Vinod K Babu
Dubai
Summary
A PMP certified project manager accustomed with both agile & waterfall methodologies and a subject matter expert in cards & payment business who has worked in all spheres related to card issuing & merchant acquiring domains. Fully conversant with digital payment products, functioning of card management systems, core banking systems, CRM systems & online authorization systems. I have also demonstrated my expertise in payment solution design, business analysis, business reengineering, card operations, and merchant support. Started banking career with the premier bank in the region Emirates NBD (formerly National Bank of Dubai). Presently working as Project Manager – Delivery Management, Network International – the largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa.
Overview
30
30
years of professional experience
7
7
Certifications
Work History
Project Manager
Network International
12.2018 - Current
- Company Overview: the largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
- Manage end-to-end delivery of large, medium & small size projects right from involvement in requirement consolidation, conceptualization to planning, execution, and closure
- Discovery & Project Initiation: Effectively collaborate with internal and external stakeholders for aligning deliveries with Client expectations
- Planning: Ensure optimum timelines for obtaining cost approvals through effective collaborations with vendors and internal stakeholders
- Project execution: Manage stakeholder communication, identify & manage risks, manage costs, manage issues, manage changes across projects internally & externally
- End to end vendor Management: Manage vendor selection process, help establish vendor contracts by collaboratively working with Procurement/Legal Department, plan & manage vendor payments
- Project closure: Manage project handover, ensure vendor payments, archive project documents, record lessons learned
- The largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
Solution Architect
Network International
10.2016 - 11.2018
- Company Overview: the largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
- Solution Designing: Analysing client project requirements
- Identifying the touch points in terms of systems/applications and teams
- Identifying project constraints & high-level risks
- Creating DOU (Document of Understanding) post reviewing of business requirements
- Creating project scope post finalizing the solution
- Finalizing the scope of work (SOW) and cost baseline
- Performance Management: Setting the annual Objectives & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the team members
- Conducting periodic (quarterly, half-yearly & annual) performance evaluation sessions for team members
- The largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
Senior Manager – Technology Transformation Programme
Network International
04.2013 - 09.2016
- Company Overview: the largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
- The Technology Transformation Programme drove Network International’s strategic decision to replace two of its core systems
- The existing card/merchant management system Vision PLUS with Way4, a state-of-the-art payment software solution from OpenWay Group, Russia
- This transition included the migration of 40+ issuing/acquiring banks and Network International POS acquiring devices apart from the on boarding of new clients sourced during the course of the programme
- The existing fraud monitoring system PRM with Falcon Case Manager, a state-of-the-art fraud monitoring solution from FICO
- Client Discovery: Discovering the business requirements of the clients (financial institutions) through discovery workshops
- System Demo: Demonstrating the features of the new card management system to the clients and collecting their feedback
- Review of Discovery Report: Joint reviewing of the discovery report with the vendor to understand the client requirements
- Service Matrix: Creating list of services currently offered to each client
- Finalizing service matrix of each client to complement the service level agreement with client (B2B relationship)
- Migration strategy: Reviewing the migration strategy for clients and providing inputs, if any
- Process optimization: Discovering process optimization opportunities within various functional areas of clients
- Suggesting process optimization opportunities to clients
- Designing improved solutions for functional areas through straight through processes (STP)
- BRD: Preparing business requirement documents (BRDs) from a business readiness perspective, wherever required
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Reviewing of detailed test scenarios/scripts prior to user acceptance testing (UAT)
- Validating UAT test results & exit report
- Business Process Mapping: Creating the business process mapping for the Business Operating Model (BOM) & Target Operating Model (TOM)
- User Guide: Preparing user guide for end users
- End User Training: Conducting training sessions for end users on the new platform Way4
- Temporary Business Processes (TBP): Formulating temporary business processes as part of migration cut over plan
- Client Handholding: Handholding end users for ensuring smooth transition from existing business operating model to target operating model (post go live support)
- Performance Management: Formulating annual Objectives & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the team members
- Conducting periodic (quarterly, half-yearly & annual) performance evaluation sessions for team members
- The largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
Manager – Card Operations
Network International
02.2009 - 03.2013
- Company Overview: the largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
- Managed a team of 5 Senior Officers & 13 officers involved with various card- lifecycle management activities
- Served as a member of the evaluation team who was responsible for reviewing the RFP’s (Request for Proposal) from potential vendors for the new card/merchant management system
- Key Result Areas: - Financial/non-Financial Maintenance: Managing the daily financial/non-financial maintenance activities associated with credit & prepaid cards for various clients
- Credit Card Dispatch: Managing credit card dispatch team
- Liaising with courier service providers
- Liaising with card personalization bureau
- Credit Card Loyalty Programme: Overseeing the loyalty related activities for clients
- Managing reward points redemption requests from end customers/clients
- Monitoring & controlling the stock of rewards vouchers
- Managing reward vouchers dispatch
- B2B Relationship: Liaising with clients and managing service escalations
- SLA tracking: Daily tracking of service level agreements with clients to ensure there are no breaches
- Monitoring & controlling to ensure the agreed turnaround times (TAT) are strictly followed
- Stakeholder Management: Liaising with IT support for the smooth functioning of systems/applications
- Liaising with other internal operations units
- Performance Management: Formulating annual Objectives & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the team members
- Conducting periodic (quarterly, half-yearly & annual) performance evaluation sessions for team members
- Managing staff grievances
- Capacity Planning: Assessing the monthly capacity requirements of the team
- Identifying resource redundancy, if any and redistributing the tasks accordingly
- Initiating resource recruitment as and when required
- Monitoring & controlling the annual leave plan for the team
- The largest acquirer in the United Arab Emirates and the leading payment solution provider & third-party processor for credit, prepaid/debit cards & merchants across the Middle East & Africa
- Website: http://www.network.ae/
Assistant Manager – Card Operations
National Bank of Dubai/Emirates NBD
12.2006 - 01.2009
- Company Overview: Website: http://www.emiratesnbd.com/
- Managed a team of thirteen staffs associated with various operational activities related to credit cards issuance
- Key Result Areas: - Card Issuance: Managing the daily operational activities associated with Credit Card Issuance, Debit card issuance & Prepaid card issuance
- Controlling & Monitoring: Controlling & monitoring to meet the deadlines for daily credit card, debit card & prepaid card production and dispatch
- Card Personalization & Dispatch: Monitoring to meet the deadlines for daily card production
- Liaising with vendors and service providers to enable smooth production & dispatch of cards
- Plastic Inventory Control: Managing the Card plastics stock
- Daily maintaining of the plastics stock register
- Initiating reorder of plastics as and when the stock breaches the buffer level
- Settlement & Chargeback: Overseeing the Scheme Settlement process (verifying entries against scheme reports)
- Overseeing the Chargeback process (verifying the reason codes, monitoring & controlling the lifecycle etc.)
- Stakeholder Management: Liaising with the IT Department for ensuring the smooth functioning of Operations
- Liaising with other internal operations units
- Performance Management: Setting the annual Objectives & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the team members
- Conducting periodic (quarterly, half-yearly & annual) performance evaluation sessions for team members
- Managing staff grievances
- Monitoring & controlling the annual leave plan for the team
- Website: http://www.emiratesnbd.com/
Supervisor – Card Operations
National Bank of Dubai
01.2002 - 11.2006
- Company Overview: Website: http://www.nbd.com/
- Belonged to a team comprising three Officers, one supervisor and 9 clerical staff of various nationalities
- Application Processing: Checking and Approving credit card application inputs in the system
- Ensuring the processing of all applications received before the agreed daily cut off time
- Managing archiving of the processed applications
- Financial Posting: Checking and approving financial postings on Card management system
- Checking and approving financial voucher postings on Core banking system
- Controlling & Monitoring: Checking system audit-trail reports
- Prepaid Cards Payments: Processing of salary files on card management system
- Card Dispatch: Supervising the daily dispatch of credit, debit & prepaid cards
- Supervising the daily dispatch of PINs
- Maintaining the daily dispatch register for every card product
- Maintaining the daily stock register for undelivered/returned cards
- Liaising with courier service providers for the smooth dispatch of cards to end customer, companies & bank branches
- Activation Calling: Generating the list of issued but not activated cards report
- Supervising the team involved with calling the customers for activation
- Preparing daily success reports
- Website: http://www.nbd.com/
Issuing Operator – Cards Division
National Bank of Dubai
03.2000 - 12.2001
- Company Overview: Website: http://www.nbd.com/
- Card Application Processing: Inputting card applications in card management system for processing, which included credit card (corporate/retail, co-branded & web shopping cards), debit card, charge card (for Lloyds TSB) and fuel card products
- Card Account Maintenance: Card action requests (replacement, reissue, manual renewal & product transfer), demographic maintenance requests
- Processing card action requests (replacement, reissue, manual renewal & product transfer) from customers
- Processing demographic maintenance requests from customers
- Processing credit-limit amendment requests
- Monthly Renewal: Generating list of cards due for renewal
- Running the batch-processing job for renewing the cards
- PIN Generation: Generating PINs for daily issued cards
- Printing the PIN generation report
- Card Personalization: Personalizing the daily issued credit, debit & prepaid cards
- Product wise sorting of cards for onward dispatching
- Printing the plastics reconciliation report
- Financial Posting: Processing financial adjustments on card accounts
- Processing financial vouchers on core banking system
- Payment Processing: Processing credit card payment file generated from core banking in card management system
- Processing payment file received from third party channels (currency exchanges)
- Scheme File Processing: Processing Visa incoming files on Edit Package
- Processing MasterCard incoming files on Pre-edit
- Downloading incoming file from JCB
- Uploading incoming files from various payment schemes (Visa, MasterCard, JCB) to card management system
- Fraud Control: Reviewing card activity reports (velocity, high amount, excess credit etc.) & authorization logs for effective control of fraud
- Processing System to Avoid Fraud Effectively (SAFE) file for confirmed fraudulent transactions (MasterCard)
- Processing TC40 (Fraud Advice) for confirmed fraudulent transactions (Visa)
- Reports: Generating various incoming scheme file reports related to VISA, MasterCard & JCB from card management system
- Generating various payment-processing reports from card management system
- Reconciliation: Reconciliation of card payments received from various channels
- EOD/EOM Processing: Performing End of Day processing on card management system
- Performing End of Month processing on card management system
- Website: http://www.nbd.com/
Acquiring Operator – Cards Division
National Bank of Dubai
01.1998 - 02.2000
- Company Overview: Website: http://www.nbd.com/
- Merchant Setup: Merchant account setup and maintenance in card management system
- Merchant Financial Posting: Processing financial postings to merchants (manual sales voucher, refund voucher, miscellaneous debit adjustments etc.)
- Merchant Settlement: Generating merchant settlement file
- Processing merchant payments via various modes like direct account credit, cheques & SWIFT
- Generating & dispatching merchant daily statements
- Generating & dispatching merchant daily statements via auto-fax
- Processing funds recovery from merchants
- Reports: Generating scheme settlement reports
- Generating daily merchant settlement reports
- Fraud Control: Reviewing merchant activity reports (split sale, key entry) & authorization logs for effective control of fraud
- Scheme File Processing: Generating outgoing files from card management system for various payment schemes (Visa, MasterCard & JCB)
- MATCH: Updating MATCH system for completing the pre-screening of new merchants
- EOD/EOM Processing: Performing End of Day processing on card management system
- Performing End of Month processing on card management system
- Website: http://www.nbd.com/
Authorization Officer - Card Authorization Centre
National Bank of Dubai
06.1996 - 12.1997
- Company Overview: Website: http://www.nbd.com/
- Customer Support: Handling card activation/block requests from end customers
- Handling cardholder queries on transactions
- Handling cardholder/merchant requests/complaints
- System Monitoring: Monitoring of online authorization system
- Monitoring of Visa/MasterCard authorization traffic
- Fraud Detection: Detecting and reporting attempts of fraudulent use of cards and authorization services offered by the Bank
- Card Authorization: Handling cardholder/merchant authorization requests
- Obtaining authorization for referrals through IARS, GARS, telex and fax
- Handling Mail Order requests from Acquirers
- Handling CODE-10 request from Acquirers
- Handling drop authorization requests from Acquirers
- Transaction Processing: Downloading Incoming Transactions file from Visa/MasterCard & uploading outgoing transactions file through VAP/MIP
- Processing transaction batches sent by merchants on Merchant Data Capture system
- Reports: Preparing lost/ stolen/ counterfeit card reports
- Generating various reports related to VISA, MasterCard & American Express
- Website: http://www.nbd.com/
Merchant Support - Card Services Centre
National Bank of Dubai
11.1995 - 05.1996
- Company Overview: Website: http://www.nbd.com/
- POS Installation: Programming of Point-of-Sale terminals for installation
- Installing POS terminals at merchant sites
- Providing training to merchants on POS operations
- Providing training to merchants on fraud controls
- Merchant Support: Providing onsite support to merchants for issues raised
- Onsite delivery of POS stationery
- POS inventory control: Updating/maintaining POS machines in/out movements in the system
- Monthly verification of POS machines stock
- Website: http://www.nbd.com/
Customer Service - Card Services Centre
National Bank of Dubai
07.1995 - 10.1995
- Company Overview: Website: http://www.nbd.com/
- Application screening: Initial review of Credit Card Applications for their completeness
- Initial review of POS installation requests from merchants for their completeness
- Card Dispatch: Liaising with Card Operations for the despatch of credit/ debit cards & PINs
- Sorting & dispatching of credit/debit cards and PINs to bank branches
- Third Party Management: Liaising with third party banks
- Handling their queries related to card issuing & dispatch
- Customer Queries: Handling customer queries on bank’s card products/ services
- Website: http://www.nbd.com/
Education
MBA - Finance
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
B.Sc. - Mathematics
Mahatma Gandhi University
Skills
Project Management
Certification
Project Management Professional (PMP), 3144758, Project Management Institute
Trainingprogrammes
- Falcon Case Manager Training & Falcon Rule Authoring Fundamentals - FICO
- Basic Banking Operations for Clerical Staff by Training Department - National Bank of Dubai
- Delivering Superior Services (A course based on quality customer service) - National Bank of Dubai
- Up Your Service by Ron Kaufman (the famous customer service guru)
- Introduction to Visa Course - Visa International
- Credit & Debit – Test Simulator Member Training – MasterCard
- Migrating to Chip with VSDC - Visa International
Timeline
Project Manager
Network International
12.2018 - Current
Solution Architect
Network International
10.2016 - 11.2018
Senior Manager – Technology Transformation Programme
Network International
04.2013 - 09.2016
Manager – Card Operations
Network International
02.2009 - 03.2013
Assistant Manager – Card Operations
National Bank of Dubai/Emirates NBD
12.2006 - 01.2009
Supervisor – Card Operations
National Bank of Dubai
01.2002 - 11.2006
Issuing Operator – Cards Division
National Bank of Dubai
03.2000 - 12.2001
Acquiring Operator – Cards Division
National Bank of Dubai
01.1998 - 02.2000
Authorization Officer - Card Authorization Centre
National Bank of Dubai
06.1996 - 12.1997
Merchant Support - Card Services Centre
National Bank of Dubai
11.1995 - 05.1996
Customer Service - Card Services Centre
National Bank of Dubai
07.1995 - 10.1995
B.Sc. - Mathematics
Mahatma Gandhi University
MBA - Finance
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
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