Sushmita Sarkar
AVP - Risk Management & Compliance Governance
Summary
Highly motivated, ambitious, quality focused and goal oriented individual seeking opportunities to pursue a challenging career which provides excellent work opportunities wherein my conceptual and analytical skills can be effectively utilized. 12+ years of rich experience in handling audit, quality assurance of compliance & risk documents, control testing, enhanced due diligence of financial markets products, understanding of Transaction Monitoring, Anti Money Laundering (AML), Financial Crime (FC) & due diligence of various products and business. Demonstrated abilities in evaluating & undertaking a risk based approach to mitigate and control risks.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
2
2
Certifications
Work History
AVP - Senior Risk Governance Officer
J.P. Morgan Chase
04.2024 - Current
- Governance and Control:
- Conducting timely impact studies for governance and risk control decisions that influence policy and determine the appropriate publication.
- Coordinating with control managers and document owners, and ensuring that the reviews are completed accurately, as per governance requirements.
- Established policies and procedures that improved operational efficiency within the organization.
- Maintained compliance with industry regulations by implementing risk mitigation measures and maintaining accurate documentation.
- Obligation Reviews - Performing obligation reviews and liaising with respective partners to establish controls.
- Document Governance Reviews - Creating recommendations for new documents, assessing business needs for existing documents, and providing guidance and determinations as per document taxonomy and classifications.
- QA Reviews - Acting as the SME between document governance managers and quality assurance officers to mitigate issues and provide actions.
- Forums: Participating in and presenting document governance reviews in various control forums to assess issues and actions.
Quality Assurance Associate - Manager
J.P. Morgan Chase
12.2021 - 03.2024
- Control Quality Assurance (QA): Performing quality assurance testing as per pre-defined test scripts across compliance and risk LOBs, and compliance functions, to identify potential gaps in procedures, policies, and standards published for the second line.
- Control Testing: Conducting deep-dive reviews on existing controls and thematic reviews to provide theme-based findings and identify gray areas between existing and expected controls.
- Control Design: Establishing QA governance program requirements by partnering with relevant stakeholders, and control owners.
- Internal Audit: Assisted with independent internal and external audits by supporting audit preparation through research, analysis, and presentation development.
- Regulatory Reporting: Supported regulatory reporting requirements by accurately compiling and submitting relevant underwriting data within specified timeframes.
- Remediation: Ensure corrective actions are completed within SLA for identified material issues, and root cause analysis is performed by various stakeholders and control owners.
- Dashboard: Created interactive dashboards to record all the findings and pending remediation cases, enabling effective decision-making based on real-time insights.
- MI Reporting: Creating monthly scorecards to provide a detailed report on QA fails across the firm-wide.
- Governance Forum: Presenting the monthly QA review snapshot to risk and compliance stakeholders.
Manager Quality Assurance Officer
HSBC
06.2019 - 12.2021
- Financial Crime Controls:
- Evaluated emerging trends in the financial crimes landscape, adapting internal controls as needed to address evolving threats effectively.
- Provided expert guidance on regulatory compliance matters, ensuring adherence to relevant laws and regulations.
- Mitigated reputational risks associated with sanctions violations by implementing stringent screening procedures for new customers and business partners.
- Reviewing transaction monitoring activities and investigations (UAR/SARs), and reporting Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) to safeguard the bank's reputation against money laundering risks.
- Conducted thorough root cause analysis on financial crime incidents, identifying areas for process enhancement and implementing corrective actions.
- Training and Development:
- Developed targeted training programs for staff members, improving their understanding of financial crime risks and mitigation strategies.
- Provided training to relationship managers across Europe to enhance knowledge about Risk Support Statements, detailing potential areas for Financial Crime Risk (FCR), Anti-bribery, and Corruption (ABC), Transaction Monitoring (TM), etc.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Managed discussions and escalations with various stakeholders, not limited to Business, Compliance, Policy, and FCC, to address queries and revert to them with actions in a timely manner.
Independent Quality Assurance Officer
HSBC
10.2016 - 05.2019
- Performing sample testing of approved CDD profiles in accordance with country and/or global standards and policy, and confirming that the high quality of customer data is maintained.
- Identify, document, and discuss findings with production management to reach agreement on the same prior to finalization for reporting.
- Actively coach the involved production staff (e.g., KYCS, BMO, etc.). During the discussion of the draft findings captured during the review.
- Contribute to the production of training materials and procedure manuals to address trends and findings, and provide training to the relevant KYC, Client management staff.
- Prepare Financial Crime Risk Assurance (FCRA) templates to evaluate the relationship manager’s ability to identify and mitigate FCR.
- Conduct thematic reviews in order to promote global consistency and support quality, and streamlining initiatives for both KYCS and non-KYCS sites.
- Preparing and maintaining different daily and weekly trackers for effective case tracking.
Associate - KYC
HSBC
04.2014 - 10.2016
- Completing KYC profiles with the highest quality standards and within the agreed SLAs.
- Ensuring that AML regulations, policies, and procedures are maintained and adhered to.
- Liaising with the RMs, GRMs, Onshore Partners, and other departments within the Group, thus ensuring timely resolution of queries.
- Ensuring that Management Information Sheets are updated on a timely, accurate basis.
Financial Analyst
Australia & New Zealand Bank (ANZ BANKING GROUP)
10.2013 - 03.2014
- Responsible for trade reconciliation, amending trades in MUREX, and trade uploads in Clearstream and Euroclear.
- Working on NYC reports and handling queries from clients and traders.
- Responsible for handling cash trades, repo trades, stock transfers, and funding.
Education
MBA - Finance
M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management
01.2012
B. Com - undefined
Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University
01.2009
Skills
Risk Management & Compliance Governance
Certification
Advance Diploma in anti money laundering (AML) from International Compliance Association (ICA)
Timeline
AVP - Senior Risk Governance Officer
J.P. Morgan Chase
04.2024 - Current
Quality Assurance Associate - Manager
J.P. Morgan Chase
12.2021 - 03.2024
Manager Quality Assurance Officer
HSBC
06.2019 - 12.2021
Independent Quality Assurance Officer
HSBC
10.2016 - 05.2019
Associate - KYC
HSBC
04.2014 - 10.2016
Financial Analyst
Australia & New Zealand Bank (ANZ BANKING GROUP)
10.2013 - 03.2014
B. Com - undefined
Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University
MBA - Finance
M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management