Introducing our risk management team: Ricki Gupta

With a career very much focused on risk and regulatory compliance in financial institutions, Ricki Gupta says his specialist regulatory compliance role within a top-tier law firm has allowed him to support clients create positive regulatory outcomes.

“This morning I was on a call with a client advising them on their conduct risk strategy for bank communications,” he says. “We were joined by one of our regulatory lawyers who explained the legal and litigation risk considerations, so that we could include those to determine the best strategy for the bank. This combination of legal and regulatory advice allows us to provide the best possible answer to clients’ problems, especially when operating within a complex legal and regulatory environment.

This approach brings real diversity of thought. "By bringing together people with different expertise to tackle the same problem we can create a powerful combination," he adds.

Ricki joined A&O Consulting from one of the Big Four in the summer of 2021, returning to London from Singapore where he managed regulatory and compliance projects for a range of financial institutions. Before spending two years in Asia, he was a regulatory consultant within the Big Four firms’ London office, building on the experience he gained working in major banks earlier in his career.

"Joining A&O Consulting has provided me with an opportunity to work closely with some of the world's leading financial institutions on their most pressing challenges," says Ricki.

Ricki is part of a team that has been advising a tier 1 global financial institution on the conduct risks it faced as a result of LIBOR transition.  

His regulatory experience is diverse and varied and includes managing and advising on ESG regulation, Brexit, Conduct Risk, Enterprise Risk Management, IBOR transition, and Senior Management Arrangement, System and Controls.

Beyond working directly with clients, Ricki is also collaborating with A&O lawyers and legal tech experts in Fuse, the firm's tech incubation hub, to constantly evolve the firm’s regulatory obligation management proposition for clients that are grappling with the challenge of how to manage regulatory developments.

“Traditionally, compliance teams within banks had several compliance officers that tracked regulatory developments and changes and managed the communication of these to various parts of the business,” says Ricki. “This is time‑consuming and resource-intensive, however compliance has now moved on with all the latest developments in RegTech. I've been working in this space for over 8 years and have seen a huge evolution – there is now technology that can tell you all the regulations that will impact your business across the jurisdictions you operate in.”

The A&O Consulting proposition Ricki leads is a tech-enabled solution that supports clients in obtaining a view of their regulatory obligations for the jurisdictions they operate in. The solution highlights relevant regulations and hold them in a single depositary, with support with regulatory mapping and traceability. This provides organisations with greater insights on how regulation is managed.

"Combining the tech offering with consulting and legal provides something really useful, along with great efficiency, speed of delivery and execution globally."

Looking to the year ahead and beyond, Ricki says that embedding artificial intelligence (AI) and managing its adoption, and cyber risk and resilience are likely to become even more important areas of focus for financial institutions and regulators alike.

"In my view, the continuing growth in the scale and complexity of the risk associated makes these some of the biggest regulatory and operational challenges that organisations need to address.”