Garry Simmonds
Caerphilly,Caerphilly
Summary
Adept at fostering growth and culture in fast-paced start-ups, with extensive experience in customer-facing roles within Customer Service and Financial Crime. Builds a supportive and driven team through unique development and support. Equally skilled in direct customer interaction and team leadership, aiming to leverage these competencies to drive organisational success.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
Work history
Compliance Officer
ANNA Money
Cardiff
2025.01 - Current
- Complete all Transaction Monitoring & Compliance tasks (CDD, EDD, PEP, Sanctions, TM & SARs) to a high standard
- Managed Financial Crime team's goals, reporting progress in monthly leadership meetings to ensure alignment with organisational objectives
- Conducted complex investigations involving high numbers of accounts or high-risk individuals
- Resolved complex escalated cases, providing support and coaching to colleagues on case handling
- Scoped system and process improvements, developing proposals for support teams to facilitate implementation
Financial Crime Team Manager
Currencycloud
Cardiff
2023.06 - 2024.12
- Oversaw team performance and quality, ensuring adherence to FX cut-offs
- Supported and grew the Transaction Monitoring team through personalised development plans and goal setting.
- Collaborated with compliance and product teams to achieve quarterly objectives
- Analyse performance data to help understand what's driving customer contact/complaints
- Reviewed internal processes and collaborated with assistant managers to streamline areas for improvement
- Fully own the scheduling of the team's shifts, breaks and development time to allow sufficient 24/5 cover
- Owned the expansion of getting 24/7 customer support by hiring, training and supporting a separate team in the Philippines
Financial Crime Operations Manager
Monzo Bank
Cardiff
2019.02 - 2023.05
- Lead a team of 8 Team Managers - (110 FinCrime Analysts)
- Enhanced team performance through targeted development plans and individual coaching
- Analysed team performance data including QA, CSAT and AHT to identify improvement areas and recognise successes
- Analyse site wide Financial Crime trends and propose suggestions on how to tweak/implement new rules to reduce risk
- Facilitated monthly All Hands meetings to communicate updates on new features and trends
- Coordinated move to new temporary office post-expansion and managed operations with a subset of the team
Team Manager
Monzo Bank
Cardiff
2018.03 - 2019.02
- Lead a team of 10-15 Customer Service Managers
- Drove performance through personal development plans and coaching
- Reviewed team performance data including QA, CSAT and AHT to establish areas of improvement and celebrate success
- Organised hiring days to continue hiring excellent people
- Where needed, jumped online alongside my team to support customer demand and handled escalated customer complaints
- Supported our tech team by trialling new features on our in built systems and made recommendations on how to make it more efficient
Team leader
Tesco PLC
Cardiff
2009.06 - 2018.03
- Led a team of 15-20 Customer Service Managers
- Built a high performing team through personal development plans and coaching
- Worked alongside the team to meet SLAs by answering customer queries and escalated complaints
- Analysed performance data and used it to find areas of service that could be improved
- Used QA feedback to bring the team to a score of over 95% customer satisfaction
Education
Diploma of Higher Education - Anti Money Laundering
ICA
GCSEs -
Staunton Park Community School
PortsmouthSkills
- Proficient in software tools
- Customer service expertise
- Customer engagement leadership
- Start-up culture support
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Compliance Officer
ANNA Money
2025.01 - Current
Financial Crime Team Manager
Currencycloud
2023.06 - 2024.12
Financial Crime Operations Manager
Monzo Bank
2019.02 - 2023.05
Team Manager
Monzo Bank
2018.03 - 2019.02
Team leader
Tesco PLC
2009.06 - 2018.03
Diploma of Higher Education - Anti Money Laundering
ICA
GCSEs -
Staunton Park Community School