Usman Aftab

Experience

• 

  Lloyds Banking Group

  Dec 2013 - Aug 2018

  Produce compliance reports and identify any risks associated with the projects deliveries. Assist PMOs in preparing Steering Committee Papers and arrange meeting with stakeholders. Establish the funds required for the team to deliver projects and communicate with relevant stakeholders for approvals.Assist the team in improving finance processes. Prepare the costs estimates and compare them with actual figures each month. Track the man-days of human resources (contractors) available on weekly basis and discuss the figures with relevant leads. Analyse the Kanban board to produce MI. Support Scrum Master in running daily stand-upsAssist the team to use Agile approach and facilitate a smooth transition on Jira. Show less Phone Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank Mass Affluent and Wealth clients to offer them Personal Relationship Manager and Private Banking Advisory Manager services respectively. Discuss the benefits of the service offered.Book appointments for the clients with respective Managers over the phone or in the branch.Email Personal Relationship Managers and Branch Managers to arrange callbacks for the clients. Act as a point of contact for my colleagues in the absence of team manager.Supervise new team members to ensure they are following right procedures. Show less Provide financial services to the customers at first point of contact. Answer customer's queries, help them with their day-to-day banking including bank transfers, bill payments, credit card payments. Discuss with them different range of products varying from bank accounts and savings accounts. Answer basic credit cards loans and mortgage queries and for more specific request approach relevant departments. Log complaints for the customers showing dissatisfaction and resolve these to customer's expectations and according to banking standards. Remain compliant with internal and external procedures regulated by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).Help team leader to reduce their workload by undertaking some of their tasks. Show less

  • PMO Lead

    Nov 2017 - Aug 2018

  • Outbound Mass Affluent and Wealth Adviser

    Mar 2017 - Nov 2017

  • Phonebank Assistant

    Dec 2013 - Mar 2017
• 

  A Shah & Co. Ltd

  Oct 2015 - Nov 2017

  Trainee Accountant

  Prepare statutory accounts for different businesses and report them internally and externally.Prepare VAT returns and analyze them quarterly for clients. After preparing the annual accounts and VATs, I review these and evaluate the details for completeness and accuracy. Perform variance analysis between current and previous period and discuss the results with the management and clients. File tax and VAT returns and prepare reports in accordance with accounting standard.

• 

  NatWest Group

  Sept 2018 - now

  Lead strategic financial planning, budgeting, and analysis of programmes within Mortgages Tech Portfolio with budget over £50million.Maximise cost effectiveness by embedding forecasting principles and financial control techniques.Lead portfolio budget preparation and provide strategic input towards executive decision making.Automate forecasting model and produce insightful dashboards for Senior Managers.Produce Resource Finance Modelling Tool to strategise cost effectiveness of the resource mix.Perform financial modelling, scenario-based & trend analysis and propose strategic solutions.Liaise with Programme Leads to review deliverables and their associated costs to ensure adherence to budget.Financial & non-financial KPI reporting and presentation at Board meetings to CEO Mortgages.Contribute to strategic decision making/recalibration of budgets and forecasts (onshore/offshore mix, perms/contractors/third-party resources mix).Provide ad-hoc data analysis to CEO Mortgages Business to support executive decision making.Discuss monthly actuals and outer month cost view with Business and Central Finance.Oversee deviation vs budget and proactively identify & minimise financial risks & opportunities.Liaise with Central Finance to discuss capitalisation and impairment, journals and rates changes.Conduct forecasting & budgeting technique education across wider Retail Banking.Have conversations with suppliers to discuss costs, payments, and commercial feasibility of the contracts.Monitor the team to set-up purchase orders to onboard resources across the domain.Drive the creation of Risk, Financial Management and Supplier Management frameworks to enhance adherence to the standards.Lead multidisciplinary team of six, evaluate performance, provide directions and promote cross-functionality to enhance performance.Oversee Risk and Issue reporting and follow-up with Programme Leads on mitigating actions. Show less Design and develop Standards to help Digital Banking Platforms reducing incidents.Perform platform reviews and identify any gaps that could obstruct digital services to the customers.Support and influence the platform teams to deliver improvements on their platforms.Coach colleagues on performing an effective and timely platform review.Liaise with the platform teams to renew Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates on web domains to protect customers’ and bank data against malicious activities.Lead the creation and development of Stakeholders Capabilities Framework to support the stakeholders in closing any knowledge gaps.Drive the implementation of ScrumBan approach in the team to improve team efficiency and coach the whole team to adapt to the new Ways of Working. Show less Run Daily Scrums, Sprint Planning, Retrospective, Review and Backlog Refinement meetings for Agile Crowd. Maintain Jira board and team Confluence page and own its improvement. Support co-ordination of PI Planning meeting and ensure the meeting goes through without any issues. Co-ordinate activities across Scrum Master Community and support the development of colleagues. Prepare Communication packs to be released to the wider business area. Compile monthly funding report to show and compare the forecast against the approved funding. Pick up other activities on ad-hoc basis. Show less Build and maintain a positive working relationship with stakeholders across multiple franchises and functions, at various levels of hierarchy. Support Project Managers with project deliverables, for example producing Gate Review Records.Carry out financial variance analysis to identify the difference between the forecast and actuals and report them to Project Manager. Liaise with Project Managers to improve quality and consistency of RAID reporting across Debit Cards Programme.Create Stakeholders Engagement Framework to have a point of reference for all Project Managers helping them to liaise with the right business stakeholders.Support or lead on continuous improvement initiatives. Show less

  • Portfolio Finance Manager

    Mar 2020 - now

  • Experience Manager

    Oct 2019 - Mar 2020

  • Scrum Master

    Mar 2019 - Oct 2019

  • Project Lead

    Sept 2018 - Mar 2019