Deutsche Bank
I joined DB in April 2022 as an Assistant Vice President in the Americas Sanctions Advisory team, which has been a fulfilling, challenging, and dynamic experience.
Americas Sanctions & Embargoes Advisory team
April 2022 - November 2023
General Escalations workflow
April 2022 - November 2022
As I started my training in April, the team was handling a flood of cases and escalations in relation to Russia and Belarus given the swift sanctions imposed by major Western powers. I had to quickly master basic training material and immediately began working cases from KYC reviews to regulatory subpoena's, to team's metrics and trackers, funds returned, resubmits, Financial Crimes investigations, providing advice on policy-related inquiries, and investment banking deals sanctions reviews.
One of the most significant projects included a discovery of the transshipment through a prohibited sanctioned jurisdiction in the institutional cash management sphere. As a result, I coordinated and implemented the Bank’s response, addressing both regulatory and policy implications. This included supporting escalation to senior executive management and internal governance forums, as well as delivering targeted training to over 180 clients.
Until November 2022, I worked across a general sanctions advisory workstream, handling a wide range of escalations. Based on my deepening expertise in Investment Banking products, the team was subsequently reorganized into specialized workstreams, and I was selected to join the newly formed Deals team.
Deals Advisory workflow
November 2022 - March 2023
During my time with the Deals team, one of the most significant cases included assessing sanctions risks and mitigating factors on the IPO of a mid-cap company based in Asia. It was during this time that I further developed time management and prioritization skills given the fast-paced environment of Investment Banking or Corporate Bank deals.
Complex Investigations workflow
March 2023 - November 2023
Given the need to support team with the Complex Investigations workflow, I began more in-depth Financial Crimes Investigations, Funds returned cases of payments, Resubmitted payments, drafting responses to regulatory inquiries, as well as managed regulatory and internal trackers. My work on a significant transshipment review project continued with the review of close to 900 transactions of 10 correspondent banking clients as well as consequent remediation and reporting.
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Global Sanctions Advisory team
November 2023 - February 2025
In November 2023, I joined Global Sanctions Advisory team, to embrace new challenges and develop further expertise in the EU and the UK Sanctions regimes as the Global Sanctions team handled cases and escalations from all regions of the globe, providing internal Anti-Financial Crimes and First Line of Defense ("1LoD") teams with regulatory and policy interpretation and advice. I was also responsible for the Global management of regulatory and policy breaches as well as ensuring they are assigned to relevant team members for review, communicating with key stakeholders to address questions and report metrics.
Following the enactment of U.S. Secondary Sanctions under Executive Order 14114 in December 2023, I contributed to the Bank's Secondary Sanctions response in the Investment Banking ("IB") business by managing and coordinating meetings with senior IB managers, IB Business Line Anti-Financial Crimes teams. This also entailed developing a framework for review, implementing it, and reviewing clients according to a set criteria. In other words, managing a project end-to-end and then also ensuring bank's policies and procedures are updated in a business-as-usual ("BAU") process for client reviews in accordance with the Bank's risk-based approach.
In another significant project, I represented a Sanctions Advisory team for the on-site In-Country Review of a DB Affiliate in Europe where I travelled together with Anti-Money Laundering ("AML") and Financial Crimes Risk colleagues to the location and conducted interviews with local teams to evaluate DB Affiliate controls in accordance with DB standards, including consideration of US regulatory requirements. This also entailed performing diagnostic testing of several business areas to ensure sanctions and AML controls required by the minimum control standards are working properly. Based on our findings, we recommended several significant enhancements to improve the effectiveness of controls and ensured these are assigned to respective stakeholders. This was a highly collaborative effort, focused on assessing risks, mitigants, and controls in this project.
Export Controls & Americas Sanctions Advisory
February 2025 - Present
In February 2025, following a structural reorganization, I joined the Export Controls team, which manages escalations and cases related to Trade Finance products such as Advanced Payment Guarantees, Letters of Credit, client declarations, and trade escalations involving sanctioned destinations and high-risk jurisdictions. My responsibilities include reviewing legal trade instruments, including performance bonds, and providing export controls assessments on various clients and transactions to ensure compliance with U.S., EU, and UK trade regulations. This also involves conducting thorough due diligence to confirm that all trading activities are supported by the necessary licenses.
Given the evolving geopolitical landscape, trade finance is subject to increasing scrutiny from sanctions and export control authorities. This environment requires constant monitoring of regulatory developments and evaluating their impact on the Bank’s operations, ensuring that robust controls are in place to address emerging risks effectively.
