What does an AFC Analyst do?
I became an AFC Analyst only in June, so I am still new to this, and I am still exploring, discovering, and learning. In the beginning, my main goal was to understand typologies of fraudster's behavior. Now, my job is to investigate the clients of a neobank and prevent them from doing financial crime such as money laundering, ID theft, or any other kind of criminal activities. “Sometimes I call myself Sherlock Holmes, haha”, because I analyse and investigate transactions that will help solve criminal cases and prevent a fraud to happen. When the evidence show that a customer is a fraudster, we close this person’s account, and report the case to the Finance Intelligence Unit to make sure other financial institutions are also aware about this high-risk customer.
My client is a neobank and a Fintech Institution. The idea is that people can easily open an account from anywhere in the world, using only an ID card, and mobile phone. I believe that my role in this project has a big impact, because we are helping the client to improve their compliance processes and align with regulatory requirements and internal guidelines. This way, we are protecting people, families, and businesses.
What qualities should an AFC Analyst have?
You need to be responsible, dedicated, reliable, highly driven, and curious because no one can teach you everything. In my opinion, having a financial background, or at least having a basic knowledge of financial topics could be relevant, but it is not mandatory, because you can also learn a lot through trainings.
Why do you think other people should work at Sopra Steria?
Sopra Steria Benelux is a multicultural company with a positive mindset, where management is flexible and listens to your needs. We will now for example receive a fleece vest to keep us warm during winter, and this for me proofs that the company cares about its people. Sopra Steria Benelux is a great place to work, and a very human-centric organisation: I feel valued, respected, heard, and there are a lot of opportunities to grow and extend your career path.
Fun fact
If Cristina could switch jobs for one day with someone else at Sopra Steria, she would want to do 2 jobs: Account Manager, and Country Manager.
What can you say about Sopra Steria Benelux’ culture?
Most companies focus mainly on their clients, and on making profit, but Sopra Steria Benelux also focuses on its employees. There is no fear to openly discuss things with management, and what I like as well is the fact that there is no micromanagement: you are the manager of your work. The atmosphere is more informal, and I think I can even say that it feels like home sometimes. Even though in my current mission, I don’t really have a team, I am often invited to afterworks from the cybersecurity team and I already had some great moments with my counterparts from other countries.
One big advantage of Sopra Steria Benelux is the possibility to develop, not only purely in IT, but also in other domains, because we have a lot of different departments. The good thing is that management 100% supports you in growing. They are very open to employees following a training and their door is always open to sit together and discuss your career path. We have a nice training platform where we can see all the training opportunities and I think this is just great.
Fun fact
If Sopra Steria was an animal, Cristina thinks it would be a chameleon, because a chameleon adapts its colors to the environment, and that is also what Sopra Steria is doing, and what I really like. We don’t have a concept that we want to hold on to for 10 or 20 years, just because ‘it just has to be like this’, and we are not afraid of change.