Well-organized and talented currently seeking challenging opportunities to use excellent problem-solving skills to build efficient processes. Possessing hands-on experience in Financial Services and monitoring Operational and Risk Compliance frameworks. Highly competent in using statistical analysis to conduct market research and pinpoint patterns and trends.
Hi, I’m
Sona Iqbal
Hurstville,Australia
Summary
Overview
8
years of professional experience
1
Certification
Work History
KPMG AustraliaBarangaroo, New South Wales
Senior Consultant
10.2023 - Current
Job overview
- Develop and establish operational and strategic initiatives related to risk management, governance models, risk and control frameworks, policies and process reviews to achieve desired outcomes.
- Facilitate and conduct workshops with various business, technical experts, and senior stakeholders, as well as high-profile clients
- Focusing on operational and strategic initiatives related to risk management, governance, process and controls review, and technological risks to achieve desired outcomes.
- Lead teams in client delivery and engagements while maintaining strong relationships with clients during and after engagements..
- Write proposals, reports, and develop client workshop presentations.
- Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to define the scope, execute, and deliver various risk consulting, advisory and internal audit projects.
- Participate in leading go-to-market initiatives and business development to drive revenue-generating activities.
- Possess experience in data profiling, data quality metric development using SQL knowledge
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)Sydney, New South Wales
Senior Adviser
03.2022 - 09.2023
Job overview
- Demonstrated sound knowledge of Risk Management Principles and Standards in designing and implementing questionnaires to assess participants' Non-financial risk management frameworks (NFRMF).
- Designed methodologies to assess the evidence and response to the questionnaire regarding risk management frameworks and practices which may have a direct impact on ASX’s ability to operate its markets and clearing and settlement (C&S) facilities.
- Designed participant-specific review questionnaires when significant concerns were identified within Participants’ frameworks.
- Identified themes on how participants operate their NFRMFs and communicated findings to Senior Management and proposed changes to review implementation strategy for better risk outcomes.
- Provided recommendations to the participants on the design and operational effectiveness of NFRMF, practices, processes for evaluation of risks and its controls and effectively challenged the adequacy of existing resources and processes.
- Developed minimum requirement to assist participants to understand the arrangements they should have in place to meet their obligations under the ASX operating rules.
- Review and sign-off new applicants’ Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC & DR) Plans based on key requirements set out in ASX Guidance Note 10 under the applicable Rulebooks.
- Responsible for data quality in various databases and regular management reporting.
- Developed a broad understanding of the financial markets and its financial products (equities, bonds, derivatives), Commodities, Carbon and their clearing and settlement arrangements.
PwC AustraliaSydney, NSW
Associate- Financial Services, Assurance
12.2018 - Current
Job overview
- Sound knowledge of control design and operation effectiveness within Compliance Risk Management and operational tools and techniques
- Translating regulatory requirements into Audit procedures and demonstrating accurate documentation of findings
- Act as an intermediary between PwC’s Legal team and client to understand root cause of breach incidents and lodge Breach Reports to ASIC, APRA & AUSTRAC
- Keeping up-to-date with the Regulatory environment and perform deep-dives into Incident Register to identify and assess issues related to Client money, AML/ CTF sanctions, AUSTRAC, Privacy breaches and other potential misconduct
- Communicate audit findings and recommend appropriate response to Senior levels of internal and external stakeholders
- Co-author of PwC’s Breach Reporting publication: https://www.pwc.com.au/industry/assets/strengthening-breach-reporting.pdf Sydney Co-Lead of ‘Ability @ Network’ within PwC Australia National Board Members: Creating engagement and shifting focus from disability to EmployAbility by creating firmwide awareness for various initiatives and providing Disability Confidence Training to encourage content which is inclusive and disability friendly
- Liaise with 2LOD to perform risk assessments and identify areas of improvement in order to conclude on the business’ risk maturity Control testing procedures, Compliance Plan Review, fraud control plans, developing and maintaining regular Risk Reporting, audit actions and risk documentation
- Applying sound judgment in the evaluation of risks and controls and effectively challenge adequacy of controls
- Review and support audit actions management
- Perform the impact assessment of the ‘Likely Source of Potential misstatement (LSPM)’ based on criterias such as likelihood & magnitude.
Western Sydney UniversitySydney, NSW
Educational Support Staff, Disability Services
03.2016 - 12.2018
Job overview
- Decompress complex lectures into smaller topics to coach undergraduate students with a disability
- Provide support for completion of academic tasks in lectures, tutorials and on campus practical work
- Studied and taught more than 100 subjects from School of Law, Science, Business, Social Science, Medicine and Engineering over 3 years
- Prepared detailed notes and scripts to deliver lectures with confidence
- Formulated well-researched techniques about learning capabilities to be highly effective in this role.
CFA SocietyRepresenting Western Sydney University, NSW
CFA Research Challenge
07.2018 - 09.2018
Job overview
- Presented a well-researched group report giving a ‘Buy’ recommendation for Telstra
- Demonstrated strong leadership while managing high-performers with diverse skills and knowledge
- Took ownership of judgemental areas related to Corporate Governance and Risk Assessments
- Coached and guided by an Industry expert of Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- Assisted team members in transforming Telstra’s T22 theoretical goals into inputs for financial model for extensive valuation analysis in terms of their projected earnings
- Scenario Analysis of independent variables of the model to quantify the movement of the share price.
Grameen BankDhaka, Bangladesh
Research Internship
06.2017 - 08.2017
Job overview
- Undertook fieldwork for Research objective- Social inclusion through Financial inclusion via peer-to-peer lending
- Worked under Nobel Peace Prize winner- Professor Muhammad Yunus along with 15 other colleagues from different nations and understood Microcredit concept at grass-root level while staying at a branch
- Visited other sister companies and branches to learn about the Social business running under ‘Grameen’ Brand and submitted a satisfactory report at the end of the program.
Education
Western Sydney University
Master of Professional Accounting
12.2018
University Overview
Western Sydney University
Master of Applied Finance
07.2017
University Overview
Research Project: ‘SONADHAN’- A Model for Microfinance Bank in India (2017).
Loreto College affiliated to Calcutta University
Bachelor of Science, Economics Honours
04.2015
University Overview
Research Project: Educated Youth Unemployment in India (2015).
Skills
- MS Office suite (Advanced Excel)
- Auditing, Accounting and Financial Strategies
- Alteryx, Power Bi and Salesforce
- FactSet, Bloomberg terminal
- Leadership and problem solving
- Stakeholder Management
- Exceptional written and oral communication skills
- High attention to detail
Certification
- Passed Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1
- ACAMS Certificate: Enhancing Financial Inclusion with a Risk-Based Approach
References
References
Upon Request.
Affiliations
Affiliations
- Improv Theatre Sydney (Level 5 Graduate)
- Miss India Sydney 2023 (2nd Runner-up)
- Winner of Aeriel Star (Beginner) 2023 title
Accomplishments
Accomplishments
- Winner at ASX Sharemarket game (Best Performing League) 2022
References
References
References available upon request.Timeline
Senior Consultant
KPMG Australia
10.2023 - Current
Senior Adviser
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)
03.2022 - 09.2023
Associate- Financial Services, Assurance
PwC Australia
12.2018 - Current
CFA Research Challenge
CFA Society
07.2018 - 09.2018
Research Internship
Grameen Bank
06.2017 - 08.2017
Educational Support Staff, Disability Services
Western Sydney University
03.2016 - 12.2018
Western Sydney University
Master of Professional Accounting
Western Sydney University
Master of Applied Finance
Loreto College affiliated to Calcutta University
Bachelor of Science, Economics Honours
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