Senior compliance leader for the UAE operations of a CBUAE-regulated Swiss private bank with diverse international business units
spanning retail banking, trade finance, treasury, and private wealth management.
Compliance Governance & Regulatory Oversight
• Designed, implemented, and maintained the banks Group-level compliance governance framework, ensuring
adherence to CBUAE regulations, UAE AML/CFT laws, and international FATF standards across all business units.
• Served as primary regulatory liaison with the UAE Central Bank (CBUAE), managing inspections, responding to
regulatory queries, and implementing regulatory changes — achieving 98% audit compliance annually over 20 years.
• Directed compliance monitoring across diverse business units including retail banking, trade finance, and treasury —
developing monitoring plans, conducting periodic reviews, and reporting findings to senior management.
• Provided VP-level compliance advisory to the Board and senior leadership, influencing strategic decisions on new
products, business lines, and partnerships from a regulatory risk perspective.
• Streamlined framework implementation for new regulatory requirements, reducing institutional adaptation time by
20%.
Financial Crime & AML/CTF
• Owned the banks complete AML/CTF and financial crime prevention program — covering Transaction Monitoring,
Sanctions Screening, Suspicious Transaction Reporting (STR/SAR via goAML), and financial crime risk assessment.
• Submited 50+ STRs annually to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) via goAML with 100% timeliness, ensuring full
compliance with Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2018 and Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2019.
• Directed Sanctions Screening policy development, reducing false positives by 15% and mitigating financial crime
exposure by 18% annually.
• Oversaw financial crime prevention controls protecting assets exceeding $500M across the banks client portfolio.
• Conducted Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment (EWRA), identifying 12 critical compliance gaps and implementing
corrective action plans.
Due Diligence & KYC
• Led all KYC, CDD, and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) processes across retail, corporate, HNW/UHNW, PEP, and high
risk client segments — improving onboarding efficiency by 10% while maintaining zero regulatory breaches.
• Conducted third-party and counterparty due diligence on trade finance relationships and correspondent banking
partners, applying a rigorous risk-based approach to approval decisions.
• Oversaw KYC remediation and periodic refresh programs, maintaining 100% file compliance across the entire client
base.
Leadership & Culture
• Trained and mentored 30+ banking staff across multiple business units on AML/CTF, KYC, and regulatory compliance —
achieving 95% training engagement and a 25% improvement in AML knowledge scores.
• Championed a compliance-first culture across the organisation, ensuring governance standards were upheld with
integrity across all operations and business lines.
• Mentored junior compliance officers, building internal compliance capability and succession depth within the
organisation.
- Company industry:
- Banking
