Compliance Officer (Insurance)
Critical skills: Conduct and investor protection rules (MiFID II, FINRA, SEBI), Regulatory change impact assessment, Internal controls and risk oversight
Matches your search
Compliance Officer
Full profileYour role
Also known as Director of compliance and information security in gambling · Chief Compliance Officer · Compliance Manager · Gambling compliance and information security directorand 8 more
Gambling compliance and information security manager · Gaming compliance and information security director · Gaming compliance and information security manager · Head of Compliance · Manager of compliance and information security in gambling · Manager of compliance and information security in gaming · Security information director · Security information manager
- L3 salary
- Not published yet
- Upcoming dated changes
- 14 changes ahead
What the role does
A Compliance Officer helps a financial firm follow the laws, rules and standards that apply to its business and protect its customers and markets. The role advises business teams, monitors and tests activities, reviews new products, handles conflicts of interest, gifts and personal account dealing, supports training and reports breaches. It applies rules such as MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), market abuse rules and anti-money laundering requirements. Compliance sits in the second line of defence.
Read a day in the life
A day in the life
The compliance officer starts by reading the overnight regulatory updates and a new supervisory statement on how firms should handle client complaints. A message from the sales desk follows: they want to send a marketing document to retail clients, and the officer reviews it for fair, clear and not misleading content and asks for two changes. Late morning goes to the monthly monitoring review: testing a sample of client files for suitability assessments and noting two files where the reasons were not documented. After lunch the officer attends the new product committee, asking how a structured product will be sold, to whom and with what disclosures. Mid-afternoon brings a conflicts of interest question from a manager who wants to join an external board, which the officer assesses against policy. The officer then reviews personal account dealing requests from staff and approves most of them. The day ends with drafting findings from the monitoring review and agreeing actions and deadlines with the business owner.
Levels
- L1 Starting out
- L2 Independent
- L3 Senior or specialist
- L4 Leads a team or an area
- L5 Leads the function
Full level descriptions and job titles
The EFO level names are the common scale; job titles differ between employers.
| Level | What the work looks like | Typical years | Typical job titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 Starting out | Compliance analyst. Runs monitoring checks, maintains registers such as gifts and personal account dealing, prepares reports and learns regulations and policies under supervision. | 0-2 | Banks: Analyst, Junior Analyst, Associate (asset servicing), Trainee, GraduateAsset servicers: Junior, Specialist (entry), Officer |
| L2 Independent | Owns compliance coverage for a business area or topic end to end: advice, monitoring reviews, training and breach handling, and is the first compliance contact for the business. | 2-5 | Banks: Analyst / Senior Analyst, AssociateAsset servicers: Specialist, Senior Specialist, Senior Officer |
| L3 Senior or specialist | Senior compliance officer or subject matter expert. Advises on complex products and cases, designs monitoring programmes, handles regulator questions and represents compliance in projects. | 5-9 | Banks: Senior Associate, AVP, Assistant ManagerAsset servicers: Senior Specialist, Expert, Team Lead (small team) |
| L4 Leads a team or an area | Leads a compliance team or area such as advisory or monitoring, owns the compliance plan and risk assessments, and is the escalation point for breaches, regulators and auditors. | 8-14 | Banks: VP, Manager, Senior ManagerAsset servicers: Team Lead, Manager, Head of Section |
| L5 Leads the function | Head of compliance or Chief Compliance Officer for a legal entity or region. Accountable for the compliance framework, reports to the board and regulators and sets compliance risk appetite. | 12+ | Banks: Director, Executive Director, Managing Director, Head of functionAsset servicers: Head of Department, Director |
Specialisations
Specialisations share most of the role and differ in the skills listed here.
Skills
Where the skill weights come from
Each role lists its skills with a tier and a weight. The weights of one role add up to 100 percent.
Source: the EFO role catalogue, built from the ESCO classification and reviewed by the editors.
The percentage is the skill's share of the role; the bars are drawn relative to the anchor skill, which is shown full.
Critical
- Conduct and investor protection rules (MiFID II, FINRA, SEBI)Weight 14.3%Relevant to you
- Regulatory change impact assessmentWeight 9.5%Relevant to you
- Internal controls and risk oversightWeight 9.5%Relevant to you
- Anti-money laundering regulationWeight 9.5%Relevant to you
Important and supporting skills 18
Important
- Ethical judgment in grey areasWeight 4.8%Relevant to you
- Professional written communicationWeight 4.8%Relevant to you
- Control mindset (what could go wrong)Weight 4.8%Relevant to you
- Data protection and privacy law (GDPR, CCPA, DPDP)Weight 4.8%Relevant to you
- Legal research and regulatory interpretationWeight 4.8%Relevant to you
- Attention to detailWeight 4.8%Relevant to you
- Risk judgment and escalation instinctWeight 4.8%Relevant to you
- Corporate governanceWeight 4.8%Relevant to you
Supporting
- Process mapping and redesignWeight 2.4%Relevant to you
- Operational resilience and ICT risk rules (DORA and equivalents)Weight 2.4%Relevant to you
- Advanced Microsoft ExcelWeight 2.4%Relevant to you
- Stakeholder managementWeight 2.4%Relevant to you
- Assessing the quality of sourcesWeight 2.4%Relevant to you
- Querying data with SQLWeight 2.4%Relevant to you
- Sustainable finance regulation (SFDR, EU Taxonomy, ISSB)Weight 2.4%Relevant to you
Useful
- Third party risk management and outsourcing rulesWeight 0.8%Relevant to you
- Ticketing platforms (ServiceNow)Weight 0.8%Relevant to you
- Working to tight deadlinesWeight 0.8%Relevant to you
Processes
The work the role takes part in.
- AML transaction monitoring
- Audit and assurance
- Conduct and investor protection
- Operational risk and controls
- Regulatory change management
What each process covers
- AML transaction monitoringMain
- Audit and assuranceMain
- Conduct and investor protectionMain
- Operational risk and controlsMain
- Regulatory change managementMain
- Data management and governanceSupporting
Where the role concentrates
How AI is changing the role
AI tools now track regulatory publications, summarise new rules, review marketing documents and monitor communications for possible misconduct.
Read the full assessment
AI tools now track regulatory publications, summarise new rules, review marketing documents and monitor communications for possible misconduct. Routine reading, screening and testing take less time. The European Banking Authority reports wide AI use in EU banks, and the EU AI Act adds new duties that compliance teams help oversee. Value grows in judgement on grey areas, advising business teams, assessing new products and challenging model outputs. The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025 lists analytical thinking among the most important skills.
Dated changes for this role
- Second Consumer Credit Directive appliesRelevant to you
- DORA register of information: 2027 annual submissionRelevant to you
- CSRD scope narrowed by Omnibus I; second wave reports from financial year 2027Relevant to you
- FINMA circular on nature-related financial risks phases inRelevant to you
- UK Basel 3.1 rules take effectRelevant to you
Worth knowing
Salary snapshot
Salary figures are not published yet
The L3 salary range for this role, with its sources, will appear here when the salaries section opens.
Certifications
- CAMS
- ICA Diploma in Compliance
- CIPP/E
Concepts to know
- CDD (Customer Due Diligence)
- CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
- MAR (Market Abuse Regulation)
- MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II)
- PSD2 (Second Payment Services Directive)
- RCSA (risk and control self-assessment)
- Three lines model (three lines of defence)
- Transaction monitoring
All 24 concepts
- 6AMLD (Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive)
- AI hallucination
- AIFMD (Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive)
- AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Authority)
- AMLR (Anti-Money Laundering Regulation)
- Authorised push payment (APP) fraud
- Best execution
- CASP (Crypto-Asset Service Provider)
- Conflicts of interest (MiFID II)
- Consumer Duty (UK)
- CRD6
- CRS (Common Reporting Standard)
- Customer risk rating
- DAC6 (mandatory disclosure of cross-border arrangements)
- DAC8 (crypto-asset tax reporting)
- Data retention
Neighbouring roles
Roles that need many of the same skills, by weighted skill overlap, with the skills you would need to add.
Conduct Risk Analyst
90% skill overlap
To add: Consumer credit and consumer duty rules (CCD, Consumer Duty, TILA)
Your role
Regulatory Change Analyst
90% skill overlap
To add: Prudential and regulatory reporting (COREP, FINREP, US call reports)
Your role
Data Protection Specialist
61% skill overlap
To add: Identity and access management
Your role
Privacy Specialist (Technology)
59% skill overlap
To add: Functional analysis between business and IT, Identity and access management
Your role
Legal Counsel
48% skill overlap
To add: Contract drafting and negotiation, Integrity and discretion, Applied employment law
Your role
Risk Advisory Consultant
44% skill overlap
To add: Basel framework and capital, Target operating model design, Risk measures and sensitivities
Your role
Do this job? Suggest a correction
Sources
Conflicts of interest (MiFID II)Conflicts of interest arise when a firm or its staff could benefit at a client's expense, or favour one client over another. MiFID II Article 23 requires firms to identify, prevent or manage them through a written policy, information barriers and remuneration controls, and to disclose them to clients as a last resort.
MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II)MiFID II, Directive 2014/65/EU, is the EU framework for investment services and trading venues. It sets authorisation, organisation and conduct rules for investment firms and banks providing investment services, including suitability, best execution, inducements, product governance and conflicts of interest. It applies since January 2018 with MiFIR.
AI Act (Artificial Intelligence Act)The AI Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, is the EU law that sets rules for AI systems according to their risk: some practices are banned, high-risk systems face strict requirements, and general-purpose AI models have transparency duties. Credit scoring of individuals is a high-risk use.