With c.21 years overall experience including 16 years in the Financial Crime arena, Nishanth currently leads the AML, ABC and Compliance Technology function in Group Compliance at Mashreq Bank, a leading regional Bank in the Middle East with international presence including US, UK and HK.  Prior to his current role, Nish led the buildout of a sustainable capability and risk stewardship of the TM framework at HSBC globally, after leading a regional team covering AML Policy, Governance, Projects and Investigations in the MENA region.  Being passionate about the role of technology in the Financial Crime space, Nish has led teams or provided input to the design of controls utilising Machine Learning based models fully observing sustainable model risk standards, working closely with some of the leading FinTech companies globally.  

Prior to his stint at HSBC, Nish led regional teams performing surveillance operations covering 24 countries in Middle East, Pakistan and Africa at Standard Chartered Bank.  During this period, he developed SCB’s first-ever Financial Crime Analytics capabilities globally as part of the FCR Mitigation Programme. Overall, his experience spans AML, Sanctions, Governance, Surveillance operations, Regulatory relationship (including US, UK, Middle East and Monitors), strategy setting, control framework definition, technology, people, project and cost centre management / oversight. 

He started his career at Ford India (followed by Hewlett Packard) as Financial Analyst and Six Sigma Black Belt gaining experience in Financial Analysis, Reporting and Project Management.  In 2005, Nish joined KPMG Forensic in Dubai where he led various financial fraud investigations in the region and delivered multi-year, multi-disciplinary AML and Sanctions assignments for a number of global Financial Institutions.  At KPMG, he project-managed a Fraud Risk Management assignment for one of the largest conglomerates in the region. 

Qualified as a Chartered Accountant (India), Chartered Management Accountant (UK) and completed CAMS (US), Nish recently finished a PGP course on Data Science and Business Analytics from University of Texas, Austin.