Operations Officer - Payments Investigations
Summary
Investigates and resolves payment issues like failed or delayed transactions, ensuring compliance with banking regulations while coordinating with internal teams and correspondent banks.
Role: Operations Officer - Payments Investigations
Location: Abu Dhabi
Role Purpose:
Payment Investigation Officer is responsible for ensuring the accurate, timely, and secure processing of financial transactions by identifying, resolving, and preventing payment-related issues. The role safeguards both the bank and its customers from financial loss, operational risks, and regulatory breaches.
Acting as a contact point between payment department and correspondent banks/internal Business Units (BU) to clarify all issues related to payments.
Key Accountabilities of the role
1. Payment Investigation & Resolution
Investigate failed, delayed, rejected, duplicated, or misrouted payments across all channels (SWIFT, RTGS, ACH, internal transfers, etc.).
Perform end‑to‑end tracing of transactions using internal systems and correspondent banking networks.
Resolve payment discrepancies by identifying root causes and implementing corrective actions.
2. Customer & Stakeholder Communication
Provide timely and accurate updates to Branches & relationship managers, and internal business units regarding investigation progress.
Liaise with correspondent banks and external partners through SWIFT messages and formal communication.
3. Operational Risk & Compliance Adherence
Ensure every investigation complies with AML, sanctions screening, fraud monitoring, and regulatory requirements.
Escalate suspicious or high‑risk transactions to Compliance, AML, or Fraud teams as needed.
Maintain solid controls to mitigate operational, financial, and reputational risks.
4. Exception Handling & Case Management
Work through payment exception queues and ensure timely handling of pending items.
Carry out recalls, amendments, returns, chargebacks, and indemnities according to bank policy.
Maintain accurate, audit‑ready documentation for all cases handled.
5. Reconciliation & Transaction Validation
Reconcile payment breakages, unmatched entries, and pending items from related system reports.
Validate incoming and outgoing payment information to prevent errors and rework.
Coordinate with reconciliation teams to close outstanding items.
6. Process Improvement & Issue Prevention
Identify recurring errors, system issues, or process gaps, and recommend enhancements.
Support automation, STP (straight‑through processing), and operational excellence initiatives.
Contribute to reducing turnaround times and improving investigation quality.
7. Reporting & Metrics
Prepare daily/weekly/monthly reports on investigations, bottlenecks, and trends.
Highlight operational risks, root causes, and performance KPIs to management.
Track turnaround time (TAT), investigation accuracy, and customer experience metrics.
8. Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Partner with Operations, IT, Treasury, Compliance, and other teams to ensure smooth payment processing.
Support training of new team members and share best practices.
Act as a subject matter expert (SME) during audits, reviews, or system upgrades.
Undertake any additional assignments / projects entrusted by the line management and complete them as per requirement.
Specialist Skills / Technical Knowledge Required for this role:
Leadership
Teamwork
Customer Management
Business Development
Financial Management
Commercial & Innovative Problem Solving