Banking and Financial Fraud
Ali is a highly experienced senior business analyst and Certified Fraud Examiner who has worked in investment and retail banking for more than 20 years.
In a career that covers both UK and international operations, Ali Twidale has had in-depth involvement with high-level and sensitive banking projects which cover fraud, financial crime, cyber security, information security and data privacy.
Her professional insights are informed by the critical positions she’s held in leading UK retail banks and global investments firms where she has played an integral role in ensuring regulatory and internal compliance.
As a senior business analyst, she has been responsible for assessing and developing internal banking processes for fraud, financial crime and cyber security. Her key responsibilities have also included reporting and liaising with external law enforcement agencies and managing stakeholder relationships at all levels.
She has demonstrated strong data interrogation and manipulation skills as well as excellent business analysis, gained through multi-million pound projects at major retail banks such as Lloyds Banking Group, TSB, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and also through global investors like Bupa Global Insurance.
Ali was based in the Chief Security Office at one of the major UK retail banks where she worked closely with Vulnerability Management, the Security Operations Centre and Forensic Investigations and Response to embed a holistic and secure cyber security defence.
As part of the ESA Risk consultancy, she is expertly positioned to undertake gap analysis on data, people and processes to reduce client risk and maximise benefits realisation, including operational process re-engineering, cost reduction, and return on investment.
Her operational experience has given her an excellent insight into the UK regulatory and legislative requirements that relate to fraud and financial crime, cyber security, information security and data privacy. Through the highly varied positions she’s held overseeing projects, she has liaised extensively with key UK law enforcement agencies, including the Serious Fraud Office, the National Crime Agency, law firms and other financial investigators across the UK police force to ensure legal compliance.
Ali is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) describes CFEs as “trained professionals who possess a unique set of diverse skills in preventing, detecting and investigating fraud.”
Ali’s extensive project work on fraud highlights her strong IT and analytical skills. Proficient at using fraud systems such as Falcon, Arcot and Actimize, she was responsible for delivering the entire suite of fraud management and profiling processes at a top UK retail bank.
Working with the business, testing and implementation team, she mapped more than 500 critical processes covering fraud alerts, investigations, profiling and internal fraud.
She also oversaw the compliance and legal aspects of the project, working closely with stakeholders to ensure these key deliverables were achieved.
Ali has impressive credentials when it comes to combating financial crime. From her work as a senior business analyst with several leading UK retail banks, she has demonstrated key skills in anti-money laundering reporting, customer investigations, payment and asset tracing and sanction screening.
She also has extensive experience of working on transitional business processes. Responsible for managing the migration and extraction of financial crime processes and teams from a major UK retail bank to its Spanish counterpart, Ali ensured business continuity throughout the lengthy transition. The project involved managing complex transactions across different jurisdictions and ensuring compliance with different regulatory frameworks.
Ali has exceptional expertise and possesses strong skills in managing cyber security, having overseen a diverse range of sensitive investment and retail banking systems. In particular, she offers an excellent knowledge of threat hunting and cyber e-crime analysis and procedures.
She has also worked extensively on the NIST cyber security control framework, having overseen the implementation of the UK national standards at a major retail bank.
On one major project, she was responsible for implementing a new cyber threat intelligence platform from an external vendor. She managed the platform roll out to the cyber security teams and wrote training materials for operational guides and end-to-end operational business processes.
Underpinning her strong cyber security skills-set, Ali has a wealth of experience in information security. Drawing on her different roles across UK retail banks, she has an excellent working knowledge of GDPR and its requirements.
Ali has gained considerable experience in identity and access management, having overseen a number of framework policies to ensure only designated individuals have appropriate access to sensitive financial data and records.
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