Chief Financial Officer
SALAMA- Islamic Arab Insurance
Total years of experience :25 years, 10 Months
I am currently heading the department with a team of 8 professionals for carrying out the following functions:
•Submission of quarterly Insurance Regulatory Returns to the Central Bank of Bahrain.
•Supervision for the preparation consolidated financial statements for Policy holder and Shareholder funds and co-ordination of statutory audits with the external auditors.
•Looking after of accounting matters including the specialized technical reinsurance accounting of treaty and facultative businesses.
•Preparation of annual budget and monitoring variances and taking corrective actions as appropriate.
•Being member of the Risk & Executive Management Committees, I am involved in quarterly meetings in order to point out the risk areas and continuously monitoring areas where controls needs to be introduced/amended in order to mitigate the risks.
•Developing, implementing and an ongoing monitoring of the accounting procedures and manuals in order to prevent accounting fraud, errors and omissions.
•Assisting the investment department with liquidity positions in order to effectively managing the investment portfolios on behalf of the policy holder funds.
•Co-ordination of Actuarial valuation of technical reserves of the general takaful funds.
•Managing, handling and supervising all accountings (including reinsurance accounting) and financial issues with a team of 11 personnel relating to the following:
Company accounting,
Client accounting,
Operations accounting,
Compliance and reporting to regulatory authorities.
Timely submission of company financial reports like budgets, cash flow forecast, ratio analysis, balance sheet analysis.
•Handling of company accounting activities on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis with regards to the cut off procedures for expenses accrual and revenue recognition.
•Ensuring that all the business and accounting transactions are IFRS compliant and also in line with the company’s accounting policies and terms of business agreements (TOBA) signed with business partners.
•Reconciliation of all the bank accounts and general ledgers on a monthly basis and keeping track of liquid funds available for investments.
•Managing and maintaining banking relationship for working capital management and investment of liquid funds in optimum revenue generating schemes.
•Monitoring and negotiation of Foreign exchange (FX) rates with the bankers for the settlement of FX denominated liabilities.
•Financial analysis of the prospective clients and business proposals.
•Compliance of the special statutory and regulatory reporting to the Ministry of Economy and Insurance Authority, UAE.
•Developing, implementing and monitoring of controls and procedures for the safeguard of fixed assets, prevention and early detection of fraud and error.
•Co-ordination and completion of statutory audit with the external auditors.
•Dealing with all the administrative issues of the company.
•Monitoring of the financial performance of insurance and reinsurance contracts on an ongoing basis.
•Advising the brokers in evaluating and placing the business relating to the financial lines.
•Co-ordination and documentation of the legal matters with the legal advisors of the company.
Apart from the normal accounting responsibilities, I was also responsible for the reinsurance accounting of various ceding companies and brokerage firms for the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) regions. Brief summary of my work was is as follows:
•Supervision for the preparation of financial statements and co-ordination of the special reporting to the Ministry of Economy and statutory audits with the external auditors.
•Looking after of accounting matters including the specialized technical reinsurance accounting of treaty and facultative businesses.
•Compliance testing of Treaty Agreements of the company with the various insurance companies and brokerage firms.
•Solely responsible for managing the investment portfolio of the branch of AED 450 million.
•Member of compliance team for reporting to Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)/DIFC.
•Involved in writing and compiling the accounting and procedures manual of the company.
•Presentation of the minutes of the board and audit committee meetings.
Supervised an accounting staff of six people for the discharge of my following brief responsibilities:
•Supervision for the preparation of financial statements.
•Special reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Pakistan relating to the Code of Corporate Governance applicable for listed companies in Pakistan and special reporting to the regulatory authorities.
•Co-ordination of the special and statutory audits with the external auditors.
•Involved with one of the credit rating agencies for the company’s credit rating.
•Ongoing review of the present internal control system and recommendation to the top management for any corrective action.
•Member of the budget, information technology and investment committees.
•Assessment of the Income tax liability of the company.
In addition to the effective and efficient maintenance of financial and administrative matters, area of responsibilities also included delivering lectures at the professional levels of Chartered Accountancy and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
I audited various sector including financial, non banking financial institutions and service sector industries .A brief list of the noticeable audits and assignments carried out are as follows:
•Emirates Bank International (Pakistan Branches) - A commercial bank. (Special investigation assignment appointed directly by the High Court).
•First Professional Modaraba - A listed Modaraba and involved in statutory audit.
•CITI Bank, Pakistan - Due Diligence assignment in respect of acquisition of a multinational bank.
• First Leasing Corporation Limited - A listed leasing company and involved in statutory and International Finance Corporation (IFC) audits, which is a subsidiary of International Monetary Fund (IMF).
•First International Investment Bank - A listed investment bank and involved in IFC, Provident fund and statutory audits.
•Shell Pakistan Limited - A listed company and provided special accounting services in the sales department relating to the up gradation and incorporation of changes in the general ledger codes of JD Edwards IT system.
•National Insurance Corporation - Involved as a team member in the operational review of the National Insurance Corporation. This assignment was part of Asian Development Bank (ADB) on insurance sector reforms in Pakistan, which was carried out jointly by Ernst & Young Sydney and Pakistan.
•Oman International Bank - A commercial bank and involved in the statutory audit and head office reporting.
•New Jubilee Insurance Company Limited - A listed insurance company and involved in the statutory audit.
