Lushan Gunatilleke, Head of Collections

Lushan Gunatilleke

Head of Collections

MetLife (American Life Insurance Company)

Location
United Arab Emirates - Dubai
Education
Master's degree, Banking & Finance
Experience
30 years, 4 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :30 years, 4 Months

Head of Collections at MetLife (American Life Insurance Company)
  • United Arab Emirates - Dubai
  • My current job since June 2012

Directing all credit and collection activities in the Gulf region in accordance with established policies, practices and procedures in a manner that will maximize sales while preserving the overall quality of accounts receivables by maximizing turnover and minimizing the risk of bad debts.

 Managing the customer credit risk assessment and assignment of credit terms and conditions,
monitor credit exposure and performance of trade customers in order to facilitate proactive
management of risks, and negotiate credit terms and conditions when customers are unable to
meet established guidelines.
 Enforce and ensure adherence to company credit policy and maintain all appropriate records
to meet internal and external audit requirements
 Resolve credit problems at complex levels and monitor the collection of past-due accounts
 Monitor and Manage receivable and collection activities of the Gulf region
 Ensuring the doubtful provisions are monitored and reduced in a timely manner
 Establish relationships with key customer personnel
 Develop and coach team members to be motivated and successful in demonstrating full
 knowledge on collection and business matters
 Manage the complete billing activity including: New & Renewal Business bills, Regular due bills
and adjustment bills/premium statements
 Manage the premium reporting, timely allocation and premium posting activity
 Manage the suspense account reconciliation & Premium Refund process
 Managing the sales commission pay outs of Broker/Agency channels

Sales Manager/Regional Collections Manager at HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd
  • United Arab Emirates - Dubai
  • January 2004 to May 2012

Banking Sales

 Build awareness among branch customers with special emphasis on flexibility, ease of operations, and security on the bank’s diversified range of products to meet client needs.
 Coordinate and enforce sales guidelines and standards across departments.
 Focus on generating sales ideas and content and meet those targets.
 Direct and coordinate activities of Sales Executive in the branch and oversee its smooth running, while adhering to the highest service quality and delivery standards.

Collection & Recovery

 Expertise in corporate and personal banking recoveries (secured & unsecured products).
 Drive towards augmenting recoveries ratio through strategic plan implementation and delivering change management initiatives on the Collections Unit.
 Monitor portfolio development and performance on monthly basis. Supervise project delinquency, loss rates, and other financial indicators and work on the same.
 Effective coordination with internal/external advisors, auditors and court experts.
 Knowledgeable with legal procedures against non-compliant clients.
 Excellent skills to classify and make provisions for bad debts as per bank policy as well as Central Bank regulations.

Compliance Management

 Ensuring the smooth operation of the Compliance unit of the Bank, compliance to all local regulatory requirements & guidelines, including Anti-Money laundering guidelines. The function also included compliance to foreign regulatory body directives on various sanctions and FATF guidelines.
 Handling routine issues on UAE Central Bank related queries and providing transactional guidance to business on such compliance matters.
 Review and sign-off of policies and procedures for the Bank.
 Responsible for being compliant with foreign regulatory bodies such as OFAC, FATF, EU, Bank of England
 Performing Compliance audits at Branches and other operating units to ensure compliance to local & foreign regulatory requirements

Senior Sales Executive at Bohemian Crystal LLC
  • United Arab Emirates - Dubai
  • December 1998 to February 2005

 Business development in the UAE market.
 Supervision and monitoring the performances of a team of three sales executives.
 Responsible for an overall monthly turnover of DHS.2, 500, 000
 Handling of sales inquiries, preparation of quotations and maintenance of client database.
 Conducting market surveys.
 Handling of New Hotel & Restaurant Projects.
 Coordination with foreign agencies such as Bauscher-Germany, Schott Zwiesel-Germany, Hutschenreuther-Germany, WMF-Germany, Hepp-Germany, Ercuis-France, Mongolfier-France, Raynaud-France, Panache-Australia, Narumi-Japan and Bagnidella Poretta-Italy.

Senior Medical Representative at Thorn Group Pvt. Ltd
  • Sri Lanka
  • January 1994 to November 1998

 Promoting in Sri Lanka a range of pharmaceuticals manufactured by HOVID Pharmaceuticals, (Malaysia) and INTAS International, (India)

 Market research and competition analysis to retain the maximum market share.
 Business development in new markets.
 Account management of client such as Medical Practitioners, Hospitals, Private Medical Institutions and Social Service organizations in Colombo.
 Conduct in-depth demo and product training to sell product benefits.
 Developing sales strategies to maximize product share in client place.
 Supervision and monitoring of performance of a team of junior medical representatives.
 Supervision and monitoring the sales & delivery of a team of sales personnel.

Education

Master's degree, Banking & Finance
  • at University of Missouri
  • July 2010

* Principles & Practice of management - A * Marketing Management - B+ * International Business - B+ * Human Resource Management - A * Financial Management - B+ * Management Information System - A * Quality Management - B+ * Business Policy - B+ * Viva-Voice - A * Thesis - A+

Bachelor's degree, Marketing
  • at University of Missouri
  • October 2007

* Principles of Management - A * International Business - B+ * Marketing Research - A * Sales Management - A * Retail Management - B+ * Leadership - A * Banking - A * Microeconomics - B+ * Business Correspondence - A * Principles of Marketing - A+ * Financial Management - B+ * Organizational Behaviour - A * Import & Export Management - A * Organization Structure & Development - A * Specialization in Marketing - A+

Specialties & Skills

Anti Money Laundering
Team Management
Financial Risk
Regulatory Requirements
Compliance Management
Recovery and Collections
Financial Risk
Customer Service
Sales Management
Banking
Coaching
Anti Money Laundering
Portfolio Management
Team/Department Management
Key Account Management
Relationship Management

Languages

English
Expert
Hindi
Intermediate
Urdu
Intermediate

Training and Certifications

Diploma in Microsoft and Computer Studies (Certificate)
Operational Risk Awareness (Training)
Training Institute:
HSBC Training Center
Information Security Risk and Privacy/Data Protection Awareness (Training)
Training Institute:
HSBC Training Center
Problem Solving and Decision Making Training Programme (Training)
Training Institute:
Emirates Institute of Bankers
Anti-Bribery and Corruption (Training)
Training Institute:
HSBC Training Center
Anti Money Laundering (Training)
Training Institute:
HSBC Training Center

Hobbies

  • Reading
  • Cricket, Rugby