Meet the financial crime expert series: Ronald Daliya

Who are you and what do you do?

I help our clients by providing advice on Financial Crime and in particular AML/ CTF. We deliver this advice by taking a transformation-based approach to everything we do.

How did you get into this career in the first place?

I used to work in IT, then project management and finally running compliance uplift programs. Through this, I focused on the risk management side. Along the way, I worked with an AML/ CTF expert who was really ‘nerdy’ about AML/ CTF and I remember we both laughed about that at the time. Now I find myself in exactly the same nerdy position as her.

What is it that most excites you about your job?

Getting out there and talking to people, about what they are doing and how we can collaborate on solving challenges. This gets me exposure to a wide variety of work and allows me to practice different techniques and approaches.

What are the biggest challenges that you and your organisation/ clients face in your role?

We see three challenges where at least one challenge comes up in every conversation we have with the people we talk to. 1. Where do we start? 2. What does good look like? 3. What is everyone else doing? These are hard to answer which is why it is critical to base your advice on contemporary, real-world experience.

What do you see as the main emerging risks and challenges for the future?

Firstly, finding good quality, knowledgeable people who can help you shape your long-term plans, for the right price, who will stay, and who are productive quickly. This is key to everything, risk management is not going to shrink. Secondly, being informed on technology and its capability, but ensuring that you still have oversight. Finally, understanding your processes, how to change them and how they fit into your business (across your business also).

What advice would you give anyone starting out in this profession?

Seek out someone who is really good at what they do and get coaching from them. They could be a colleague, a manager, or an external mentor. I have worked for some highly-skilled risk management people, but also people who use risk management daily in their business process. Understanding both perspectives are critical – then qualifications, courses, etc. will make much more sense.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Aside from Financial Crime/ risk management, the following skill sets I use often include change management, business analysis, project management, technology implementation, and cognitive bias. They all require an analytical perspective and help understand the why. Finally, technology features all the time now there are some incredible solutions out there that can help you achieve your objective with little investment, don’t be afraid to try.

Click here to connect with Ronald on LinkedIn

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