In a remediation programme, a system go-live or an alert backlog, the date is set before the team exists. Hiring the usual way, advertising, interviewing and vetting one role at a time, takes longer than you have.
Here is what it took, on three recent RiskPod mandates, to have a team working on day one.
1. Build a team, with structure
A major UAE bank needed a complete KYC remediation team within one working day. It needed leadership, advisory, quality control and delivery, working as one unit.
RiskPod confirmed every role inside 24 hours: a PMO team lead, an advisory compliance change specialist, two QA/QC specialists and ten KYC analysts. Working with the bank’s consulting partner, the team was ahead of pace in weeks one to four and completed the programme on schedule.
“We needed a team, not just individuals.” Programme Director, major UAE bank (anonymised)
The lesson: specify the structure, then the headcount. The lead and the quality control matter as much as the analysts.
2. Brief the team before go-live
A UK financial institution was implementing a new name screening system that would generate far higher alert volumes than the old one. Go-live was fixed.
Within seven days of the mandate, RiskPod stood up 14 specialists: a screening team lead, a senior sanctions specialist, a senior name screening adviser, two QA/QC reviewers and nine screening analysts. They were briefed on the alert types, the investigation method and the documentation standards before the switch. The team processed alerts from the first day, and the backlog at go-live was zero.
3. Put quality assurance in from day one
A UK and European payments firm with more than one million registered users had a large financial crime alert backlog and FCA pressure to clear it. It needed independent quality assurance alongside investigation.
RiskPod mobilised a specialist team in under 72 hours, with a separate QA function built into the structure. Adverse media, PEP and sanctions ran as three parallel streams, each with dedicated people and QA across all three.
75,000+adverse media alerts cleared in 10 weeks
150,000+PEP and sanctions alerts cleared in 16 weeks
0quality failures
4. Match on the specific work
In each case, RiskPod matched specialists to the work in front of them: the remediation method, the screening system and the alert typologies involved. When you name the system and the alert types in the brief, you get people who can deliver from day one.
A checklist before you mobilise
- Define the roles as well as the headcount: leadership, advisory, QA and analysts.
- Fix the start date and plan back from it.
- Agree the method and documentation standards the team will be briefed on.
- Decide who provides independent quality assurance, and have them in place on day one.
- Plan how you will scale the team up or down as volumes change.