Director/ Operations Transformation Lead
Barclays Bank
Total years of experience :21 years, 4 Months
• Own the migration of Barclays Africa functions from 12 countries into identified Centers of Excellences (CoE) with an objective of reducing operating costs by > 30%.
• Lead, manage, execute & embed the migrated processes at the respective CoEs which includes:
a. Developing detailed business case.
b. Developing detailed project plan and milestones.
c. Cover all Legal, VAT & Corporate Tax aspects.
d. Deliver the project on plan and budget and ensure readiness of receiving sites staff and infrastructure to onboard new services in a seamless fashion.
e. Ensure appropriate governance at the country and regional level.
f. Ensure appropriate engagement with the respective central banks in country.
g. Engagement with the in-country Unions to present & negotiate the proposed plans.
• Re-engineer the current Cards, Retail & Commercials banking processes spanning Account Origination, Underwriting, Transaction Processing, Customer Service, Contact Centers, Debt Collection, Payments, Cheque Clearing/ Settlements.
• Drive process consolidation and standardization as part of this process.
• Define and implement a resilient and cost effective DR/ BCM strategy for all processes.
• Managing BSS premises to ensure that all sites are available for business use on a 24/7 basis - services include facilities management, critical maintenance, security and transport. The portfolio is spread across three major sites hosting 5, 000+ staff and spread across 500, 000 sq ft.
• Acquiring and delivering new sites as required by BSS, in the right location and to budget and agreed timescale. Negotiate lease arrangements with landlords for significant amounts of space (circa 300, 000 sq ft) and ensure the best deal for Barclays at all times.
• Carry out strategic assessments of building locations to advise senior management on appropriate sitting of BSS offices including identifying specific impacts on the BSS business in choosing one site/ vendor over another.
• Project manage fit out of new sites including managing capital spend for each new project which typically has a value of between £8m and £10m. Manage a team of external professionals/ vendors to deliver project on time and within budget. Negotiate with external professionals and contractors on cost and quality to ensure best value delivery at all times
• Set and manage an annual cost budget in the range of £20m and ensure that this is managed effectively recommending and making changes as required on to ensure optimal cost and service. Constantly drive for cost reduction where appropriate.
• Provide payment services across the breadth of Barclays franchise. Services include processing outward/ inward payments, investigation of payment queries, Sanctions screening activities, reconciliations of Nostro/ Vostro accounts apart from hosting a helpdesk to assist callers with any payments related enquiry. More than 6 million payments processed each day valued > £ 400 million.
• Run the Payment operations in India, across 3 cities and 5 sites, spanning > 1000 staff managing process performances in line with agreed targets.
• Manage service performance of outsourced vendors (> 300 staff worth of work was outsourced to third party entities in India).
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement. Maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders and related customer business areas.
• Development, articulation and implementation of the business strategy.
• Provide leadership to the process/ department managers and management oversight for issue resolution.
• Proactively engage/agree plans and outputs with senior leadership in the customer sending business units (covering Transitions, Service Delivery, Performance Improvements, Issues Resolution and Complaints)
• Work with functional owners to ensure cohesion between individual department goals.
• Drive process rigor, efficiency and consistency
• Embed agreed Business Continuity management Plans (Centre / Function /Process levels)
• Maintain and improve the delivery of high quality, cost effective payment services spanning 6 geographic running 24/7 spanning c700 staff. Manage resources effectively to meet strategic objectives. To assume responsibility for the creation of a Payments Centre of Excellence.
• To continually reassess the operational risks inherent in the business taking account of changing economic or market conditions, legal and regulatory requirements, operating procedures and practices, management restructurings, and the impact of new technology.
• Maintaining operating costs with the agreed Annual Operating Plan and regularly review the Profit Estimate to ascertain any leakages.
• Handling the complex Payments businesses, catering to 6 different geographic locations processing high value Manual and Semi-automated (TT/ Swift based) payments that’s coming and going out of the bank, apart from investigating payment queries.
• Ensuring the payments received are released by the prescribed cut offs apart from owning the procedures to reflect the most efficient means of sending these payments, error-free.
• Motivating and developing team members across sections including specific attention to individual development or action plans as required to achieve business objectives and manage future growth of business unit.
• Provide strategic direction to Managers to improve delivery on agreed service level agreements.