Saikumar Vasudevan
Banking and Financial Services
Bengaluru
Summary
Results-oriented leader with an analytical approach to Business & Risk planning and day-to-day problem-solving.
Knowledgeable Senior Manager, with a proven track record of managing complex financial projects and leading cross-functional teams. Successfully implemented strategic initiatives that enhanced operational efficiency and drove business growth. Demonstrated expertise in risk management, resource planning and financial analysis.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
8
8
Certifications
Work History
AVP, Middle Office Controls
Standard Chartered GBS (Sdn) Berhad
04.2018 - 04.2025
- Operational Risk – performed/reviewed periodic CSTs, KCIs, KRIs and manage internal & external Audit teams. Simplified the processes by reducing 8 hours of manual, cyclical work.
- Worked with product COOs in running Non-Financial Risk (NFR) governance forums to discuss and resolve key risk metrics – by creating an effective key controls framework, helped consistently reduce risk grading (from Very Hugh/High to Medium/Low) during periodic Risk and Control Self Assessments (RCSA).
- Manage SLAs for Global Middle Office by streamlining and conducting periodic reviews and helped directly increase cross border service coverage across 45 countries, leading to increased revenues and profits for the Bank consistently.
- Led a 12-member team across India and Malaysia – remit spanning across Trade Lifecycle, Front Office Supervision and Exceptions Management spaces – including managing Trade Validations, Fixings and publishing EOD status of key metrics to senior leaders to keep risk appetites in check.
- Cross-trained existing employees to maximize team agility and performance.
- Reviewed performance and capacity data to monitor and measure productivity, goal progress and activity levels across a 75-member global team.
- Maintained team efficiency by strategically delegating daily activities, monitoring output, and rewarding positive contributions.
- Leverage acquired product knowledge across Rates, FX and Credit Derivative trades (TRS/CLD/CLN/Bonds/IRS/CCS/CoS/FX Options/Swaps etc..) booked by the Front Office and propose corrections for booking model deviations, managing unresolved trades – and led the regional Trade validations team in Malaysia and India.
- Managed local Brokers (Affin, Amanah etc.) and the Brokerage process, facing off with the vendors locally – ensuring timely trade reconciliation and fee payouts - including readiness for Bank Negara audits.
- Managed trade lifecycle events for global markets/products such as rate fixings, etc., for effective Trading risk and Profit & Loss capture downstream.
- Ran a major global migration of Risk/Present Value (PV) of multiple Front Office desks onto the Bank’s strategic risk platform, establish new recon processes & controls b/w the global Traded Risk repository and the Transaction Processing systems – co-led the Ops team for a brief period, also conducted training sessions with the wider Middle Office team in the UK and US, to enhance knowledge and adoption of best practices.
- Manage the Electronic-Affirmations team, Exceptions Management and Front Office Supervision teams for APAC, including MarkitWire/TradeServ and NDF clearing.
- Led a 200-member team's Rewards & Recognition program that was instrumental in consistently improving Net Employee Promoter scores for the Bank.
- Successfully managed change within the organization, ensuring smooth transitions during periods of restructuring or process improvements.
- Maintained compliance with industry regulations by implementing risk mitigation measures and maintaining accurate documentation.
Assistant Manager/Team Lead/Senior Officer/Officer, Reference Data & Portfolios
Standard Chartered GBS (Sdn) Berhad
12.2009 - 04.2018
- Assessed job applications and made hiring recommendations to bring in suitable candidates for key vacancies.
- Monitored employee performance and developed improvement plans.
- Responsible for Reference data management in Transaction booking & processing/settlement systems.
- The role included multifarious aspects such as setup, monitoring and controls.
- Setup of Counterpart accounts in Bloomberg and in the Bank's mother customer database (SCI FM, formerly ATLAS) to feed into various Risk/Transaction Processing/Regulatory platforms.
- Setting up of last lines of defence, by means of hold conditions/release rules in the Bank's internal Settlements risk engine (FMSRE) to stop unauthorized payments via Swift.
- Standing Settlement Instructions for various products such as Forex, Money Market (Call-Deposit accounts), Derivatives, Repo/Reverse Repo etc. in Opics, Murex and SSI+.
- Perform health checks on Call-Deposit accounts and Trading books to monitor dormancy and close redundant items.
- Manage Trading books for Front Office/COO and engage various control functions such as Product Control, Operations and Market Risk to set up downstream/interface mappings for seamless trade flow/accounting; this also included performing extensive reviews with these functions to drive changes where necessary.
- Hand-hold Audit and Local Risk reviews to prove that a diligent risk control framework exists, to achieve a green Audit state.
Processing Officer (Reconciliations)
Tata Consultancy Services
04.2009 - 12.2009
- Worked with the Prime Broker reconciliations team, involved in Hedge & Mutual Funds businesses.
- Detect mismatches between Firm's books and Prime Broker statement and resolve breaks. E.g. Short positions of Forex currency on Trade date(T) to be dealt by booking a Spot deal for T+2 resolution.
- Also managed Fund pricing by closely working with the Fund Accounting team.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Economics (Honours), Statistics, Finance
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning
06.2006 - 6 2009
Skills
Verbal and written communication
Operations Risk management
Team management
Operations management
Crisis management
Internal communications
Operational leadership
Performance improvement
Staff management
Project management
Certification
Certified reports writer - Reports that Work, British Council, 08/2020
Accomplishments
- Migrated the Middle Office Portfolios Control & Reference Data functions from Standard Chartered Bank Singapore & Dubai to the GBS hubs in India and Malaysia (2014).
- Helped develop a new Portfolio Control system (PCT2) to comply with BCBS (Basel) recommendations.
- Removed manual processes across Reference Data and Middle Office.
Timeline
AVP, Middle Office Controls
Standard Chartered GBS (Sdn) Berhad
04.2018 - 04.2025
Assistant Manager/Team Lead/Senior Officer/Officer, Reference Data & Portfolios
Standard Chartered GBS (Sdn) Berhad
12.2009 - 04.2018
Processing Officer (Reconciliations)
Tata Consultancy Services
04.2009 - 12.2009
Bachelor of Science - Economics (Honours), Statistics, Finance
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning
06.2006 - 6 2009