Where compliance meets the transaction
In finance transactions client due diligence is rarely a formality. A borrower with a holding structure across three jurisdictions, a fund with a limited partnership at the top, or an SPV with a foundation board produces exactly the kind of file a standard onboarding process stalls on — and the closing date then waits on it.
My compliance work grew out of the transaction practice. I have acted as interim head of business compliance at an international corporate service provider, leading a team of five FTE and onboarding over 150 clients, and as interim Head of Legal at a European lender I had KYC/CDD onboarding of international client structures within my remit. That means I understand both the file and the transaction behind it.
What I am brought in for
- Interim leadership of the compliance function or the onboarding team, including prioritisation, workload allocation and board reporting;
- Client due diligence on complex structures: UBO identification through multi-layered international holding structures, trusts, funds and partnerships;
- Escalation files — high risk, PEP involvement, sanctions exposure or higher-risk jurisdictions — and the reasoned decision whether to proceed;
- Remediation of existing portfolios where files no longer meet current standards;
- Policy and process design: acceptance policy, risk classification, SIRA, transaction monitoring and their translation into workable procedures;
- Regulatory liaison, including information requests and preparation for supervisory reviews;
- DORA: reviewing and revising vendor and outsourcing contracts against the contractual requirements of the digital operational resilience regulation.
The framework
The work sits within the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wwft), the Financial Supervision Act (Wft), the Trust Offices Supervision Act 2018 (Wtt 2018) for trust offices and corporate service providers, EU sanctions regulation and — for regulated institutions — DORA in respect of ICT service providers and outsourcing. Supervision comes from DNB or the AFM depending on the institution.
More important than the list is the translation. Rules that read clearly on paper must be workable for an onboarding team processing dozens of files a week. Most of my work sits in that translation: rewriting policy that does not work, clearing files that have been left too long, and making discussable the cases where the rules give no conclusive answer.
Selected matters
As interim head of business compliance at an international corporate service provider: leading a team of five FTE, onboarding more than 150 clients and transactions, and optimising internal compliance processes.
Review and revision of a European lender's vendor and outsourcing contracts against the contractual requirements DORA imposes on ICT service providers.
Ongoing support to a capital markets service provider on client onboarding, documentation and regulatory liaison.
How it connects
Onboarding is frequently the critical path to closing. Running a finance transaction without keeping the CDD side in view means discovering too late that the facility cannot be drawn. For securitisations the same applies to the quality of the underlying portfolio files. For the form of engagement, see interim and ad hoc.