SQL
  • Python
  • Tableau
  • Power BI
  • Case Management & AML Monitoring Systems
• Licenses & Certifications:
  • FINRA Series 7
  • FINRA Series 24
  • CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist)
  • CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner)
  • CFCS (Certified Financial Crime Specialist)

Benefits

• Competitive salary and performance-based bonuses.
• Comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, and retirement plans.
• Opportunities for professional growth and development.
• Dynamic and collaborative work environment.

Pay

The expected salary range for this role is $185,000–$230,000. This role is also eligible to participate in a discretionary bonus plan.