MARÍA ANTONIETA ÁLVAREZ FERNÁNDEZ

• Led a set of strategies aimed at enhancing process efficiency and minimizing risks within Citi's End User Computing (EUC) framework by translating complex policies into effective executable plans and drove a strong balance between near-term and long-term priorities.
• Produced and updated standardized operating processes and procedures consistently identifying changes affecting the EUC framework and implementing measures to effectively reinforce a culture of risk mitigation.
• Created and implemented the “Customer Service Governance” concept to effectively assist EUC owners globally to promptly address any issues that hinder full compliance with the dynamic EUC policy requirements.
• Responsible for meeting global EUC Activities, Risks, Compliance, and Monitoring adoption monthly goals.
• Developed scorecards at the global, regional, and business levels to effectively report on policy adherence, control execution across various committees and EUC forums.
• Proactively detected automation, simplification, and streamlining opportunities to reduce low and redundant value books of work.
• Created and implemented the “Customer Service Governance” concept to effectively assist EUC owners globally to promptly address any issues that hinder full compliance with the dynamic EUC policy requirements.
• Spearheaded global compliance efforts for End-User Computing (EUC) controls across multinational business lines, surpassing projected compliance targets by 28% to 30% during nine consecutive months.
• Ensured transparency by escalating any identified training necessities and/or risk/control discrepancies or issues.

• Determined strategy, scope, and approach to conduct independent reviews focused on assessing regulatory compliance and risk across North America consumer lines of business, which made strengths, threats, and emerging risks visible to senior leaders.
• Remotely led and executed compliance testing reviews for product lines, functions, or legal entities within an assigned region in accordance with the Compliance Testing Plan.
• Analyzed and documented identified findings to determine a root cause and held preliminary discussions with corresponding control/process owners.
• Produced final reviews and monitoring routines reports and obtained corrective action plans (CAPs) from stakeholders for timely remediation of any reported issues.
• End-to-end oversight of raised issues by the validation of corrective action plans submitted by issue owners, ensuring full remediation of identified root causes and timely completion.
• Developed Compliance Testing Risk Assessments, Monthly Monitoring, and Quarterly Summaries.
• Escalated any detected opportunities to enhance the Compliance Testing Methodologies and Standards for auditing, testing, monitoring, and reporting.
• Partnered with Lines of Business owners and Internal Audit to optimize reviews planning, minimize duplicated efforts, identify emerging risk trends, and share best practices.
• Timely informed Compliance Testing management of significant compliance matters that require their prompt attention or action.
• Identified compliance training resources and tools available centrally to support country/business compliance programs, training, and research needs.

• As a National Banking Securities Commission certified Anti-money Laundering (AML) professional, supervised that both, banking and brokerage house lines of business complied with the General Provisions applicable in matters of AML and Counter of Terrorism Financing (CFT) through timely identification of changes to AML/CFT Mexican laws ensuring AML/CTF risks were mitigated in line with the GFCC program.
• Responsible for integrating and maintaining the Blocked Persons List up to date.
• Subject Matter Expert to the corporate banking and global transactional services lines of business on AML/CTF, Economic Sanctions, and Anti-bribery regulations.
• Improved the quality of guidance and response times of transactions approvals once cleared against the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions search list.
• Consistently, timely and accurately produced and submitted all mandatory reports required by Mexican regulators through the Sistema Interinstitucional de Transferencia de Información (SITI) over a span of five consecutive years. This included reports on cash transactions, cash transactions in U.S. dollars, suspicious and concerning internal transactions, transactions involving cashier's checks, and international fund transfers.
• Acted as Secretary of the regulatory Bank of America and Merrill Lynch Mexico AML Committees and worked with relevant industry bodies (e.g., the Mexican Bankers Association, the Mexican Association of Stockbrokers); while in my trust, both AML Committees took place uninterruptedly within the timeframe mandated by Mexican legislation.
• On an ad-hoc basis, conducted any needed investigations on an institutional level with the purpose of the Committee having the necessary elements to rule them, where applicable, as Suspicious Transactions or Concerning Internal Transactions.
• Created AML, CTF, and ES training materials and facilitated remote training sessions to 320 employees based in Mexico and 988 across Latin and North America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, New York, and Uruguay) on an annual basis.

• Designed and produced presentations, reports, flow charts, meeting minutes, and reports that effectively supported the decision-making process on AML/CTF topics.
• Composed and translated high-level summaries of relevant updates to Mexican AML/CTF regulations to be published in the global intranet website for timely socialization around the corporation.
• Liaised with Regional GFCC Head's direct reports in Latin America to schedule internal off-sites and client's on-site visits and field trips.
• Coordinated and booked end-to-end travel arrangements, reconciled corporate credit card expenses, processed the corresponding reimbursements in an accurate and timely manner.

• Coordinated all aspects of global analysts inbound/outbound travels to Mexico for presentations, luncheons, field trips, and one-on-one meetings with local/foreign clients and investors providing strong budget considerations for the allocation of critical resources.
• Responsible for successfully organizing the emblematic Merrill Lynch annual conference 'Mexico Year Ahead' comprised of more than 100 one-on-one meetings between clients and investors, more than 10 keynote speakers, and 3 different fieldtrips to Mexican manufacturing sites. It catalyzed new business relationships, and firm's profits through investments consolidation.
• Managed the CEO's personal and corporate agendas, and supervised the outsourced staff (receptionists, drivers, couriers, waiters, catering, etc.)
• Efficiently handled multiple Business-As-Usual and unexpected additional tasks.

• Led and managed a team of 3 Training Specialists.
• Delivered learning interventions escalating identified training needs to upper management for awareness and approval and designed appropriate training materials to address knowledge gaps.
• Subject Matter Expert on development, design, and facilitation of training programs to training specialists.
• On a monthly basis, conducted job interviews within the area to assess final candidates to be hired in the call center based in Mexico City.
• Successfully designed the required training curriculum to migrate the International Personal Banking customer service operations from Tampa, Florida to Mexico City serving Citibank, N.A. multilingual clients based across Latin America.

• Trained new hires and Customer Service Financial Associates based in the United States and Mexico City serving Citibank, N.A. clients from the continental United States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Panama covering technical processes, soft skills, telephone etiquette, and federal banking regulations.
• Led the development and implementation of substantial enhancements to the existing training curriculum and facilitation processes, resulting in a streamlined learning experience for new hires; therefore, I achieved to reduce the onboarding and learning curve from 6 to 3 months, significantly accelerating productivity and integration into the team.
• On a quarterly basis, effectively coached and fully developed teams of 30 new hires toward call metrics achievement and greater job success.
• Dedicated 2.5 months annually in the United States to train new hires and successfully obtain the mandatory annual trainer certification, ensuring compliance with training standards and fostering the development of high-performing teams.