Meet an ICA member: Deepa Ramsunder

What is your name and current role?

My name is Deepa Ramsunder and I am the Director for Conduct, Financial Crime and Compliance Assurance for Europe and the Americas at Standard Chartered Bank. I have over 16 years of international banking experience. 

What do you find enjoyable about your role? What are the challenges?

I enjoy my role because it involves assessing the effectiveness of process design and operational controls pertaining to compliance, money laundering, sanctions, bribery and corruption as well as fraud risks, and working with the various units within my organisation to improve their control environments and enhance their processes. One of the challenges is communicating the risks in a way that makes process owners ready to partner with me in mitigating those risks.

What are the benefits of being a member of ICA?

Aside from the professional recognition of being a member of the ICA, there are several other benefits to becoming a member, such as access to events and seminars at a discounted rate, access to a wide range of CPD courses, access to the inCOMPLIANCE magazine, and much more.

What difference has studying with ICA made on your career, your confidence, or career prospects?

Studying with ICA has definitely enhanced my knowledge and has thus also improved my confidence in the subject matter. I also believe it has enhanced my credibility as an expert in my field.

Have you had a promotion or pay rise as a result of gaining an ICA qualification? 

Gaining my ICA qualification enabled me to have the confidence to apply for and obtain a better role.

How has gaining an ICA qualification helped with your day to day job?

My job requires me to work with a lot of information and details and the ICA course helped me to bifurcate data and information into useful and irrelevant. The course taught me this by educating me on what to look out for and what is most significant while evaluating an issue.

Is there anything that you have done that you weren't able to do beforehand?

The ICA course has helped me view risks differently and focus on what is truly important rather than get bogged down with every piece of information. It has given me the ability to hone in on the relevant details while also having a high-level, big-picture view of the risk landscape.

What advice do you have for fledgling compliance professionals?

 If you are in college or just graduated and looking to get into the Compliance profession, I want to start by saying congratulations! — you have chosen an exciting career. I would suggest that you figure out an area of interest and start to specialise in that area because in-depth knowledge of a particular subject matter is extremely valuable in the workplace.

I would also recommend that you start enhancing your knowledge base by enrolling into certifications and courses such the ones offered by ICA. I am an advocate for life-long learning and you can never learn too much, so always keep improving your skillsets. It will definitely yield great results and prove rewarding to you as you grow in your career as a Compliance professional.

Read more meet an ICA member articles:

• Casey Pozarowszczyk, Financial Crime Officer
• Colin Ngan, Head of Compliance 
• Dilani Sooriyaarachchi, Head of Compliance at Seylan Bank PLC