Surekha Pilla
Hyderabad
Summary
An effective leader, capable of managing team and processes independently with over 18 years of experience in Banking industry (Statutory Compliance, Commercial & Home Mortgage, regulatory services like Transfer agent services (compliant with SEC and STA guidelines), FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – compliant with IRS and SEC guidelines, Commercial Banking Credit Spreading & Compliance) and Risk and Control management. A highly result oriented, self-motivated individual, with excellent communication, organizational, leadership and project management skills with process transition exposure. Currently working as a Control Management Manager at Wells Fargo, Hyderabad in WLO International Risk & Control team.
Talented Manager with expert team leadership, planning, and organizational skills built during successful career. Smoothly equip employees to independently handle daily functions and meet customer needs. Diligent trainer and mentor with exceptional management abilities and results-driven approach.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
2
2
Certifications
3
3
Languages
Work History
Control Management Manager
Wells Fargo
03.2024 - Current
- Managed and motivated employees to be productive and engaged in work.
- Accomplished multiple tasks within established timeframes.
- Maximized performance by monitoring daily activities and mentoring team members.
- Enhanced customer satisfaction by resolving disputes promptly, maintaining open lines of communication, and ensuring high-quality service delivery.
- Established performance goals for employees and provided feedback on methods for reaching those milestones.
- Managing Issue testing, Control testing, Business Environment Changes, Process deep dives, Governance & Reporting
Lead Control Management Officer
Wells Fargo India Philippines (WFIP)
04.2022 - 02.2024
- Working as a business control manager in WLO International Risk and Control team and supporting Trade and International businesses for the past 12 months
- Gained a good understanding of the business that helps me identify the gaps in the process to be able to recommend the required controls/enhancements
- Contributed to the RCSA program of 3 different RAU’s in Trade and International business
- Received several appreciation emails from the stakeholders that I worked with on RCSA program and onshore BCM partner had sent a recommendation of an award nomination to my manager appreciating the good work done
- Was recognized with a Spotlight award for the contributions on RCSA program
- Played a key role in identifying the applicable risks to the business, assessing the risks and also assisted business in designing robust control procedures during RCSA workshop
- Contributed on aligning the MCR’s to the risks and controls applicable, provided MAA rationales, Documented FRASA elements of the control, Updated/Validated the Control design or performance rationales etc
- Have extensive experience in performing root cause analysis and pre-vetting form analysis of the incidents that lead to operational risk events and near misses
- Recommended appropriate controls to be implemented based on the incident analysis as a mitigation factor for the underlying risks
- Hands on experience in working on Issues per the Issue management policy and guidelines
- Leading the effort of Evidence Based Control Evaluations and Independent Testing & Validation reviews from BCM standpoint for the RAU’s associated with
Lending Operations Manager
Wells Fargo India Philippines (WFIP)
01.2019 - 04.2022
- Managing a team of 85+ across Hyderabad and Bangalore locations that handles Credit Spreading & Compliance processes of Pre-Close Commercial Banking Operations
- Streamlining the process to ensure process efficiency is improved, strong governance controls are implemented in the team alongside with gathering all the process related documentation including transition related documents, correspondences etc
- India team played a key role in contributing for the business requirements document of Standardization project and playing a key role in the creation of standardized procedures between BBG and WLS processes
- Solely coordinated and lead the effort of work from home enablement process for whole of Pre-Close and Post-Close Operations in 2020 after we started working from home on account of pandemic situation while ensuring excellent delivery standards
- Recognized with Champions award
- Played a very active role in re-visiting the BCP plans for the process by means of contributing to the BIA score calculations based on the customer, financial, regulatory etc., impact and in designing of strategic plans for each of the recovery strategies
- Driving 2 customer service projects to ensure quality and timely service to customers
- Closed 2 green belt projects (on productivity and quality improvements) and application enhancement/automation projects there by ensuring $40,000 saves to the Organization
- Successfully trained and coached Front-line managers to strengthen the front-line layer towards being self-dependent and proactive
- Ongoing process of driving change management seamlessly in the team
- Organizing and driving the team member engagement project (part of Diversity Equity & Inclusion initiative) for CB/CIB, Payments and Utilities teams of India & Philippines
Asst. Manager Operations
Wells Fargo India Philippines (WFIP)
08.2016 - 01.2019
- Assisted and supported a huge transition (PVSI) of 900+ FTE and played an instrumental role in almost all the stages of the transition, alongside with managing Operations with excellent delivery standards
- Received Champions award for this effort
- Played a very major role in the arrangements of Wholesale 10 year’s celebration and received a Team Excellence award for my contributions
- Performance management of the team members by way of timely feedback on their quality, productivity and behavior
- Trained and coached the team to be a self-driven team
- Driving the team towards achieving/exceeding the metrics of the process defined by SEC (Security Exchange Commission) and ensuring the team adheres to the IRS guidelines in processing the Shareholder/bondholder requests
- Leave planning and ensuring that the team does not exceed required shrinkage/absenteeism levels as per the LOB requirement
- Escalation and query handling of the deals with the onshore partners to have the sale/transfer of shares discrepancies rectified and ensuring the right withholdings are reported to IRS by factoring the IGA regulations
- Quality Management by performing detailed error analysis and focusing on the highest contributing error categories and processors and providing appropriate feedback to the team
- Brainstorming with the team members to come up with process improvement ideas and liaising with the Operations Excellence group to implement the same
- Reporting the daily, weekly, & monthly performance metrics of the team to the Line of Business and the WFIP senior management
- Identifying training needs of the team members and enrolling them appropriately
- Responsible for setting appropriate career path for the team members
- Chairing monthly calls with the onshore senior management to provide an update about the team performance and to discuss on the new scope of work to EGS in future
Team Leader – Operations
EGS Wells Fargo
09.2012 - 07.2016
- Completed Green Belt Certification
- Rolled out a green belt project on quality improvement (implementing six sigma techniques), thereby showing a benefit of $9,146 to the business
- Played a key role as a project team member of a Green Belt project on Utilization improvement from 65% to 85% by planning and implementing cross training of the team members which had a direct impact on the efficiency gain thereby helping reduce the FTE count by 4 yielding $70,937 to the business
- Closed an automation project on mainframe application which resulted in a save of $11,348 to the business
- Controls or process enhancements identified and suggested to the business in order to avoid operational losses there by contributed to an avoidance of $15000 operational losses
- Drove the team towards achieving Team Excellence quarterly award in 2013
- Received an Achieving Excellence award IV for the contributions towards transition of the highly regulated 10 processes along with achievements on operational excellence
- Was a nominee of Wells Fargo’s most prestigious event called WAC (Wells Fargo Annual Conclave) in 2013 as recognition for the delivery standards through 2013
- Promoting team member engagement levels
- Performance management of the team members by way of timely feedback on their quality, productivity and behavior
- Leave planning and ensuring that the team does not exceed required shrinkage/absenteeism levels as per the LOB requirement
- Escalation and query handling of the deals with the onshore partners to have the sale/transfer of shares discrepancies rectified
- Quality Management by performing detailed error analysis and focusing on the highest contributing error categories and processors and providing appropriate feedback to the team
- Brainstorming with the team members to come up with process improvement ideas and liaising with the Operations Excellence group to implement the same
- Reporting the daily, weekly, & monthly performance metrics of the team to the Line of Business and the EGS (Enterprise Global Services) senior management
- Identifying training needs of the team members and enrolling them appropriately
- Responsible for setting appropriate career path for the team members
Senior Financial Analyst – Financial Statement Analysis and Loan Originations
Wells Fargo
08.2009 - 08.2012
- Made a Direct Sign off (Self Signing of the loans without the intervention of the quality group) within 6 months of joining the Organization
- Designed Capacity Planning Template for the process
- Was identified for the RECMG (Real Estate Capital Markets Group) in less than one year’s time of tenure based on the Commercial Mortgage domain knowledge acquired, and the potential exhibited in accomplishing the delegated responsibilities
- Played a key role in successful transition of REPO and DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio) processes
Analyst 3 – Private Wealth Management
Goldman Sachs Services India Pvt. Ltd
12.2007 - 04.2008
- Scrutinize the authenticity of the information in the Portfolio Management Statement to be sent to the client to ensure all elements of the statement are properly incorporated and also check performance of the various financial products
- Escalation of process issues to the Technology Team and follow up on the same to ensure fixation of bugs and other technical related issues
- Responsible for reporting to the Management team on monthly basis on behalf of entire Private Wealth Management operations; analysis of SLA adherence / failures for the month and reporting on the same
Statutory Compliance Officer
ANZ OTSS India Ltd.
06.2005 - 12.2007
- Winner of monthly and quarterly Star Performer Awards
- Recognized and appreciated by the Management for constant Quality Maintenance and also for efficiently training 20-25 new recruits in the process
- Responsible for compliance with the legal notices served on ANZ Bank in respect of customers, involving disclosure of information on the same under relevant sections and other basic criteria served in the notice
- Assigned charge of Subject Matter Expert with responsibilities of clarifying team queries and assisting Team Leader in analysis and resolution of escalations with the Melbourne based team
- Assist the Automation Team in understanding the process flow of the team with the aim of ensuring smooth operations and also achieve maximum customer satisfaction
- Additionally responsible for training of new recruits to bring them at par other members of the team in terms of product and process knowledge
- Handled operations as Analyst for Project MCR (Multiple Customer Records) process with prime responsibilities of identification of multiple customer records and combine them under one customer ID to avoid having several records maintained for the same customer in the database
Education
B.Com - Commerce
Andhra University
MBA - Finance
Andhra University
Diploma in Advanced Software Technology - undefined
CMC Ltd.
Skills
Risk & Control management
Certification
Green Belt Six Sigma, 2014
Personal Information
Date of Birth: 03/01/77
Preferredsectors
Banking domain of ITES Industry
Timeline
Control Management Manager
Wells Fargo
03.2024 - Current
Lead Control Management Officer
Wells Fargo India Philippines (WFIP)
04.2022 - 02.2024
Lending Operations Manager
Wells Fargo India Philippines (WFIP)
01.2019 - 04.2022
Asst. Manager Operations
Wells Fargo India Philippines (WFIP)
08.2016 - 01.2019
Team Leader – Operations
EGS Wells Fargo
09.2012 - 07.2016
Senior Financial Analyst – Financial Statement Analysis and Loan Originations
Wells Fargo
08.2009 - 08.2012
Analyst 3 – Private Wealth Management
Goldman Sachs Services India Pvt. Ltd
12.2007 - 04.2008
Statutory Compliance Officer
ANZ OTSS India Ltd.
06.2005 - 12.2007
MBA - Finance
Andhra University
Diploma in Advanced Software Technology - undefined
CMC Ltd.
B.Com - Commerce
Andhra University
Similar Profiles
Laxmikanth ChittampallyLaxmikanth Chittampally
Senior Operational Processor at Wells Fargo India Solution PVT Ltd, Wells FargoSenior Operational Processor at Wells Fargo India Solution PVT Ltd, Wells Fargo
Mayank OberoiMayank Oberoi
Financial Accounting Associate/ Alteryx SME at Wells Fargo International Solutions Private LTD (Wells Fargo)Financial Accounting Associate/ Alteryx SME at Wells Fargo International Solutions Private LTD (Wells Fargo)
Kavya S PrabhuKavya S Prabhu
Senior Institutional Investment Analyst at Wells FargoSenior Institutional Investment Analyst at Wells Fargo