Kartik Sharma

In this role, I proactively identify and mitigate financial crime risks, conducting thorough investigations and producing high-quality reports. Key responsibilities include:

• Investigating cases from external (Productions Orders) and internal referrals (UAR), making decisions on potential reporting to Central Bank within MENA through creation of detailed SAR filings.
• Reviewing escalated cases from Transaction Monitoring systems to pinpoint potential financial crime risks.
• Driving change and departmental initiatives by collecting and analyzing relevant risk metrics, delivering updates in pertinent governance forums.
• Collaborating and coordinating with other financial crime functions, such as Sanctions and Anti-Bribery & Corruption, within the Second Line of Defense model.
• Managing risk and offering feedback on completed investigations to Senior Management and stakeholders, facilitating case prioritization and identifying AML trends and threats.
• Actively engaging and mentoring junior investigators by providing guidance, training, and fostering their professional development.

In this impactful role, I proactively guided frontline teams in identifying and containing AML/TF, Fraud, and Sanction risks. Key responsibilities included:

• Spearheading ad hoc projects encompassing risk assessments, control testing, and look-back remediation's.
• Overseeing and managing intricate compliance-related queries and escalations from internal stakeholders and frontline staff, handling complaints arising from financial crime risk controls.
• Monitoring financial crime policies and procedures, including AML and Sanctions procedures aligned with the Global Line of Business. Updated local procedures related to name screening systems—World Check, Lexis Nexis, Blacklist—and served as the point of contact for financial crime procedure inquiries.
• Collaborating on investigations and case resolutions for business in conjunction with the Second Line of Defense. Managed complex AML investigations involving high-risk jurisdictions, charities, PEP individuals, and entities.
• Supervising AML and Sanctions training, as well as ad hoc training for Wealth & Personal Banking network staff.
• Leading a project reviewing transaction monitoring alerts involving funds from crypto-wallets and transactions with charities linked to terrorist financing. My data analysis identified clients with higher risk due to transaction patterns.
• Managing an engagement responding to a Central Bank request to remediate expired Identity and Verification documents of clients in the UAE. Developed a dashboard for manual workarounds, liaising with IT to establish an automated solution.
• Overseeing the implementation of digital transformation for international account openings by contributing to the incorporation of screenings into account opening tools, integrating World Check, Blacklists, and Lexis Nexis-based search capabilities.

• Led an international team of Case Managers, overseeing meticulous execution of Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) processes for onboarding clients in regions with HSBC presence.
• Conducted rigorous Quality Assurance (QA) reviews, instituting a proactive approach to refining input quality through implementation of a comprehensive manual checklist.
• Maintained consistent communication through weekly check-ins, offering constructive feedback to foster continuous improvement.
• Steered the team in addressing intricate queries and customer complaints while providing valuable training to managers on best practices in Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.
• Managed engagement for streamlining of international account on-boarding processes with focus on improving customer journeys. Project involved creating value streams by leveraging digital channels and eliminating wasteful processes

In this interim capacity, I concurrently assumed dual responsibilities alongside my compliance role. I took charge of non-financial risk governance and oversaw the procedures repository for Wealth & Personal Banking. Key responsibilities included:

• Serving as the primary contact for procedure inquiries from Regional Risk Stewards, Frontline Staff, and Product Owners.
• Managing monthly Management Information (MI) using Helios, and coordinating with process owners for the completion of annual reviews for High-Risk procedures.
• Ensuring effective oversight of Dispensations and RCA's by updating details on dispensation pro-forma, conducting reviews, and obtaining risk steward approvals.
• Handling governance of Accelerated Decision Actions and the COVID-19 related process tracker by collaborating with stakeholders and process owners across the region.
• Monitoring local and regional policies & procedures, maintaining alignment with global FIM requirements through active engagement with Country & regional CCO Teams, Ops risk teams, and Country business/functional heads.
• Proactively assessing and reporting on the adequacy of the operational risk and internal control environment across the Business in relevant governance forums.

In this advisory role, I managed projects for prominent banks in UAE and Bahrain, delivering impactful results:

• Conducted a successful engagement for Julius Baer Bank under DFSA regulations, addressing discrepancies in KYC information through database checks and reporting potential red flags.
• Assisted Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank's Group Compliance Department in resolving 18-month accumulated transaction monitoring alerts, investigating suspicious transactions and performing risk-based CDD analysis.
• Supported Standard Chartered Bank in responding to subpoenas from US regulatory authorities, contributing to the creation of files for production.
• Played a key role in a global investigation for Standard Chartered Bank, identifying the bank's relationship with countries under US sanctions through unstructured data review.
• Participated in an AML project for a Multinational Bank, identifying and reviewing suspicious transactional activities.
• Assisted in a financial statement investigation for a shipping company over four years, determining potential financial misstatements.
• Contributed to the preparation of an expert report for an arbitration case involving a Dubai-based security services company's operations in Afghanistan.
• Supported a Middle East telecommunications client in a high-stakes arbitration related to disputed network and service sharing charges.