Financial Crimes Digital Asset Transformation Lead - Executive Director

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm that conducts its business through three principal business segments—Institutional Securities, Wealth Management (WM), and Asset Management. Morgan Stanley provides comprehensive financial advice and services to its clients including brokerage, investment advisory, financial and wealth planning, credit and lending, deposits and cash management, annuities, insurance, retirement, and trust services.

As a market leader, the talent and passion of our people is critical to our success. Together, we share a common set of values rooted in doing the right thing, putting clients first, leading with exceptional ideas and a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Morgan Stanley can provide a superior foundation for building a professional career – a place for people to learn, achieve, and grow.

Department Profile:

The WM and U.S. Banks Financial Crimes Risk Team is embedded within the Firm’s business line. It is responsible for identifying, assessing, and escalating potential money laundering and reputational risk issues associated with higher risk client types. The WM and U.S. Banks Financial Crimes Risk Team is considered the first line of defense and supports the onboarding, enhanced due diligence, and negative news processes for Morgan Stanley.

Responsibilities:

The Financial Crimes Digital Asset Transformation Lead is responsible for establishing a risk-based financial crimes program to support the firm’s digital asset products and services, including but not limited to crypto trading on E*TRADE platform. This role will ensure that the financial crimes program addresses the unique and heightened financial crimes risks posed by digital assets. The position will work closely with the business, the second- and third-line stakeholders, to ensure the business is compliant with all relevant Financial Crimes standards, policies, procedures and applicable laws and regulations.

The Digital Assets Transformation Lead will:

• Design and build a scalable financial crimes program to support the firm’s digital asset products and services, ensuring controls are risk‑based, forward‑looking, and commensurate with the unique financial crimes risks inherent to digital assets and blockchain‑enabled activity.
• Streamline financial crimes program to appropriately identify, capture, risk stratify, and risk manage the Firm’s digital asset clients.
• Translate evolving regulatory expectations and industry best practices for digital assets into practical, responsible financial crimes controls, partnering closely with Business, Legal, Compliance, and other stakeholders.
• Provide strategic leadership and subject‑matter expertise on emerging digital asset risk typologies (e.g., pseudonymity, wallet‑to‑wallet transfers, cross‑border flows, stablecoins, DeFi exposure, tokenization).
• Participate in program risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities and ensure controls are aligned with the specific risks and requirements of each business
• Partner with stakeholders to harmonize and streamline financial crimes requirements for digital asset products and clients.
• Proactively identify, raise, and address gaps, issues or inefficiencies while leveraging opportunities to enhance effectiveness.
• Actively participate in initiatives aimed at transforming and enhancing financial crimes controls, ensuring they remain effective and aligned with evolving business models, technological advances, regulatory requirements / expectations, and industry best practices.
• Actively participate in committees and other governance forums to represent the business’s interests in financial crimes risk management.

Qualifications

• Industry or native crypto experience highly preferred
• 10+ years of relevant experience with BSA/AML Regulations within the financial services industry, or at a financial services regulator (e.g., FINRA, Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve Bank, etc.)
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, or other related fields
• Expertise in implementing and executing on Financial Crimes Programs requirements
• Expertise in international Financial Crimes laws and regulations and familiarity with best practice first line procedures and processes

Ability to:

• Deliver high impact with a high sense of urgency
• Think outside the box to propose and deliver appropriate solutions for highly complex challenges
• Juggle competing critical priorities while demonstrating timely and tangible progress
• Effectively navigate a highly complex and high velocity environment with a wide range of stakeholders
• Communicate complex matters in a concise, crisp, and action-oriented manner for different sets of stakeholders, including executive management
• Lead with confidence and comfort in high-paced and high-profile environments with minimum supervision
• Multitask effectively and execute actions promptly
• Understand big picture beyond our organization and assess/improve our value-proposition

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

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Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $175,000 and $265,000 per year at the commencement of employment. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long-term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs.

Morgan Stanley's goal is to build and maintain a workforce that is diverse in experience and background but uniform in reflecting our standards of integrity and excellence. Consequently, our recruiting efforts reflect our desire to attract and retain the best and brightest from all talent pools. We want to be the first choice for prospective employees.

It is the policy of the Firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, sex stereotype, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, pregnancy, veteran or military service status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversifying its workforce (M/F/Disability/Vet).