Angel Igharo

Financial services professional with 7+ years of experience across AML investigations, KYC/CDD, settlements, transaction processing, and access governance within global banking environments (PwC/TD, Rathbones, BNY Mellon, Absa, RMB). Recognized for strong investigative judgment, operational discipline, and audit-ready documentation. Proven ability to improve processes, reduce backlogs, strengthen controls, and support cross-functional teams.

Seeking a back-office operations, compliance operations, or risk & controls role at BMO with growth into management.

AML Analyst at PwC (TD Bank project) (2025-08 – Present)

• Investigated complex profiles involving multiple entities, beneficial ownership, layered transactions, and high-risk jurisdictions.
• Applied a risk-based analytical approach to identify and evaluate red flags across geographic risk, customer type, product usage, transactional patterns, and ownership complexity, producing defensible, audit-ready conclusions.
• Conducted in-depth transaction monitoring investigations, analyzing transactional flows and behavioral patterns to detect potential money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud indicators, and sanctions-related risk.
• Reviewed and cleared/escalated PEP and RCA profiles, including adverse media assessment, role influence evaluation, and enhanced controls recommendations in alignment with internal AML policy.
• Assessed and validated Source of Funds (SOF) and Source of Wealth (SOW) using structured logic, documentation review, and reasonability testing to support risk rating decisions.
• Produced high-quality case narratives with clear investigative reasoning, ensuring findings were traceable, defensible, and aligned with compliance standards.
• Recognized for strong investigative judgment and ability to independently resolve complex high-risk files with minimal rework.

Settlement Administrator at Rathbones (2021-10 – 2024-02)

• Settled market trades across unit trusts, equities, and residual securities while maintaining high accuracy and regulatory compliance.
• Improved settlement efficiency by 25% through proactive coordination, follow-ups, and process discipline across internal teams and external brokers.
• Managed own-name and third-party custodian settlements in line with CASS regulations, reducing compliance incidents by 30%.
• Expedited settlement of new issues and fund transactions, improving turnaround time by 20% and maintaining a 98% on-time settlement rate.
• Reconciled nominal accounts and reduced outstanding queries by 95%, improving reporting quality and reducing operational risk.
• Maintained weekly outstanding brokers reporting with high accuracy to ensure timely resolution of failed or pending trades.

Transaction Taxes Settlements Administrator at BNY Mellon (2020-01 – 2020-10)

• Processed and reconciled over 1,200 tax-related transactions monthly, achieving 100% compliance and reducing reconciliation discrepancies by 40%.
• Recovered 90% of eligible SDRT funds from a two-year backlog, delivering significant cost savings and operational improvements.
• Streamlined processes for unpaid UK and Irish CREST items, cutting processing times by 20% and enhancing data accuracy.
• Reviewed client entitlements and exemptions, improving tax reporting accuracy and reducing errors by 25%.
• Successfully eliminated a two-year backlog of stamp duty reclaims, increasing team output and ensuring timely regulatory submissions.

Logical Access Management (LAM) System Administrator at Absa Group (2018-08 – 2019-05)

• Secured the bank's infrastructure and critical business applications across 7 African countries by implementing encryption, role-based access controls, and multi-factor authentication to protect sensitive data.
• Streamlined user access management for critical banking applications, working closely with IRM teams to validate users, enforce data governance policies, and ensure secure and compliant access protocols.
• Directed the Joiners Movers Leavers (JML) process across Africa, establishing robust access control systems to verify user identities and ensure strict compliance with data protection standards.
• Served as the primary escalation point for complex access control issues, troubleshooting and resolving high-risk access incidents, while ensuring timely completion of business attestations.
• Implemented and maintained role-based access control, privileged access control, and developer access protocols in production environments to ensure strict adherence to Barclays Global Logical Access Standards.
• Led risk mitigation efforts by enforcing stringent security protocols and auditing access logs, reducing security incidents by 15% and maintaining secure banking operations across multiple countries.
• Regularly audited and enhanced security protocols in line with regional regulations and internal policies, integrating encryption and multi-factor authentication to improve the security posture by 20%.

KYC Consultant at Rand Merchant Bank (2017-08 – 2018-07)

• Conducted thorough reviews of KYC records, leading to improved accuracy in document verification processes and a 30% improvement in the turnaround time for onboarding new clients.
• Spearheaded tax reporting projects, ensuring 100% accuracy in client profiles and significantly improving project deadlines, which boosted compliance performance.
• Developed and implemented a streamlined KYC escalation process while resolving data discrepancies with analysts, reducing errors by 30% and shortening the escalation cycle by 20%, thereby enhancing overall operational efficiency.
• Provided expert KYC consultancy, updating and automating procedures while auditing client accounts, resulting in a 40% increase in compliance efficiency and a 100% audit pass rate during regulatory reviews.
• Conducted comprehensive reviews of customer documentation, identifying and mitigating risks, and ensuring compliance with global AML/KYC regulations, resulting in the early detection of fraudulent activities in 10 high-risk accounts.
• Designed and deployed a risk-based approach to customer due diligence (CDD), enhancing fraud detection capabilities by 35% and reducing regulatory breaches by 20%.
• Collaborated with cross-departmental teams to implement KYC/AML software solutions that streamlined compliance reporting, reducing manual errors by 25% and enhancing regulatory audit outcomes.

BCom. Honors degree in Economics – UNIVERSITY OF WITWATERSRAND (WITS)

Bachelor of Commerce (BCom.) in Economics – UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA