Risa D'souza

• Lead reconciliation operations across a wide range of financial accounts including Nostro (Loans, Cards, Treasury, Call, Overdraft), Sundry (LG, WPS, LMS, HPS), and Receivable (Loan & Card)
• Oversee daily MasterCard settlement reconciliations, validating transactions against settlement advice
• Manage PGS, FTS, and CDM payment reconciliations with Central Bank files, ensuring accurate and timely customer postings
• Validate and authorize credit card and loan transactions to internal General Ledgers (GLs)
• Drive the monthly GL close process, including journal reviews and finalizing month-end entries
• Prepare and submit reconciliation proofs to the Financial Controller, CFO, and auditors
• Escalate unreconciled items to senior management (COO, CFO, CRO, CEO) in line with escalation protocols Collaborate with internal and external auditors, providing documentation and clarification to support audit readiness
• Coordinate with IT, legal, finance, and operations teams to resolve GL and payment-related issues
• Train and mentor new team members, ensuring consistent understanding of reconciliation processes
• Revisited and updated Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to reflect current practices and improve operational efficiency

Treasury Operations 2019 – 2020

• Supported fund transfers and disbursal of approved loans to customer accounts
• Booking Cooperate Deposits and Payout for CD's and other Fixed Deposits
• Handled service requests related to cards and loans, ensuring timely resolution and operational continuity

Transaction & Banking Operations 2012 – 2019

• Authorized loan servicing activities including cancellations, terminations, and rescheduling of loans and credit cards
• Processed credit limit changes, billing cycle updates, and supplementary card bookings
• Managed refunds, reversal of invalid charges, temporary credit limit authorizations, and shadow account closures
• Oversaw vendor management, ensuring timely bill processing and uninterrupted operations
• Provided foreclosure support for loans and cards to the Contact Center and Braches for customer Support
• Processed top-up loans for credit card customers

Key Competencies & Achievements

🔍 Reconciliation Expertise

• Proficient in both automated reconciliations using specialized software and manual reconciliation using advanced Excel
• Skilled in reconciling high-volume financial data across multiple systems and formats
• Streamlined reconciliation workflows to enhance team efficiency and reduce turnaround time

📊 Advanced Excel Proficiency

• Expert in pivot tables, VLOOKUP, XLOOOKUP, conditional formatting, and data validation
• Developed custom templates to manage large datasets and improve reconciliation accuracy

📘 SOP Development & Process Optimization

• Conducted a thorough review of reconciliation SOPs, identifying gaps and inefficiencies
• Updated procedures to align with regulatory standards, operational best practices, and audit requirements
• Introduced clear documentation standards, escalation protocols, and reconciliation timelines
• Facilitated training sessions to ensure team-wide adoption of revised SOPs

📑 Audit & Compliance

• Maintained meticulous records and provided comprehensive documentation for internal and external audits
  Recommended corrective accounting entries and supported audit readiness across all reconciliation functions

🤝 Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Liaised with IT, legal, operations, and finance teams to resolve complex transactions and ensure accurate postings
• Facilitated smooth coordination between departments to maintain operational integrity
  

Customer Service and Operations

• Handling Resident Customer queries registered with NSE with respect to equity, Re-execution, site- issues and mutual funds.
• Coordinating and resolving queries of the Relationship managers with respect to NRI Clients.
• Handling client queries routed from the Call Centre.
• Preparing the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of escalated cases.
• Audit of Call Centre and Department cases.
• Preparation of initial report of complaints logged with NSE & BSE for Legal Department to take final action.