Biography for a citizen and resident in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Wael H. Al-Rasheed
An Autobiography
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Wael H. Al-Rasheed Autobiography
My name is Wael H. Al-Rasheed, a citizen and resident in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For more than twenty years, Ive been an active professional in the finance industry, fifteen of which I have worked in the investment, retail banking, and corporate banking sectors. This is the short story of my professional career in the banking industry.
My professional journey began in the early 1990s, when I worked for Arthur Anderson as a semi senior auditor. From 1991 to 1994, I worked with Arthur Anderson, a Chicago-based holding and accounting firm, in the capacity of a semi senior auditor. At the time, Arthur Anderson was one of the big five accounting firms that included PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte Touch Tohmatsu, and KPMG. My working experience at the Arthur Anderson exposed me to internal corporate practices in the areas of investment, retail banking and credit management. Between 1994 and 1996 I was the internal auditor at Banque Saudi Fransi, retail, corporate and investment bank. Banque Saudi Fransi a Saudi Arabia Joint Stock Company affiliated to Calyon of France, which is ranked among the world's top leading banks in terms of total equity. BSF was established by a Royal Decree in 1977, and is a full commercial bank offering local and international banking services. My work at the company allowed me to gain knowledge of banking financial services and products in the global markets.
Saudi Holland Bank was my next place of work where I was the Senior Internal Auditor from 1996 to 1997. My experience at SHB was an opportune moment for me to master the dynamics of personal, business, and corporate banking.
However, it was not until 1998, working in the capacity of Senior Finance Manager at Riyad Bank's Finance Division in Riyadh that I immersed myself fully in corporate financial activities. As the Senior Finance Manager, I was responsible for developing and sustaining the bank's internal financial control measures and policies that helped to streamline the bank's internal operations. My responsibilities included designing the mechanisms and formulating policies for improving internal efficiency, such as implementation of reporting deadlines and accurate preparation and filing of financial reports as required by the bank's articles of association, governance policies and regulatory authorities. I also created and developed the bank's Finance-Management Information Systems (MIS) for reporting the company's profitability. This innovation facilitated effective and efficient reporting of audited financial statements. In addition, the implementation of MIS reporting and control processes facilitated the observation of all business and regulatory requirements. Similarly, in collaboration with the bank's Compliance Department, my division developed procedures of preparing specialized reports that ensured the company adhered to the relevant laws, internal and external regulations.
My other responsibility at the bank was managing and reviewing cash flow forecasts to evaluate and control maturity discrepancies reflected in future positions. I achieved this goal by developing a durational GAP (Good-Average-Poor) analysis reports. The comparison between actual and potential performances helped to determine the bank's future financial position and level of market capitalization. At the same time, I assessed and carried out reconciliations between general ledger accounts and detail transaction listings, which helped to ensure that there was consistency in and proper control of the company's financial performance. In addition, I had the responsibility of supervising the Reporting Process to ensure accuracy and integrity in accordance with the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency (SAMA) regulations, as well as validating the bank's daily Profit and Loss (P & L) and credit derivatives. I was also in charge of reconciling the bank's risk systems and verifying the balance sheet accounts through the monitoring of daily controls such as exception reporting and back testing. As the senior manager in the finance division, I was also responsible for ensuring effective coordination of the activities of the back office and the finance...