As the fallout from the global financial crisis unfolded in 2008, ANZ approached Hari Janakiraman for its trade advisory team. The bank was in the market for an expert able to navigate trade and compliance as the world’s risk environment changed.
Janakiraman, now global head of core trade products, was exactly what ANZ were looking for.
He had worked for ABN Amro in Chennai, and had spent most of his time setting up back-office trade operations and sanctions screening processes for the bank across Asia.
It was a necessary step for ABN Amro to take. Just a few years earlier, in 2005, the bank was fined $80 million for violation of US Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions.
In the years after, Janakiraman had transformed the bank’s back-office compliance screening processes and had become an expert in global sanctions, anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations.