UMA DEVI VARATHARAJAN

Key Highlights of this role

Being a founding member of the APAC OPs team, I contributed a highly instrumental force in the creation of the team. My focus into recruitment and onboarding across all business units, in the early days was critical in creating a strong
foundation that would enable the successful transition in the mid part of 2024 it was successful on-boarding of the entire operation in Hong Kong into Malaysia eff 01st July 2024
department from HK CACEIS effectively under Project Aurora
Within 3 months of operations take-over, Malaysia APAC
Operations team received several compliments from Client esp. from APAC key clients are evident for the hardwork of the team in stabilizing the work process

Roles & Responsibilities

• Led teams of up to 40 personnel, supervising daily performance as well as training and improvement plans.
• Fostered a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging staff to share innovative ideas and providing resources for professional development.
• Prioritized tasks and allocated resources appropriately to keep teams focused and productive.
• Operational Duties
• MDS Pricing & Static Data
  - Ensuring the correct pricing of equities, bonds, futures, options, funds etc in accordance with CACEIS’ standard pricing policy.
  - Controlling automatic inflows of prices coming from providers like Bloomberg, Reuters, Telekurs, etc.
  - Manual uploading prices from various providers in our internal developed pricing applications.
  - Checking and validating individual prices who failed to pass automatically developed tests based on level of variation, consistency, date etc
  - Forwarding prices to clients and dealing with specific client requests to apply or applied prices.
  - Working behind and adjusting the pricing IT structure to guarantee a maximum covered portfolio in terms of pricing
  - Dealing with deadlines to cover the D-1 pricing of exchange listed securities.
  - Ensure best solutions are sought and implemented in completing tasks.
  - Ensure effective communication with all levels regarding the escalation of issues or potential issues.
  - Interact efficiently and proactively with third parties (internal or external).
  - Ensure high levels of client service are delivered.
  - Train staff members on the use of internal systems
  - Work on various projects as assigned.
  

Middle Office Stocks (Position Record Keeping service)
- Perform daily controls of incoming flows to ensure data are correctly integrated in our
reconciliation system
- Provide earlier reconciliation to our Middle Office clients
- Apply some Corporate Actions in the system
- Report some issues to Head Office and follow-up
- Verify the correct calculation of fees
- Ensure that all the trades are going to external parties such as Custodians and Fund
Administrator
- Liaise with European Middle Office, the Investment Managers &/or counterparties ensuring all
issues and/or queries on trades are handled efficiently and escalated

Participation to Front Office Solutions Team’s organization duties
- Periodic review of process to refresh understanding of requirements and review for
compliance
- Maintain documentation of the department, specific information and procedures
- Edit some reports
- Provide some daily/monthly KPIs
- Provide ideas and suggestions for system, operational or procedural
improvements/efficiencies
- Plan and assist in some Operational meetings including writing Agenda, Minutes to
participants
Supervise
- The implementation of operational processing
- The implementation of controls
- Compliance with internal procedures
- The resolution of claims in a timely manner
- The ethic
- The formalization of malfunctions

Management duties
- Plan activities, assign tasks and give directions to the team
- Define the objectives of each employee
- Evaluate the results
- Optimizing resources
- Encourage team spirit, team spirit combined with the ability to work autonomously and pro-actively
- Motivate employees
- Train staff and develop their skills
- Involve the team in discussions and decisions
- Promote independence
- Stimulate creativity
- Proactively engage with staff through regular communications (e.g. team briefings, feedback sessions, emails and one-to-ones, etc.) and scheduled meetings
- Ensure the Senior Leadership Team is regularly informed of the team’s progress (in particular KPI performance), escalating issues as appropriate
- Liaise with CACEIS Entities, and peers across the Group, as appropriate.
- Continually gather information, monitor, and report upon the KPIs for the Department (including, e.g. client issues, successful issue resolution, and additional services revenue)

• Assisted senior leadership in managing all aspects of operations a well as in the implementation of the strategy for the Department, delivering upon the targets set for growth and development

• Led teams of up to 33 personnel, supervising daily performance as well as training and improvement plans.
• Responsible for the management of the DSD teams within the department under the global model and / or across designated ‘home’ locations as applicable to the respective teams under the senior manager’s jurisdiction
• Ensuring delivery of the services to internal and external clients within prescribed timeframes with a high level of quality
• Fostering a client mindset throughout the team
• Ensuring day to day operations are efficient
• People Management – Driving people initiatives through the formulation of development plans with the team managers to build talent pipeline.
• Project Management – Driving key projects for the department with the Business Analyst and operations teams and acting as escalation point for key risk areas within a project.
• Developing future plans – Anticipate growth and changes, devise plans to adjust and to build a sustainable operating model in the long term
• Drives to Succeed: Results oriented / Client Focused / Competitive
• Leads with integrity: Trusted / Share information / Accountability
• Shapes the future: Innovative and strategic / Change agent / Entrepreneurial
• Develops others: Coaches for High Performance / Builds future capabilities / Team development
• Fostered a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging staff to share innovative ideas and providing resources for professional development.
• Prioritized tasks and allocated resources appropriately to keep teams focused and productive.
• Assisted senior leadership in managing all aspects of operations.

• Lead the Client Invoicing team for Royal Bank of Canada which is made up of 15 FTEs. The team’s primary responsibility is to perform fee setups as per signed fee schedule in the billing system, issue invoices to clients periodically, manage data acquisition processes and handle Account Receivables
• The role also includes supervising of daily performance as well as training and improvement plans.
• Fostered a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging staff to share innovative ideas and providing resources for professional development.
• Prioritized tasks and allocated resources appropriately to keep teams focused and productive.
• Assisted senior leadership in managing all aspects of operations.
• Established team priorities, maintained schedules and monitored performance.
• Maintained positive customer relations by addressing problems head-on and implementing successful corrective actions.
• Recruited, interviewed and hired employees and implemented mentoring program to promote positive feedback and engagement.
• Established performance goals for employees and provided feedback on methods for reaching those milestones.
• Used industry expertise, customer service skills and analytical nature to resolve customer concerns and promote loyalty.
• Cultivated positive rapport with fellow employees to boost company morale and promote employee retention.

• Process & Resource Management for the Direct & Global Custody Services Fee Billing Operation Operations in Malaysia
• Fee billing operations management for GC, DCC, GTFS, Fund Services products covering 38 markets spread across various regions i.e
• APAC, MENA & UK
• Established a high-performance culture within the team by setting clear expectations and providing regular feedback on individual performance contributions.
• Led cross-functional teams to deliver successful projects on time and within budget, enhancing company reputation in the industry with the successful migration of UK Billing activity into Malaysia
• Reported issues to higher management with great detail and managed key client portfolios personally to attain good business relationship by delivering quality in their billing outcomes
• Cultivated and strengthened lasting client relationships using strong issue resolution and dynamic communication skills.
• Scheduled employees for shifts, taking into account customer traffic and employee strengths.

• Process & Resource Management for the DCC & GC UK Processing & Settlements Operations
• Process & Resource Management for the Global Custody UK Trade Processing & Settlement Operations covering 38 markets spread across various regions i.e
• AMERICA, EMEA & EUROBONDS

• Operational matters oversight team leader / supervisor

• Stock Break Resolution Clerk - UK Market

• Trade Processing & Settlements for UK Market

• Trade event marketing and management