Capco, a global business and technology consultancy dedicated solely to the financial services industry, announces the expansion of its Finance, Risk & Compliance team with the appointment of Mark Connolley as its UK lead.
With its deep industry knowledge and understanding, Capco's finance, risk and compliance practice is experiencing increased demand for its services as financial institutions respond to regulatory reforms. Connolley's role will be to oversee the UK FRC practice's work as it grows in response to this.
Connolley joins Capco from Ernst & Young where he was most recently an Executive Director within the Risk & Regulation practice. He began his career in financial services as a practitioner, later moving into consultancy where he specialised in risk management in both Capital Markets and Retail Banking.
Mark Connolley, UK FRC Lead & Partner, said:
"Compliance for the sake of compliance can often be costly. Financial institutions need to ensure that they implement any new rules according to their business strategy and that they meet commercial, as well as regulatory, needs. Firms need to price and understand risk properly. Many were caught out a few years ago by significantly underestimating the risk they had on their books whilst pursuing growth strategies. Risk is a necessary component of growth, however naively assuming risks into your portfolio without the appropriate capability to assess and manage it, is akin to playing the casino.
''In part, the regulatory response to this crisis has been designed to ensure that banks understand the risks they are taking on. Financial institutions need to take stock of the reforms and ensure they respond accordingly. However Basel III will take many years for the full impacts to be felt and with most banks focused on restructuring after the crisis, temptation may be to put off what is seen as compliance to a later date. I would argue that the central tenets of good risk management are the same as those of good commercial management and that addressing the issues that the regulators seek to address can be aligned with strategic, cultural and system change."
Ismail Amla, UK CEO, comments:
"We are delighted that Mark has joined Capco to help develop and build up the Finance, Risk & Compliance practice in the UK. The team aims to grow in line with the firm's aspirations as it sees unprecedented levels of demand. Capco is strengthening its expertise in every area of the financial services industry in order to provide the end-to-end service our clients look to us for.''