Virtual Access to TISA 8th Annual CASS Conference

Jim is Head of Department for Resolution Strategy, Operations and CASS at the FCA. He has a background in client assets, leading teams of CASS supervisors for five years and after that, leading teams working on the resolution of insolvent regulated firms, with a focus on return of client funds from CASS and payments/e-money firms. He also has significant experience of corporate finance regulation and market abuse from leading teams in the FCA’s Market Oversight division. Before joining the FCA, he worked in tax consulting at EY

Alison leads KPMG’s CASS Centre of Excellence, a team of more than 60 CASS subject matter experts that specialise in the provision of CASS audits for regulated firms. She is a Partner in KPMG’s Financial Services Audit practice, with over 19 years’ experience working with audit clients in the wealth and asset management and banking sectors. Alison specialises in coordinating and leading audit work for financial services groups including statutory audit, regulatory and controls assurance for custody banks, corporate trust and depositories, asset servicing entities, asset managers, family offices, investment funds, and trusts.

Dennis is a Partner in our Banking and Capital Markets Audit and Assurance Practice in London, and he also leads the Payments practice for Assurance in the United Kingdom. His areas of specialism are the trading activities and back office operations of financial institutions and Client Assets operations of custodians, capital markets, investment firms and payment / e-money firms. Dennis is one of the industry’s market leading experts in the FCA Client Assets rules where he has provided audit, assurance and advisory services to a wide range of businesses such as custody banks, prime brokers, broker-dealers, wealth and private banking, corporate trust and depositories, securities financing, listed derivatives houses, crowdfunding platforms, payment / e-money firms. Dennis also has international experience working on other client assets regulatory regime in Ireland, Jersey, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Australia.

Ian is the Head of Technical at abrdn, managing CASS Change and Technical development. He has been in the industry since 1988 starting out with Commercial Union, and progressing from working in the Birmingham and Edinburgh life branches through to compliance and audit roles. From there Ian moved into AML, becoming an MLRO and then moved onto to consultancy work in this area. After the financial crisis of 2008 the synergies with AML led to a move into CASS consultancy, and he joined Standard Life’s (now abrdn) Platform business in 2014 as part of the CASS Leadership. In his spare time Ian follows his local football team Falkirk and is a regular at gigs particularly following punk and new wave acts of the 1970s & 80s.

Chris is a partner in the Financial Services Regulatory Practice at CMS London. Chris has significant payments, fintech and financial regulation expertise. He has a unique background and insight having joined CMS from the Bank of England where he was working on a number of high profile projects such as the renewal of the Bank’s Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), the broadening of access to RTGS and the payments systems which settle over it to non-bank payment service providers or central bank digital currency (CBDC) / stablecoin workstreams. Chris also has a strong background in Banking and Restructuring, having qualified as a restructuring lawyer and advised on a wide range of finance and resolution matters at the Bank. Chris has considerable experience working with the regulators, financial market infrastructures and payment institutions

Felicity has extensive operational and management experience across investment banking, asset management, hedge funds and third party administration. Since the financial crisis in 2008, Felicity’s experience has specifically focused on CASS, working alongside the Joint Administrators of the Lehman insolvency and then later being appointed the CF10a of BlackRock in 2014 for a six year period. During that time, Felicity drove forwards significant change in simplifying the CASS footprint across the organisation, as well as initiating and leading an industry CASS compliance programme, resulting in material operational and organisational change across the UK TA CASS industry. Felicity recently joined Citi in 2021 as a Director of Securities Services, leading a large product launch for one of its major clients and is now responsible for the regulatory framework and standardisation across TA services, incorporating the use of DLT capable solutions as part of the strategic direction of the division. Felicity has worked with various charity organisations as director and advisor through the Pilotlight programme, and is currently a Trustee of her primary orchestra which she leads the 2nd violin section. Felicity trained as a classical violinist and pianist, where music is her first love – and she performs up to six concerts a year with the Guildford Symphony Orchestra in her spare time.

Shermeen has over 16 years’ experience in the audit industry and has managed audits of financial services clients including insurance brokers, investment trusts and asset managers. She is a dedicated financial services specialist, with experience across the financial services industry and FCA regulated businesses, including Client Asset (CASS) assurance engagements. She is a technical and quality assurance specialist, primarily on CASS assurance engagements and is responsible for independent technical clearance of CASS audit reports under SUP 3.10. Shermeen also looks after the risk management of CASS assurance engagements and provides technical support on regulatory (including CASS) queries for the firm’s regulated audit clients.

Janet is a partner in EY’s Financial Services Audit practice. She has over 25 years’ experience of providing financial statements and CASS audits to various financial services organisations, focusing on the banking and capital markets sector but also involved with wealth and asset management firms. Her role includes leading the delivery of audits, and performing engagement quality control reviews. Focussing specifically on CASS, Janet is a member of EY’s CASS Leadership Team, which oversees the provision of EY’s CASS audits with the support of a large team of CASS specialists. Janet also leads EY’s CASS Quality and Risk Management Team, working with EY’s Professional Practice group to ensure that EY’s internal processes support the delivery of high quality CASS audits.

Paul has almost eighteen years’ experience specialising in CASS. Working at a senior level for global custodians, platform companies, asset managers, ACD's, banks and professional consultancy firms. His career has predominantly been focused on the operational and oversight elements of a firms business where he has supported and lead firms through enforcement actions and regulatory challenges creating and implementing target operating models, new teams and enhancing the BAU CASS activities for the firms.

Alison McHaffie is a partner in the Financial Services and Products Team specialising in all types of contentious regulatory and governance matters. She qualified at CMS in 1995 and has over 25 years of experience of advising financial institutions and their senior management on these issues. Alison has an in-depth understanding of how the regulators approach investigations and in successfully helping clients manage significant regulatory issues and remediation projects without regulatory intervention. Her experience covers a wide range of issues including retail mis-selling, governance, senior management responsibility and conduct rule breaches, conduct and operational risk, conflicts of interest, market abuse, client money, financial crime, complaints handling, lending, and financial crime controls. Alison acts for banks, insurers, fund managers, financial advisers, mortgage lenders, brokers, listed companies and consumer credit firms. She advises firms on dealing with regulatory notifications, regulatory investigations and enforcement actions brought by the FCA, PRA and their predecessors, past business reviews, redress projects, s.166 Skilled Person appointments, complaints before the Financial Ombudsman Service and handling FCA/PRA supervisory action and thematic visits. In 1998 she was seconded to the Enforcement Division of the FSA. Alison is individually recognised for her expertise in the Legal Directories. She regularly contributes articles to financial services publications, provides training to firm’s boards and senior management and speaks at seminars.

Amarjit is a Partner at EY, leading EY’s extended assurance offerings in Wealth & Asset Management sector. He has worked with a wide range of clients from global asset managers and their funds through to investment trusts, private equity houses and hedge fund managers on variety of assignments from traditional audits to internal control reviews as well as s39/s166 FSA/FCA engagements. He spent four years in various roles at J.P. Morgan Asset Management before re-joining EY as a partner in 2008. Currently he is responsible for a number of Ernst & Young’s largest wealth and asset management clients and also provides regulatory assistance especially advising asset and wealth managers on CASS, MiFID II, CRD IV, Suitability and Solvency II. He chairs the ICAEW’s Investment Management Committee and represents EY at the FRC and FCA on CASS matters. Amarjit is an active supporter of the Diversity & Inclusiveness programme at EY and is the chair of the EY Sikh Network. He leads our engagement with clients on their D&I initiatives in the Financial Services industry.

Rebecca is Bovill’s Chief Executive Officer, responsible for the continuing success of Bovill and our future growth. Rebecca has been helping financial services firms as a regulatory consultant for over twenty years and has been part of the Bovill team since 2006. An expert in UK and Asia regulation, she has led major projects with international asset managers, wealth managers, banks and payment services providers. Her subject expertise embraces CASS, governance, financial crime, ESG and conduct of business requirements. She has acted as a Skilled Person on FCA CASS section 166 work, spent time on secondment as Head of Compliance and MLRO, and overseen our delivery of licensing and ongoing compliance support services for a variety of clients.

Dan leads CASS oversight for BNY Mellon’s Markets division, including agency lending, Liquidity and MMF products, and their FX and FI execution services. Dan is responsible for ongoing oversight as well as review of new products and operational, business and technology change for CASS impact. Dan has over 15 years of experience as a CASS specialist, working in both first line oversight and compliance in 6 years at BNY Mellon, and also 10 years of external audit and advisory work in the CASS space at Deloitte.

As Head of Custody Operations at Winterflood Business Services (WBS), James is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of WBS and CASS Oversight for Winterflood Securities as a whole. He has over 10 years’ experience within operational oversight and management and has been responsible for CASS across both retail and institutional sectors. He plays a key role in the growth of the WBS technology by ensuring that innovation is complimented with robust usability across the platform and ensures that we future proof our build for all prevailing regulation and operational advancements.

Lisa has over 25 years experience in financial services with a breadth of regulatory knowledge and particular expertise in CASS. She spent 5 years at Architas Multi Manager as CF10a, and deputised for the COO in leading a function which included Third Party Governance, Operations and IT, as well as CASS. Prior to this Lisa spent 10 years with IFDS in various senior roles including as a Lead Relationship Manager and Head of European Cash and Stock Reconciliations. Lisa also spent some time with a Big 4 firm as a CASS SME. Prior to this Lisa worked in various operational roles in the banking sector.