Damian Curran

Served as a senior compliance risk manager for Independent Compliance Risk Management (ICRM)'s Testing team responsible for assessing compliance risks and controls implemented by the first and second line of defence. Also responsible for performing risk assessments of Citi's compliance risks; performing independent testing activities (testing and on-going monitoring) to assess the design and effectiveness of key controls designed to address compliance risk; reporting and escalating control issues and any violations of laws or breaches of policy; and validating adequacy of remediation taken to address reported issues.

Process:

• Overseeing the development, implementation, and execution of the compliance testing, continuous testing, and reporting programs within an assigned region in accordance with the Compliance Testing Plan. Assessing Risk assessments and designing a plan versus high tier regulations and risk appetite
• Managing the planning, execution, and reporting of compliance testing reviews and compliance and regulatory issue validation activities for a component of a product line, function, or legal entity within an assigned region in accordance with Compliance Testing Annual Plan
• Managing a team of Compliance professionals. Responsible for hiring, compensation, performance appraisals, staff development, training & development.
• Specific responsibility for Securities Services business which expanded to full Operations covering also Treasury and Trade Solutions – Commercial cards, Platform & data, Foreign Exchange, Liquidity Management, Payments and Trade.
• Executing interactive programs of support and testing, in accordance with Testing requirements, that provide regulators and stakeholders' insight into compliance trends, themes, issues, and root causes.
• Managing and monitoring budgets for assigned projects and targeted assessments for high risk focus areas
• Single point of contact for Ops Regulatory Control and Middle Office teams

Managing 40+ Middle Office team supporting the Equity and Fixed Income business with Equity Finance, cash & non-cash collateral & exposure management for security lending, Global Contract compare and Global monthly fee reconciliation and settlement. PFMO Globally supports the Stock Lending and Equity Finance trading desks.

This was a high profile role managing 800 client accounts active and trading with 90 clients at a top account level lending/borrowing Fixed Income and Equities bi-laterally or through a triparty. Book size was $52bn across 750k trades with an average settlement rate of 99% in new borrows

We built this team from scratch with multiple migrations from our London/New York sites & onshoring from Chennai accumulating over 30 staff in 3 years.

In 2016 I was a member of a team of fast-tracked high performers that culminated in our group being responsible for Citi releasing their first “Green bond” to the market worth $1bn.

Key management functions include the below high-level oversight.

Process (risk and service):

• Procedure guides – process maps. Reporting, training and system demos
• Client service & KYC – Single point of contact/reviews/up to date profile management and support – linked to the business and Global operating model
• Trade flow/processing approver and monitor
• Escalation matrix and training
• Risk standards and team awareness – credit reporting
• Control/compliance/transaction reporting and audit management (Internal Audit/Manual Payment Policy holder/Monthly risk attestation/external audit facing KPMG)
• Market regulation (MIFID/SFTR/Brexit planning) and legal requests
• Competitive advantage (external benchmarking) and best practice reviews within our industry
• Corporate hygiene – Employee entitlements, mandatory training, holidays, Segregation of duty, leaver checklist
• Continuity of business planning – offsite testing, call tree, disaster management
• Awareness of non-compliance events – underlying trend/root cause/corrective action

People management:

• Training and development through promotion and succession planning – daily targets/standards, SMART goal setting, Development Planning, functional skills matrices mentoring and coaching
• Team structural overview and tiered hierarchy
• Resourcing – recruitment pack, probationary plan/review with skills matrix and training guides.
• Performance reviews – attrition and employee release management
• People strategy and culture (ownership and accountability) – drive social awareness and inclusivity through diversity (Leadership standards/3 pillars)
• Communication & Feedback – Voice of the employee, regular meets with team (domestic and global), individual, networking and stakeholder management (desk/senior Ops/tech/control/setts)
• Global mindset – cross skills and knowledge share. Follow the sun functionally
• Collaborate – endorse highlights and recognize achievements – market ourselves
• Citi gratitude – reward and recognition
• Recruitment and onboarding – product orientated job descriptions/interview questions and set standards
• Planning and foresight – account coverage/support mechanism. New business reviews and scope
• Ownership and accountability within the team – resolution driven
• HR liaison and point of contact
• Ops excellence – lead by example and incorporate to goals/BAU

Projects (innovation & cost & regulatory):

• Innovation Tracker to add enhancement (process, performance metrics or system) – continuous improvement including tech budget management and business requirement build
• SME support and point person for Project teams (testing and UAT/sign off)
• Re-engineering/Lean lead and focus to goals
• Vendor management – service level agreements and focus on automation
• Strategist Finance/costs – headcount, cost per trade, vendor services, rebooks or cancel corrects, fails, billing and P&L supervision/balance sheet concerns

Investigation & Re-engineering/Project management

• Monitor all staff members – apply goals, perform appraisals and reviews, human resource management and data management. Ensure the integrity of reconciliation piece – set targets and manage breaks on a daily basis. All payments and audit procedures must be in place and are strictly adhered. Breaks in this team drastically reduced under my management and the whole process was reengineered successfully since the London migration to Belfast. We reached the lowest ever breaks for this department.
• Client Service Standards – due to my considerable background in client service I was tasked to implement and develop a service standard across the Global Markets site. This was delivered to senior management and we rolled out this training to the whole of Global Markets in 2010 with further deployment in 2011.
• Managed risk assessments, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.
• Coordinated with multiple departments for smooth project execution.