Junior Specialist: Payments Operations

SUMMARY:
We are seeking a detail-oriented and motivated individual to join our Trade Finance Operations team as a Junior Specialist: Payment Operations. In this role, you will be responsible for screening all parties involved in Trade Finance transactions against applicable financial sanctions lists. By carefully analysing payment messages—such as SWIFT and other internal payment instructions—you will ensure that no payments are processed that should be declined, helping to mitigate the bank’s exposure to reputational risk and financial penalties.

POSITION INFO:
JOB DESCRIPTION:
 

Job Title:                              Junior Specialist: Payments Operations
Employment Type:            6 months
Work Location:                   Johannesburg North/ Hybrid
 

JOB CONTEXT:
We are seeking a detail-oriented and proactive Junior Specialist in Payments Operations to join our growing team. This role is ideal for candidates with prior experience in the banking sector who have a foundational understanding of payments processing, financial operations, and regulatory compliance. As part of the Payments Operations team, you will support the end-to-end processing of domestic and international payment transactions while ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with all applicable policies and regulations.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:       
Accountability: Investigate violations on the SideSafewatch system 90%:

• Investigate violations on the SideSafewatch system and perform necessary investigations to accept or reject payments for South Africa and the Africa jurisdictions.
• Extract alert from the queue on the Midbase system and investigate the details of the violation on SideSafewatch to determine whether the information matches positively against any of the official lists.
• Source information from internet, World check, Side Station, MDP (Midbase) and the company’s systems as secondary level of information to assist in the decision-making process.
• Source information from International Financial Institution (IFI) counterparties to assist in the decision-making process.
• Source information from relationship managers from business to assist with the decision-making process.
• Follow up Page 2 of 5 with Relationship Managers where required to finalise the payment within the 48 hour turnaround time.
• Work on the queue as allocated by the Supervisor to meet the cut-off times for each currency.
• Formulate decision to accept / reject or refer payments and capture rationale to the accepted standard on the MDP for future reference.
• Prepare rejection reports to the accepted standard and submit to Second Level Analyst for comments and escalation further up the line.
• Prepare an Exception request when required by the information of a payment, submit to second level analyst for comments and submission to Head of Sanctions and Barclays Group Compliance (GFCM) for approval / decline.

• Extract daily information management (IM) stats from the various sources and compile daily report to submit to second level to check, consolidate and further submission to Head of Sanctions and Barclays Group Compliance (GFCM) as part of the measurement and record keeping of activities.
• Compile information from various sources to meet the requirements of ah-hoc requests for information as and when required by Head of Sanctions and Manager: Payment Screening.

• NQF Level 5: 3-year National Diploma/Higher Certificate.
• Relevant Diploma/ Certificate in Banking (Preferred).
• Law credit or Law degree (Preferred).

• Minimum of 1 year working experience in a legal or international payments environment.
• Minimum of 1 year experience in a Compliance Department in a banking sector.
• Experience in Money Laundering Control and/or Sanctions Screening.
• Experience in Money Laundering Control and/or Sanctions Screening.

• Minimum of 1 year working experience in a legal or international payments environment.
• Minimum of 1 year experience in a Compliance Department in a banking sector.

• Compensation will be determined based on qualifications, applicable banking experience, and previous earnings.