Head of AML and Compliance
Lari Exchange
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :18 years, 0 أشهر
• Reporting directly to the General Manager.
• Developing and promoting a culture of compliance within the exchange.
• Ensuring all the activities of the organization adhere to the FATF recommendations and Central Bank of the UAE’s guidelines.
• Designing, implementing and revising the organization’s policies for complete risk, legal, regulatory, sanctions, and fraud management and ensuring they are understood and followed by the business units.
• Continuously improving and redesigning the core operating systems to meet the organizational requirements and the international standards
• Supervising and managing the transactional reporting function of the organization’s financial transactions from the AML/Sanction/SDN risk perspective
• Managing and approving the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filing by the AML and Compliance team to the Central Bank of the UAE.
• Managing, monitoring and directing the AML and Compliance customer interviews and customer site visits.
• Supervising and providing relevant input and direction to the organization’s “Anti Money Laundering” (AML) and “Combating Terrorist Finance” program.
• Reviewing and approving all correspondent agent and new banking relationships.
• Auditing all existing correspondent agent and banking relationships for adherence with FATF and other local / international regulatory bodies.
• Providing a vetting service within the organization to ensure that all compliance, regulatory and legal risks are identified and managed for the current and new products being launched by the organization.
• Initiating the compliance audit process for relevant departments and regularly reporting all findings and issues to the General Manager of the Exchange house.
• Acting as a key contact with the Central Bank of the UAE and other government entities on AML/ Compliance related matters.
• Working closely with the General Manager to ensure implementation of regional and global standards of AML and Compliance best practices.
• Partnering alongside the business and internal audit to review and design compliant business standard operating procedures and processes.
• Reviewing and approving customer profiles and risk scores.
• Liaising with internal and external parties as necessary across the Lari Exchange network.
• Advising and providing support to the business on a day to day basis, articulating compliance in an accessible, informative and business friendly manner.
• Developing, managing, delivering and implementing the internal AML and Compliance Monitoring and Training Programs.
• Developing and revising the internal AML and regulatory policies and procedures and ensuring that it is followed and understood by business units.
• Assessing and approving relationships with Lari Exchange’s partners and agents from the AML and Compliance perspective.
• Preparing and delivering periodic AML and Compliance reports and summaries to the Executive board summarizing the organization’s AML and Compliance progress, highlighting the areas of concerns / challenges and offer recommendations on upcoming challenges and opportunities.
• Ensured full sanctions compliance across all relevant areas of responsibility.
• Reverted to business / operations for sanctions’ related cases.
• Implemented where appropriate international best compliance practices and standards.
• Ensured ongoing planning, coordination and implementation of key Sanctions Compliance Risk initiatives.
• Ensured all bank correspondence with the correspondent banks, related to Sanctions are replied to, within the given timeline by liaising with various businesses to obtain all the required information.
• Periodic reviews of customer accounts and opening documentation for irregularities or anomalies related to Sanctions.
• Ensured review and investigation of all breaches, discrepancies and irregular activities cases are conducted and corrective actions are recommended in a timely and professional manner.
• Actively participated in establishing & maintaining EmiratesNBD's retail customer blacklist in partnership with Group Compliance
• Reviewed new sanctions and working with the business to ensure compliance, through suggestions of policies & business procedures, consistent with regulatory & business standards, to the Head of Retail Compliance
• Assisted the business and provided advice and consultation on sanctions requirements.
• Provided Sanctions training as well as developedtraining materials and have the same circulated to enhance general sanctions awareness & culture within the business.
• Performed special projects or research as necessary.
• Continuously monitored& assessed the efficiency of team performance with regards to internal/external customer expectation, turnaround time, information exchange and documentation.
• Provided guidance to Compliance investigators on escalated payment and AML alerts with greater complexity.
• Managed the daily review process of escalated payment alerts while approving / declining them as per the groups sanction's policy
• Reviewed and provided approval of account opening of Retail Banking (Business Banking & Priority Banking) applications as per High Risk Policy.
• Scrutinized and processed Payment Screening System alerts (Telegraphic Transfers)
• Analyzed, Monitored and Investigated on all inward and outward telegraphic transactions for local and foreign currencies.
• Decision on transaction adhering to sanctions imposed by OFAC, EU, UN, HMT and other authorities.
• Reviewed customer a/c opening profiles that were found to be possible SDNs by operations department
• Corresponding with business to ensure all the AML concerns of Group Compliance have been addressed.
• Coordinated with Group Compliance& Business for different issues
• Project managed complex deliverables for one of the largest bank in the Middle East across various units including priority banking, Retail Banking and Small Medium Enterprises
• Planned and executed multi-million dollar projects while designing Performance Management systems based on Balance Score card
• Designed and Implemented operational, financial and service improvement levers based on LEAN Transformation across various departments by identifying process gaps and providing optimal recommendations.
• Prepared professional presentations and status updates for project and stakeholders and the respective business owners
• Well-regarded as an innovator with strong analytic ability, distinctive problem solving, and operational improvement skills
• Worked closely with top consulting firms on 7 medium to large scale strategy and transformation projects & worked with McKinsey Consultants on a project called "Project Wildfire"
• Ensured agency collections claims comply with the bank policy
• Identified policy gaps in the internal collection practices.
• Generated excel reports and submit performance analysis of international agencies data
• Ensured the collection cases written off and final settlements are as per the provisions
• Advised settlement terms and conditions to international agencies inline with the bank policies
• Identified and settle delinquent and aged accounts dating back more than 10 years
• Prepared monthly charge-off reports, next due date and last credit date reports.
Bachelor of Business Administration 1997 - 2000 Marketing and Finance Southeastern University Washington, USA, Sharjah Campus, UAE
GCE 'O' LEVEL 1991 - 1994 Arts & Commerce Ibn Sina Higher Secondary School, Sharjah, UAE