Gehad El Bendary

Deputy General Manager (ERM & Portfolios) - KFH Group (13 September 2003 - present)

Plan, lead and manage all activities of the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) & Portfolio function to support the group CRO in the effective development and implementation of the risk management frameworks at the KFH Group level while ensuring that the risk management strategies, practices and policies are aligned and integrated into the KFH's culture, business strategies and processes and that the overall bank's asset portfolio is in line with the desired risk appetite. ERM & Portfolios function has a holistic view of the management of all risks across KFH group, supports group CRO, Board risk committee and Board members to review bank's overall risk profile, ensure alignment with risk appetite, drive implementation of risk appetite, review and decide on the overall risk profile of the group, drive ICAAP implementation, capital management planning, risk modeling, review and recommend risk policies to the Board risk committee (incl. limits, standards, etc.) and guide risk transformation and any initiative process.

The following units under my responsibility:
• Group Portfolios Risk Management (finance, investment)
• Policies & Methodologies
• Quantitative Analytics
• Risk Reporting (internal & external)
• MIS Risk

Leading contribution and having HANDS ON EXPERIANCE of the following major tasks on group and standalone (banking subsidiaries) level:
Risk Transformation program
At the beginning of 2011, KFH embarked on a program to transform its risk management capabilities with a view to strengthening the controls on its risk-taking activities to support the achievement of sustainable growth for the bank. This work continued at pace in 2012 and 2013. The initiatives undertaken by the Risk Transformation program have been driven by group CRO and DGM ERM & Portfolios with active Board engagement and support. A summary of the main developments are highlighted as follows:

• Implementing the risk appetite framework: • Quarterly monitoring the bank's risk profile
• Implementation of the new governance structure
• Migration to the new Risk Management organizational structure
• Development and implementation of the risk policies and procedures enhancement: • Further enhancing the credit processes
• Completing a number of data and reporting standards improvement initiatives
• Launching the implementation of the bank's capital optimization plan: • Implementing the liquidity plan
• Rolling out of the enhanced risk management frameworks across the group
• Development and implementation of Group Capital plan
• Basel II & III implementation
• Risk MIS


Credit Risk
• Deep dive assessment of financing portfolios in KFH Kuwait and Kuveyt Turk

• Credit quality
• Adequacy of provisions
• Culture and practices of credit management

• Implementation of credit rating system Moody's, embed it in the management of individual and portfolio credit risks.
• Re-organization of the post fact credit assessment process and reporting, established the watch list to be analyzed and reported on a monthly basis, this including the top 50 cases, all restructured, non performing and all cases for which precautionary provisions have been set aside.
• Re-organization of the pre-fact credit assessment process and strengthen the basis for risk management recommendations

• Risk pricing
• Risk rating
• Portfolio view
• Risk appetite
• Development and implementation of credit policies, processes, underwriting criteria and authority matrix
• Revamp credit application governance

• Lead/conduct quarterly analysis of the bank's credit and investment portfolio exposures against prudential and internal risk appetite limits in terms of concentrations, asset quality, specified rating categories, etc. and recommend risk mitigation measures to facilitate protection of KFH's business interests and optimum achievement of revenues.
• Assist business functions in the optimization of the use of capital by providing analysis and recommendations to reduce risk weighted assets, increase return on equity and increase the risk adjusted return on capital or reaching similar targets; recommend strategies for portfolio risk profile modifications and risk transfer to facilitate optimization of current processes.
• Monitor changes in the portfolio mix, risk concentration and distribution and undertake comparative analysis of each assigned portfolio to ensure appropriate risk coverage.
• Compute risk charge for aggregate credit and investment portfolio - estimating with other concerned functions the aggregate provisions to be made in respect of expected losses on the portfolio, and determining the amount of capital required for unexpected losses in the credit as well as the investment portfolio.
• Perform periodic stress-testing and measure impact of credit and investment exposures on the bank's capital and recommend changes as appropriate.
• Review, on a sample basis, credit (consumer & corporate) and investment transactions on a quarterly, semi-annual and annual basis and highlight key issues while providing recommendations resulting from credit review to the relevant governance committee.
• As acting group CRO in his absence, I have reviewed and assessed credit and investment deals above K.D 2M and present risk management assessment, before being sent to credit, investment and board executive committees, more than 650 deals yearly.

Market & liquidity Risk
• Methodology development and implementation of market risk operating framework for group and standalone (banking subsidiaries)

• Profit rate risk
• Equity risk
• FX risk

• Liquidity and contingency funding plan development in response to stress test results, group and subsidiaries liquidity needs.

ICAAP & Stress Test
I have led a team to develop and implement ICAAP & Stress test methodologies (macro scenarios, revers stress test, portfolio segmentation) across KFH group and banking subsidiaries, methodology scope covered the following:

• Credit risk
• Market risk
• Profit rate risk
• Liquidity risk
• Operational risk
• Legal risk
• Reputational risk
• Strategic risk
• Balance sheet and income statement forecast
• Macroeconomic variables evolution and stress


Implementation scope covered group level according to central bank of Kuwait, Malaysia according to Negara Bank of Malaysia and Turkey according to BRSA


Operational Risk
• Operational risk system implementation
• Development & implementation of RCSA framework
• Development & implementation of KRI framework
• Development & implementation of loss data collection framework

Permanent Committee Member
• Group CROs committee


Member in the following committees in group CRO absence:

• ALCO committee
• Credit committee
• Board Executive committee
• Investment committee
• Real Estate committee

Plan, lead and manage all activities of the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) & Portfolio function to support the group CRO in the effective development and implementation of the risk management frameworks at the KFH Group level while ensuring that the risk management strategies, practices and policies are aligned and integrated into the KFH’s culture, business strategies and processes and that the overall bank’s asset portfolio is in line with the desired risk appetite. ERM & Portfolios function has a holistic view of the management of all risks across KFH group, supports group CRO, Board risk committee and Board members to review bank's overall risk profile, ensure alignment with risk appetite, drive implementation of risk appetite, review and decide on the overall risk profile of the group, drive ICAAP implementation, capital management planning, risk modeling, review and recommend risk policies to the Board risk committee (incl. limits, standards, etc.) and guide risk transformation and any initiative process.

Consultancy Manager, RSM International (2002- 2003), responsible of: • Financial institutions consultancy in developing required internal controls.
• Policies and procedures assessment, enhancement and development.
• Business continuity and disaster recovery plans development.

Senior auditor, Kuwait Finance House (1999- 2002), responsible of: Plan, develop and manage internal audit assignments with a risk-based approach, evaluating the internal controls, and governance processes for the bank. In particular, assessing: • Efficient and effective execution of operations, in a multi projects organization
• Compliance with internal policies, procedures and external regulations
• Reliability of financial and operational reporting
• Conduct interviews with auditees, review and analyze evidence, document properly and formally the work performed and conclusions reached, communicate audit issues to management, and prepare audit reports, in accordance with professional standards
• Recommend solutions for identified risks and internal control weaknesses
• Present internal audit results and recommendations to management