Michelle Caruana

Previous Role Title - Senior Manager – Business Improvement and Development

• Lead, mentor, coach and discipline a team that serves as the bridge between the business and IT in the areas of Credit and Loan Origination for the Bank’s Core Banking system
• Assist in the implementation of strategic projects, by acting as a subject matter expert on systems and interpreting regulatory and business needs into IT language
• Responsible for the development of change requests within the Core Banking System, with particular focus on Credit systems and Ad-Hoc Projects
• Advise, support and assist business units through knowledge of systems, processes, product set up and functionality
• Review the Bank’s systems and propose improvements to ensure systems can be better geared to meet the Bank’s needs, from a competitive, regulatory, and operational aspect with a customer centric orientation
• Lead the change process by focusing on the change implementation, including planning, feasibility analysis, requirements definition and testing preparation
• Ensure that the Bank remains compliant with respect to regulatory requirements and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders including business units, IT, regulators, auditors and software suppliers to ensure a smooth and efficient implementation of change
• Lead the administration of all parameterisation required in the Core Banking system, with a focus on the Credit Modules

• Lead meetings/discussions related to the Credit Area and work closely with relevant stakeholders including Credit, Legal, Compliance, Risk, Debt Management, Finance, Audit, IT as well as consultants.
• Lead the Credit Stream members and external staff conducting Credit Stream related tasks and take remedial action where necessary to ensure adherence to project plans and deadlines.
• Administer all parameterisation required in Flexcube for the Credit Stream, including but not limited to the CL and LCM modules.
• Manage business and functional analysis in the Credit area, identify gaps and provide workarounds where possible.
• Propose and be responsible for any Credit Stream related customisations/releases required to the system as well as drawing up Requirements Specification Documents for Oracle and reviewing Functional Specification Documents with respect to new requirements.
• Lead the preparation of and/or the review of test scenarios and test cases for the various testing phases.
• Lead testing of all the deliverables and communicate effectively with the vendor to ensure resolution of issues/enhancements in a timely manner.
• Identifying and handling any system failures/bugs with the vendor to ensure that issues are identified, tracked, reported on and resolved in a timely manner.
• Analyse processes and lead the preparation of the documentation for Credit related process maps as well as other documentation.
• Lead Data Migration of the Credit related Portfolios, including drawing up the data migration requirements, performing source system data analysis and target data mapping, conducting manual reconciliations of static/transaction data from one core system to another, as well as reviewing gaps and proposing solutions for data migration.
• Provide training to various bank employees, including Training Centre trainers, UAT testers and other employees as required.
• As a subject matter expert in the Credit Area guide other streams where required, such as RLO, CASA and Payments Streams.
• Work closely with Flexcube consultants and other external consultants.

• In liaison with IT and various credit related units, was involved in the Business Requirements gathering phase for the issuance of an RFP to vendors for a Credit system.
• Assisting the Senior Credit Portfolio Manager in other ad hoc projects amongst of which the Asset Quality Review, the launching of risk sharing instruments and the implementation of new regulations such as the Central Credit Register.
• Handling and providing within deadline, regular reporting needed for COREP, FINREP and other regulatory reporting.
• Handling ad hoc reporting requested by local regulators such as the Central Bank, Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA).
• Preparing management reporting that feed into the Credit Portfolio Reports and the Credit Business Plan.
• Handling internal reporting requests by customer facing units within the Bank that help in improving customer arrears as well as providing Branch Network with regular reporting that fed into the KRAs of the branches.
• Handling the projects related to the auditing of Risk Sharing Instruments such as JEREMIE and JAIME, that are undertaken by both the European Investment Fund (EIF) and local authorities.
• Testing credit-related enhancements to the core banking system and on other systems such as Collateral Management System.
• Collaborating with other units within the Bank and with external stakeholders such as regulators, auditors and service providers.
• Managing the Bank’s Consumer Credit Scoring System and effecting required fine-tuning projects involving the recalibration of scorecards.

• Developing and maintaining lending strategies/process flows on Experian Strategy Manager, i.e. incorporating scorecards and policies required for the automated scoring of Personal Lending products and credit cards.
• Testing decision flows on Strategy Execution Module prior to launching releases on PLAP/Lynx system.
• Implementation and testing of Scorecard Redevelopment based on trend analysis and in-depth socio and economic analysis.
• Parameterisation and maintenance on PLAP.
• Driving development on Lynx, providing business requirements, setting up Project Plans and managing UAT.
• Compiling analytical reports such as customer profiling, scored features analysis and/or customer predominance analysis.
• Implementation on PLAP/Lynx of the regulatory requirements related to Consumer Credit Regulations 2010

• Responsible for the drawing up of 3 year rolling Strategic Plan and the follow up through quarterly updates
• Reporting to Executive Committee and the Board of Directors on progress
• Acting upon management instructions to ensure that business owners introduce risks mitigants where necessary
• Leading the team responsible for the drawing up of sectorial reports on various industry/economic sectors based on in-depth analysis of the trends underway locally. Such reports were used by Business and Risk Units as a bases for credit assessment
• Setting up of and maintaining the Group’s first Balanced Scorecard that tracked Financial and non-financial performance indicators, thereby ensuring that financial targets are counterbalanced by process, customer satisfaction and employee measures

• Back office responsibilities including ICO duties
• Cashier and Relationship Officer duties

• Accounts Clerk duties utilizing Shireburn accounting software.