Darshin Patel

Workflow Tool – Regulatory Exams / Client and Employee On-boarding

This project was designed to create a workflow tool that would significantly enhance the delivery of regulatory reporting and the client / employee on-boarding processes from a time and effort perspective. The idea was to develop a tool that would efficiently navigate the delivery of requirements keeping key participants in charge and informed about the status of the assignment and highlighting bottlenecks so they can be addressed systemically.

Notable Achievements:

• Surveyed HR, OPS, Audit, Rep Reporting, IT, Risk and Legal departments to create project scope that would yield 35% efficiency and approximately $2.5mm USD in savings
• Worked on creating a data library for archiving historical reports and documentation to be leveraged along the process
• Proved most effective from communications and issue resolution point of view
• Retained to lead a team of 12 for EBS reporting in a newly created Regulatory Reporting Org
• Managed efforts around communication with independent data providers, technology solution providers and development teams to ensure all requirements at all levels are documented efficiently
• Worked with technology team to set up data store for bi-temporal securities data in Hadoop and implementing Phoenix as the analytics engine
• Coordinated efforts with solution provider on overhaul of current systems from initiation to implementation and managed build and testing of API connectors internally to accommodate new data formats

Project: EBS / OATS – Data Remodeling & Remediation for Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT)

Developed data quality rules, lineage, data flow and dictionary for EBS and OATS reports, analyzed end to end data transformation and recommended remediation to meet regulatory needs. Partnered with N-Tier to implement Level 1 & 2 rules around data quality and executed detailed testing efforts for go-live. Scrubbed customer data and worked with Broadridge to assure correct reporting format and data pass-through.

Notable Achievements:

• Proved most effective from communications and issue resolution point of view
• Retained to lead a team of 12 for EBS reporting in a newly created Regulatory Reporting Org

Project: IPV – Market Data and Daily Independent Price verification (IPV) Project

This project was geared towards improving the management, maintenance and auditability of market data with the ultimate goal of improving risk management practices and is able to serve as the second line of defense. The objective was to develop an in-house system that is capable of performing IPV activities on a daily basis vs. current state of once a month exercise.

Notable Achievements:

• Managed efforts around communication with independent data providers, technology solution providers and development teams to ensure all requirements at all levels are documented efficiently
• Worked with technology team to set up data store for bi-temporal securities data in Hadoop and implementing Phoenix as the analytics engine
• Coordinated efforts with solution provider on overhaul of current systems from initiation to implementation and managed build and testing of API connectors internally to accommodate new data formats

Project: T+2 – Shortening of the Settlement Cycle

This was a street-wide initiative to shorten the settlement cycle for Equities, Corporate Bonds, Munis, Unit Investment Trusts and all related derivatives from T+3 days to T+2 days. This was a large scale front to back transformation in trading and settlement cycle to primarily put US at par with majority of the global markets that have been trading on a T+2 settlement cycle. Primary benefits were deemed to be significant reduction in liquidity cost, NSCC Clearing Fund requirements, DTC line of credit, operational and systemic risk and achieving greater transparency.

Notable Achievements:

• Managed project charter, analysis, planning, requirements gathering, development, testing, implementation and training of Investment Banking and Asset Management businesses involving significant set of product line in scope
• Delivered completed requirements ahead of projected timeline
• Liaised with Broadridge on BPSA, ICI, N&A and several other applications to ensure data flow in the test environment was well coordinated and the overall testing went smoothly
• Worked extensively with DTCC, OCC, NSCC, Deloitte, Loannet, Equilend, Citi, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley to ensure all relevant test cases were successfully executed
• Assumed roles related to front office trade booking, middle office processing, data creating, account maintenance, trade / settlement validation checks, reporting and training / communicating US T+2 internally to UBS staff as well as providing documentation for customer base

LTID Remediation Project

Worked with Broadridge to clean up current state and enhance LTID reporting process based on regulatory guidelines. Liaised between BR and UBS IT teams to develop an in-house solution to speed up the daily cleansing efforts.

Wealth Management Core Operations Improvement Project

This project was in response to gaps noticed within Operations IT processes where incorrect data would on occasion propagate downstream and cause significant issues in production and client reporting.

US Servco: Setting up Services Co

This project was in response to the Risk and Resolution planning efforts to separate out services functions in case of a distressed market situation. Should major functions of the bank fail, it was required to maintain a services oriented branch that would be operational through the critical downturn and provide support to the clients as needed.

Notable Achievements:

• Recommended and supervised separation of services staff to an independent organization
• Ensured appropriate cost allocation was put in place for the newly created organization
• Provided key critical staff retention plan for HR Ex Ante planning

Project: InControl

InControl is an in-house solution developed to unify the many legacy systems at Citi for P&L reporting. It is a web based forecasting tool that can be used for revenue, headcount and non-staff related expenses and charge-outs.

Notable Achievements:

• Gathered conceptual formulation of the desired tool through extensive interviews and created mock-ups in PowerPoint to show potential strengths and advantages of developing this tool.
• Created decks for presentation to the investment committee on what the project entails, a part of the Project Initiation Document (PID)
• Worked with Consulting Companies, Law Firms and contractors to ensure overall delivery of the project was timely and within budget
• Coordinated efforts with HR in the hiring process of CCAR specialists

Project: Comprehensive Capital Analysis & Review (CCAR)

Regulatory project levied by Federal Reserve to assess a bank holding company's financial health in event of financial crisis. Primarily to ensure that the bank has sufficient capital and has a solid plan that can be executed should there be an economic shock to maintain its operations and weather the crises. Our team's primary focus was on the Corporate and Investment Banking division (CIB).

Notable Achievements:

• Worked with Consulting Companies, Law Firms and contractors to ensure overall delivery of the project was timely and within budget
• Coordinated efforts with HR in the hiring process of CCAR specialists

Other short-term projects:

Project: Reduction in Workforce Database (RIF Db)

With several legacy tools in place and different legal requirements around the globe, Citi saw a need to create a centralized tool to estimate financial impact of reduction in workforce.The concept was to create an automated channel to process requests for approval on future lay-offs. This project was data intensive and needed inputs from Accounting, HR, Legal, Compliance and Finance departments for each country the tool was to be implemented in.

Project: Attributions Weighting Survey Tool (AWST)

Project: Implementation of LoanIQ on BNP Paribas Platform

The scope of this project was to implement LoanIQ in North America for Loan Portfolio Management businesses, replacing the legacy software. The existing setup was using several tools and legacy mapping tables to create reports of lending based revenues at the customer and management reporting levels. To drive efficiency and to avoid maintaining several old legacy tools, BNP NA had a particular vison and needed LoanIQ to be tailored to their requirements.

Notable Achievements:

• Conducted in-depth analysis of the As-Is Business Case and generated end-to-end data flow charts to capture the involvement of multiple legacy tools
• Attended training on policies and procedures related to lending revenue recognition and accounting entries
• Developed a thorough understanding of the BNP management reporting structure including cost and profit centers to be used for booking revenues
• Worked with Finance, Accounting, HR and Tax departments to understand the overall reporting process
• Worked with Finance IT to develop functionality to gather invoice level detail into the expense database
• Redesigned several processes to eliminate usage and maintenance of legacy data tables and increase efficiency and reporting timeline
• Through existing artifacts and conversations with BofA and Fortis, gained an understanding of their reporting structure and the data set being brought over to BNP
• Conducted GAP analysis between the existing data fields, reporting capabilities and the end state product
• Coordinated with BofA technical staff to resolve issues around data validation.

Project: Management Reporting System (MaRS)

MaRS started off as a headcount and expense forecasting tool that was developed in-house and rolled out in the North America region. Once the forecasting tool was successfully implemented the capabilities of this tool were enhanced to reporting of actual expenses with drill down feature for specific line items to capture invoice level details for business managers to quickly get clarity on what’s hitting their cost centers.

Notable Achievements:

• Worked with Finance, Accounting, HR and Tax departments to understand the overall reporting process
• Worked with Finance IT to develop functionality to gather invoice level detail into the expense database
• Redesigned several processes to eliminate usage and maintenance of legacy data tables and increase efficiency and reporting timeline

Project: Integration of BofA Prime Brokerage business and Fortis Investments to BNP

BNP Paribas acquired Bank of America’s Prime Brokerage business and Fortis Bank in 2008-2009. The project was to integrate their financials into BNP’s platform.

Notable Achievements:

• Through existing artifacts and conversations with BofA and Fortis, gained an understanding of their reporting structure and the data set being brought over to BNP
• Conducted GAP analysis between the existing data fields, reporting capabilities and the end state product
• Coordinated with BofA technical staff to resolve issues around data validation.

Project: Migration of Neuberger Berman (NB) Financials to Lehman Platform

Lehman Brothers acquired NB in 2003 and this project was the tail end of migrating in-house investment financials held privately by NB on to Lehman platform. The data was mainly related to seeded funds initiated by NB money managers, now being managed jointly with Lehman Brothers Asset Mgmt.

Project: Customization of Salesforce.com (SFDC)

The scope of this project was to customize SFDC by creating custom objects, workflows, reports, triggers and validation rules to concisely report activities from both LB Asset Management and Neuberger Berman’s side.

Project: Legacy in-house planning tool migration to Hyperion Planning

The projects involved implementation of Hyperion Planning tool for the Finance and Accounting Department to enhance their reporting capabilities and drive efficiency in their planning process.

Project: Services Revenue Reporting over-haul

This project was mainly to revamp the revenue reporting tool to be more dynamic web based solution with relevant dashboards that maintained the most critical set of data live and accessible around the clock.

Earned my BS degree 2004