Zhiyun Nai

Zhiyun has more than 20 years of experience in regulatory advisory and audit, working with financial services clients in banking, asset management, in addition to operational compliance experience in real estate within China. Zhiyun has led and supervised compliance checks which have helped clients address gaps and strengthen their operational processes. She was also involved in various independent reviews of client’s risk management frameworks and processes, as well as follow up reviews on MAS inspections carried out on global banks in Singapore.

Major Projects

• Advised clients on applicable banking and capital markets licenses and exemptions available, based on the client’s business model, products and target clientele.
• Advised local and global banks and capital market license holders on various regulatory matters and provided recommendations on their policies, procedures and internal controls to address regulatory requirements and expectations.
• Review of risk management policies and procedures implemented by financial institutions in accordance with regulatory expectations and requirements. Specifically in relation to operational risk areas, financial crime, conflicts of interest, data protection and governance
• Led independent reviews and presented compliance and control issues to senior management of the auditee.
• Led a team of auditors to support internal audit teams of financial institutions in Singapore on MAS regulatory areas including AML/CFT, business continuity, outsourcing, regulatory reporting, operational risk management, technology risk management, credit risk management, capital adequacy.
• Led a team of 10 consultants in the remediation of KYC onboarding files in a French private bank.
• Led project team for a review of proposed client customer segmentation framework for AML transaction monitoring, utilising data analytics, and performed back testing against historical data to provide recommendation on appropriate threshold calibration methodology.
• Performed review of a global bank’s AML policies and procedures to come up with new target operating model for KYC and transactions monitoring.
• Led the quality assurance team for AML/KYC for a client under the US monitorship and successfully advised client on remediation and enhancements required to fulfil all requirements under the US monitorship.
• Experience in performing a regulatory feasibility study for a potential private banking entrant to the Singapore market for day 1 compliance readiness preparation.
• Prepared banking licence application for potential market entrants.
• Experience in reviewing regulatory returns of Singapore merchant and wholesale licensed banks.
• Actively involved in reviewing the basis of regulatory return preparation for MAS 610, MAS 640, MAS 649 and MAS 758 and providing advice on interpretation of MAS requirement for various financial institutions.
• Implemented operational and third-party risk frameworks for financial institutions in Singapore, in line with the latest MAS notices and guidelines including but limited to MAS Notice 658 and it’s guidelines.
• Led and performed independent reviews of business continuity management processes and framework in line with MAS guidelines.

Areas of Expertise

• Financial crime compliance
• Risk management, including credit risk, liquidity risk, market risk and operational risk
• Regulatory compliance
• Fraud
• Project and program management

Industry Expertise

• Financial services
• Real estate

Education

• Bachelor of Accountancy, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore
• Institute of Chartered Public Accountants Singapore