Agrilinks

Independent banking microfinance SME ESG SDGs UN Agenda 2030 EU Green Deal inclusive green blue economies & financing gender gap close circular economy learning & development consultant, trainer business coach, Credit & Financial analysis,  Public Finance, Anti Money Laundering & Counter Financing Terrorism, Financial-accounting analysis, modeling, internal control, internal and external audit Consultant, Trainer, Lecturer, Business coach, Finance & Administration Manager, Project Manager/Senior Project Officer/Team leader, Strategy Workshop Moderator / Facilitator, member of the executive and non-executive McKinsey survey panel experts

8. Years within the firm: 33

Over 32  years of experience in banking, microfinance, SME finance/lending, Anti Money Laundering & Counter Financing Terrorism, Financial-accounting analysis, modeling and investigation, Governance Risk Compliance (GRC), internal control, internal and external audit, financial, operational and reputational risks management and public finance consultancy, of which:

·        15 years in working at the largest Romanian public finance institution – the Romanian Savings Bank, assuming important senior management positions and responsibilities in various strategic management areas in the head-office, including activities as a Project manager/Team leader as well as a trainer at the Romanian Banking Institute;

·        over 17 years working as a consultant, trainer, coach in  banking, microfinance, financial-accounting analysis, modeling and investigation, internal control, internal and external audit and public finance technical assistance projects, Mc Kinsey executive panel expert member

 9. Key qualifications:

General expertise

• banking, micro - banking, microfinance, SME finance, public finance, Anti Money Laundering & Counter Financing Terrorism, Financial-accounting analysis, modeling and investigation, Governance Risk Compliance (GRC), internal control, internal and external audit, financial, operational and reputational risks management, procurement management, community development, presentation of training seminars/workshops, EU Phare/Europe Aid, World Bank, French Development Agency technical assistance projects;

Specific expertise

• banks and microfinance institutions management related to the following areas: corporate governance, internal control and risk management, business strategy planning /operational planning, budgeting controlling/financial management; internal & external audits; Anti Money Laundering & Counter Financing Terrorism, Financial-accounting analysis, modeling and investigation, Governance Risk Compliance (GRC), internal control, internal and external audit, financial, operational and reputational risks management; Asset and Liability Management, performance management, branch network performance management, products costing and pricing,
• Micro & SME financing (external credit lines from International financial Institutions), SME management / finance / accounting, SME lending / cash-flow based lending, staff incentive / bonus schemes, staff time-tracking of on-site and off-site / online/remote work from home, engagement and productivity monitoring and reporting management (including knowledge about related top software applications), donor fundraising and reporting, bank regulation and supervision, project management;
•  training seminars presentation, training curricula development, very good knowledge of GAAP, very good knowledge of COSO standards on Internal Control and COSO standards on Enterprise Risk Management  etc.; treasury, internal control and risk management for public finance institutions;

Ø      Team leader/ project manager for international technical assistance programs:

• Team Leader / Project Manager of the Romanian Savings Bank team in charge with the drafting of the Terms of Reference and Project Fiche documents for the restructuring and institutional development of the Romanian Savings Bank based on  which the bank obtained 2 million  Euro funding from the European Commission; the respective documents were approved by the Board of the Romanian Savings Bank, by the Romanian Ministry of Finance (the sole representative of the state as shareholder) and by the European Commission;
• Team Leader / Project Manager of the Romanian Savings Bank team in charge with the implementation of the restructuring project (RO 9805.02.02.01) funded by PHARE
• Team Leader / Project Manager of the Romanian Savings Bank team in charge with the implementation of the consulting project jointly deployed with the German Savings Bank Foundation for International Cooperation;
• Team Leader / Project Manager of the Romanian Savings Bank team in charge with the negotiation and implementation of the agreement with the Romanian SME Loan Guarantee Fund;
• Team Leader / Project Manager of the Romanian Savings Bank team in charge with the negotiation, implementation and the on-going financial, forex risk and performance evaluation of the first ever Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau SME’s credit line agreement amounting 2 mil DEM
• Team Leader / Project Manager of the team in charge with the introduction of the IAS/IFRS external audit of the Romanian Savings Bank’s financial statements and coordination of the following yearly audits
•  Team Leader / Project Manager for the designing and implementation of the Asset and Liability Management policy , procedures and systems
• Team Leader / Project Manager of the team in charge with the designing and introduction of the “Profit and Cost Center procedure” and of the main policy for the branch and sub-branch network performance assessment reporting;

o       Team Leader / Project Manager; of the team in charge with the drafting and implementing the Anti-Money Laundering management policy and procedure (including AML bank customer risk matrix and classification) based on the Directive 2001/97/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union (the Second Directive) as well as on the guidelines and recommendations issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FTAF) ,  International Monetary Fund, Basel Committee, European Commission, Swiss Federal Banking Commission, the US Treasury, the 1999 United Nations International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the 2001 United Nations Security Council Anti-Terrorism Resolution 1373 and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units case studies, recommendations and practices.

o       Project manager at Kosovo Enterprise Program (a leading microfinance institution in Kosovo) for:

·     - the procurement and implementation of an accounting software (designing the ToR, organizing the tender, contract negotiation; implementation coordination; chart of account definition according to international and local standards; integration of the accounting software with the Kredits LTS loan tracking software; coordinating the meetings bewteen the experts of the accounting software and Kredits LTS software in  order to meet the requirements of Kosovo Enterprise Program microfinance institution)

·     - the designing of the business strategy and the related annual operational plans and budgets.

- the design and implementation of the first time ever internal control and internal audit policy manuals, procedures, systems and structures (drafted and implemented the internal audit policy and procedures manual; drafted and implemented the charter of the Internal Audit Committee);

- the assessment and refinement/development of the existing finance-accounting, lending and administration management policy manuals, systems, structures,  and procedures;  drafted/refined/implemented the finance-accounting policy manual; drafted/refined/implemented the administration policy manual; 
 

Ø     Institutional building/restructuring of financial institutions

• business strategy and planning advanced knowledge of business strategy planning, execution, monitoring & updating, using international best practices such as: Kaplan/Norton/Palladium Group’s Balanced Scorecard Framework, Porter’s Five Forces model, PESTL & SWOT analysis, strategic/long-term financial forecasting; strategic operational planning; strategic budget design. monitoring & execution; Key Performance Indicators (KPI) dashboards structure designing;
• corporate governance (based on international best practice: World Bank-OECD “Principles of Corporate Governance”; Basle Committee “Enhancing corporate governance in banks; Financial Stability Board - Principles for Sound Compensation Practices (FSB Principles) and accompanying Implementation Standards; the Practice of Corporate Governance in Shareholder Owned MFI - Consensus Statement of the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds
• Asset & Liability Management; ALCO meetings preparation, organization and chairing; financial management; liquidity & investment management;  financial & managerial accounting; Fund Transfer Pricing & Activity Based Costing; corporate finance; asset & liability management, financial modeling & analysis, internal control systems; internal & external audit; Micro & SME financing; financial & credit analysis; credit scoring; project financing; marketing management; customer relationship & profitability management; Dynamic Digital Signage; HR management; staff incentive schemes;
• advanced knowledge of organizational chart reengineering: based on Mintzberg ‘s organizational configurations framework as well as on Mintzberg/Heyden Organigraph - used to expose critical associations and competitive opportunities of a bank/MFI's structure or processes, as opposed to viewing all departments and business units as separate entities;
• budgeting; reporting for internal and regulatory compliance purposes, bank & MFI risk management; technologies (CPM, BI, EWRM, EAI, CRM, ERP, SCM, Six Sigma, Hoshin Kanri ) for business strategy (balance scorecard) and for regulatory and bank management reporting (dashboards for risk management, planning, budgeting, forecasting, performance, branch / product & customer profitability and total quality management; 
   

Ø      Micro & SME lending

·        As a Director of the Strategy and Controlling (Financial Management) Division of the Romanian Savings Bank I initiated and then successfully coordinated the implementation of the first ever SME lending schemes at the Romanian Savings Bank.

·        In this respect I initiated discussions with EBRD and KfW representatives. I presented the project idea to the bank board and then I discussed it with representatives of Ministry of Finance (the sole shareholder as a representative of the state) and representatives of the Central Bank.

·        The project was 100% successful and this new line of business (SME lending) was very beneficial not only for the SME customers but it also represented a turning point and actually a start of the institutional development process of the Romanian Savings Bank - fully owned by the state but dominated by communist mentalities of their executive officers and consequently facing a lot of inertia and reluctance to restructuring and alignment to the best practices in banking.

·        (for additional details, including my involvement in another SME lending scheme – Finlombarda,  see paragraph Aug 1999 –March 2002 in my CV)

·        As a Finance and Administration Manager at Kosovo Enterprise Program (the largest micro finance institution in Kosovo) I was involved also in the Operation / Microlending area. And that also included working on women entrepreneurship and women’s access to finance, identifying  the challenges that women-led MSMEs in Kosovo had in accessing finance, conducting gender institutional analysis of loan portfolio using the IT MIS – Kredits Loan Tracking software, conducting qualitative market research/studies in rural and urban areas,  developing and implementing institutional strategies, business models and delivery mechanisms to reach out to women-led MSMEs, designing, testing, and roll-over implementation of marketing campaigns in the rural and urban areas. (for additional details, see paragraph July 2003 – Dec 2004 in my CV)

 Please see also the paragraphs in my CV that they refer to all my previous consulting and work positions related to the Micro & SME lending/banking area.

Ø      Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing

·        the Financial Action Task Force -  FATF  guidelines / recommendations / standards / compliance assessment methodology

·        the Directive 2005/60/EC and 2006/70/EC of 1 August 2006.of the European Parliament and of the Council on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (the “Second and Third EU Money Laundering Directive”)

·        the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing conventions issued by the Council of Europe ( the Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime (CETS No.: 141) – 1990 and the Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism and its explanatory report – 2005)

·        the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing reports issued by the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism – MONEYVAL

·        the US Patriot Act  and of the regulations issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the areas of Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing

·        the AML & CTF recommendations issued by World Bank and IMF

·        very good knowledge of the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing recommendations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Customer due diligence for banks; Sharing of financial records between jurisdictions in connection with the fight against terrorist financing)

·        the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing recommendations issued by the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units(“9 Best Practices for the Exchange of Information Between Financial Intelligence Units”, “Countering Of Terrorism Financing” )

·        the 1999 United Nations International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism

·        the 2001 United Nations Security Council Anti-Terrorism Resolution 1373

·        software technical requirements/specifications addressing AML business requirements:

o       Currency Transaction Reporting (CTR) systems, which deal with large cash transaction reporting requirements ($10,000 and over in the U.S.)

o       Customer identity management systems which check various negative lists (such as US Office of Foreign Assets Control - OFAC) and represent an initial and ongoing part of Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements

o       Transaction monitoring systems, which focus on identification of suspicious patterns of transactions which may result in the filing of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). Identification of suspicious (as opposed to normal) transactions is part of the KYC requirements.

Ø      Public Finance Management: Public Internal Financial Control; managerial accountability (financial management and control systems); functionally independent internal audit (IA systems);   central harmonisation unit (CHU) for developing methodologies and standards relating to the first two pillars; Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Performance Framework; national  statistics (UN - UNECE and EU standards and guidelines) ; government finance statistics (GFS) ;  European System of Accounts 1995 - ESA95; the European manual for national accounts. ; the fiscal monitoring related to the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP); public budgeting; state treasury organization and management; financial and risk management; internal control system according to the standards, methodologies, best practices and recommendations issued by IIA, INTOSAI, IFAC/IAASB, GFS-2001, EU (Guidelines for Internal Control Standards for the Public Sector”-  INTOSAI); public finance internal audit; internal/external public debt management, DMFAS software program; FreeBalance Government Accountability public finance management software; Public finance cash & debt management; fiscal policy & management; anti - tax evasion policy & management; customs policy and management; public procurements policy and procedures; local government structures and funding; electronic payment/settlement system; designing and implementation coordination of accounting/treasury software and MIS;

 Ø      Proven working experience with international donors such as EU, World Bank, French Development Agency, Asian Development Bank,  UK – DFID, European Fund for Southeast Europe, German Savings Bank Foundation for international Development; excellent knowledge of EU technical assistance development  programmes/frameworks, EU procurement and reporting procedures as well as of the EU financial regulations / directives; The respective experience was gained through my involvement in many EU, World Bank, French Development Agency funded projects at the Romanian Savings Bank, Romanian Ministry of Finance, Romanian National Customs Authority, Romanian Border Police; Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (two  World Bank projects in 2006 and 2012 respectively); Kosovo Enterprise Program (2003-2004) and Kosinvest – two microfinance institutions in Kosovo;

More information (references, detailed information regarding my professional expertise and achievements,  white papers, photos from workshops and training  seminars  that I delivered internationally) can be found on my LinkedIn personal profile webpage: https://ro.linkedin.com/in/georgestaicuromanianconsult