MANIVANNAN GOPALAN

• Compliance Leadership and Governance: Execute and manage a robust compliance program across payments, trade, and remittance.
• Risk Assessment & Mitigation: Lead enterprise-wide, compliance and risk assessments, identifying vulnerabilities and implementing corrective actions to ensure compliance.
• Fraud Prevention: Implement fraud detection systems for live payments and remittances, strengthening fraud prevention measures.
• Regulatory & Legal Primary Liaison: Act as the MLRO for Malaysia and the primary liaison with regulatory bodies (BNM, MAS, HKMA), ensuring legal compliance, reporting, escalation and resolution of issues and actions.
• KYC SME: Support partnerships, new negotiations, pitch and due diligence, expansion priorities (aligning priorities across jurisdiction operations | process streamlining & improvement strategy |new growth opportunities). Led the overall CDD process streamlining and simplification by identifying the areas of concern, inefficiency, duplication or any other area that of a real concern that may impact the data integrity and SLA management.
• Compliance Control: System compliance/Risk management in IT, accountable to report breaches and non-compliance, escalation & timely reporting senior management for immediate resolutions, STR, Transaction monitoring issues, alert adjudications, high risk escalations and regulatory reports submissions to MAS/BNM & HKMA.

• Performance | Only staff, accorded share option by CEO/Board for performance and delivery of compliance projects within 2 years of employment.
• Compliance Program Execution & Leadership (Projects – Budget: RM120M) | Spearheaded 17 non-system-related initiatives, completing them within 18 months as committed to the Board and BNM, enhancing overall compliance effectiveness.
• Optimization | Overhauled the AML CFT program for group - includes enhancement and change process, up-skilling, setting up governance, work on methodology, framework per Group Initiatives. Staff optimization from 180 to 72.
• Financial Crime Mitigation: Led cross-department efforts to reduce mule and fraud incidents, remediating 9,000 accounts over 24 months through streamlined processes and controls.
• Regulatory Compliance: Closed BNM CRR regulatory findings within set timelines and improved RHB’s industry ranking for fraud and mule incidents, securing a top 10 position.
• Strategic Collaboration: Collaborated with Corruption Commissions, Police, Customs, BNM, and others to combat money mule, money laundering, and fraud, and enhance compliance enforcement.
• Risk Management: Improved risk dashboards and reporting structures, introducing actionable items for fraud, mule, and financial crime risks.
• AML & Sanctions Policy Oversight: Developed, managed, and enhanced AML/CTF and Sanctions policies, ensuring alignment with evolving regulatory requirements and organizational needs.
• Team Development: Built and developed a strong compliance team for 1st and 2nd LOD, leading AML/CTF training and enhancing intelligence, screening, and reporting.
• Regulatory Primary Liaison: Act as the MLRO for Malaysia and the primary liaison with regulatory bodies in SEA, reporting, escalation and resolution of issues and actions.

Country Head of Sanctions & Screening Advisory | FEB’18 – SEP’19 – 2nd LOD

Associate Director /Senior Vice President | Country AML Policy – CDD Ops | MAR’15 – FEB’18 –1st LOD

• Client Onboarding Optimization: Streamlined the client onboarding process, reducing SLA from 3 months to 21 days.
• Investigation Remediation: Led the remediation and successful execution of 37 major sanctions and fraud investigation cases.
• Operational Efficiency: Positioned Malaysia as the second country in APAC to go live with regulatory examination by OFAC/US Regulators.
• Financial Crime Risk Management: Spearheaded remedial actions for material FCC sanctions, ensuring proper management and mitigation of financial crime and reputational risks.
• Global Policy Implementation: Implemented standardized client onboarding and risk rating policies across Asia Pacific, contributing to enhanced compliance and operational consistency.
• System Optimization: Played a pivotal role in optimizing the payment and screening system (Worldwide Online Filtering/Oracle Watch Search), improving compliance screening efficiency.
• Cross-Border & Regional Collaboration: Successfully collaborated across regions on regulatory compliance, sanctions risk assessments, and the implementation of KYC, AML, and sanctions policies.

• AML CFT & KYC Oversight: Led AML CFT/KYC compliance activities, ensuring enhanced due diligence and risk assessments for complex business structures and PEPs.
• Core Regulatory Compliance: Spearheaded regulatory exam management, working closely with regulators to ensure compliance with evolving regulatory requirements and optimizing control mechanisms.
• Process Optimization: Streamlined and coordinated compliance reviews, including product/process governance for retail and commercial clients, ensuring regulatory transparency and suitability.
• Cost Reduction: Digitized customer communications, saving an average of USD 70K annually and enhancing cross-border payments.
• Risk Management: Maintained 98% compliance on high-risk customers and PEP risk assessments, ensuring robust due diligence and effective risk mitigation processes.
• Customer Onboarding: Led the implementation of efficient customer onboarding and exit strategies, including digitalization of non-face-to-face onboarding processes for enhanced compliance.
• Training & Development: Developed and implemented comprehensive training programs, increasing awareness of AML CFT risks and regulatory compliance across business divisions.

Business Compliance | Assistant Vice President | Band F | FEB ‘09 – SEP ‘10) – 1st LOD

• Regulatory Compliance Training: Handpicked to independently train business units, heads, and departments on regulatory compliance, AML CFT, sanctions, and code of conduct.
• Audit Deficiency Resolution: Identified deficiencies in audit findings, fraud, and compliance gaps, leading to the resolution of issues related to regulatory and AML CFT sanctions.
• Process Revamp & Due Diligence: Revamped identification, due diligence, and verification standards, streamlining processes and enhancing regulatory compliance across business units.
• Compliance Program Implementation: Successfully implemented compliance programs in alignment with FATF and Bank Negara Malaysia’s recommendations, strengthening regulatory adherence across the business.
• Risk Automation: Facilitated the Oracle Mantas automation of AML CFT risk and sanctions assessments, optimizing regulatory compliance processes across the bank.
• Performance Recognition: Received a certificate of merit from the CEO for outstanding customer service, while streamlining procedures and reducing loan processing time.
• Loan Portfolio & Documentation Improvements: Spearheaded due diligence reviews, improving compliance rates from 67% to 98% and enhancing loan documentation processes for efficiency.

• Loan Origination: Determined and fixed loan origination process deficiencies, improving the turnaround time (TAT) by 40%.
• Fraud Detection & Risk Management: Developed a process integrating internal controls and regulatory requirements, ensuring early identification of bad loans and fraud risks.
• Reduction in Bad Debt & Fraud: Reduced bad debt and fraud to below 2%, well below the industry average of 8%.
• Streamlined Domestic Market TAT: Commended for reducing domestic market TAT by 50% by implementing a web-based credit application and analysis system.
• Web-based Application Extended the web-based credit application and analysis system to Hong Kong, Cambodia, and Vietnam, enhancing regional efficiency.
• Disbursement Efficiency: Scaled disbursement efficiency by 30%, translating to an average RM2B monthly increase, through process restructuring from origination to disbursement.
• Bad Debt & Portfolio Control: Maintained bad debt below 1.8% of the overall loan portfolio and ensured compliance with regulatory and internal controls at 95%.