From Central Bank to CRO: The Journey of Sadiq Ansari
Sadiq Ansari of Al Ansari Financial Services, discussed his journey in financial crime, risk management, and the evolving regulatory landscape in the UAE.
The complex and often unseen world of financial crime compliance is a fascinating field that blends regulatory rigor, investigative intrigue, and strategic risk management. In the latest episode of The Dollar Diaries, we had the privilege of hosting Sadiq Ansari, Group Chief Risk & Compliance Officer at Al Ansari Financial Services, a seasoned veteran with over 16 years of experience spanning the UAE Central Bank, consulting, and corporate leadership. His journey from a numbers-focused chartered accountant to a leading figure in financial crime compliance reveals a compelling narrative of adaptability, learning, and leadership in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
This in-depth blog post unpacks Sadiq’s experiences, insights, and forward-looking perspectives on risk, compliance, and governance, offering readers an insider view into the critical role compliance plays in safeguarding financial ecosystems.
A Unique Path to Financial Crime Compliance
Sadiq’s career trajectory defies the conventional path. Initially trained as a chartered accountant, and with a penchant for numbers and financial engineering, his entry into the world of financial crime compliance was serendipitous. In 2009, a visit to the UAE turned into an opportunity that ultimately led him to a position at the UAE Central Bank amid the tailwinds of the Global Financial Crisis.
His first role was under the mentorship of Trevor Skinner, who was responsible for market liquidity during a tumultuous period. This foundational experience exposed Sadiq to the intricacies of regulatory frameworks and macro-financial management. By 2014-2015, he was entrusted with the responsibility of managing financial crime risk across the UAE’s exchange house sector. This was a defining moment that launched him into the specialized world of financial crime compliance, a domain that was then nascent, heavily reactive, and rapidly evolving.
A pivotal contribution during this period was his involvement in developing a 160+ page rule book for the exchange house sector. Serving as a representative of the UAE in the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) mutual evaluation process, he gained unparalleled exposure to both local and international regulatory standards, processes, and enforcement dynamics.
What stands out in Sadiq’s journey is his emphasis on the scarcity of formal educational pathways when he entered the field. Unlike traditional finance or accounting roles, financial crime compliance lacked established degrees or certifications. Many practitioners came through engineering or masters degrees in unrelated domains or stumbled upon the field by chance. However, the landscape has since matured, with multiple universities in the UAE, India, and South Africa launching specialized postgraduate programs in financial crime compliance.
His retrospective advice for those considering entering this domain is straightforward: if he could rewind, he would pursue formal education in financial crime compliance to accelerate mastery and effectiveness in this complex area.
The Dimensions of Financial Crime Compliance
From a regulatory perspective, financial crime compliance extends far beyond banking. It touches multiple sectors and governmental agencies – from customs and law enforcement to legislative authorities and company registrars. This broad mandate reflects the sophisticated nature of financial crimes, including money laundering, fraud, bribery, corruption, and tax evasion.
Sadiq highlights the multilayered nature of compliance work: conducting on-the-ground visits to licensed institutions, supporting enforcement actions, and spearheading investigations into suspicious activities requested through cross-border cooperation from international agencies such as HMRC (UK) and HKMA (Hong Kong).
One of his most challenging yet illuminating cases was the meltdown of UAE Exchange Finablr in 2022, a listed company experiencing financial distress and operational collapse amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the crisis management team, Sadiq dealt with numerous stakeholders including financial institutions, regulatory bodies, and customers who had lost their life savings or were awaiting funds transfer to families. This case underscored how crucial robust financial crime compliance is, not just as a regulatory checkpoint but as a safeguard against systemic risks and customer harm.
Smaller investigations included wage protection system abuses and international requests for tax evasion probes. These cumulative experiences have shaped his appreciation of how deeply compliance intertwines with operational integrity and public trust.
Trade and Financial Crime: A Hidden Nexus
Financial crime through trade-based money laundering and fraudulent declarations represents a complex and often overlooked risk. During the conversation, Sadiq pointed out that normal business operators are frequently unaware of the risks embedded in informal or culturally customary trade practices. For example, they may trust partners and friends without proper documentation or transparency, inadvertently participating in illicit flows.
He emphasized the importance of formalizing trade transactions, proper documentation, and transparency in customs and tariff procedures. The trade ecosystem involves multiple stakeholders including governments, customs authorities, intermediary banks, and correspondent banks. With vested interests often conflicting, this creates multiple opportunities for exploitation.
For the everyday business or consumer, Sadiq warns that what seems like routine trade can harbor hidden financial crime risks. Understanding how goods move across borders—how tariffs work and who ultimately bears the cost—is fundamental to maintaining compliance and avoiding complicity in criminal activity.
Learning from Past Failures: Oversight as a Key Lesson
Reflecting on his experience with UAE Exchange, Sadiq identifies weak oversight and poor alignment between leadership and business fundamentals as critical factors contributing to failure. Many in leadership roles lacked sufficient understanding of the business, leading to lost control and eventually regulatory intervention.
When he transitioned to Al Ansari Financial Services as CRCO, oversight became a core focus. His leadership philosophy is clear: empower teams to grow and lead but monitor closely. Without oversight, leadership risks losing control and contributing to organizational vulnerabilities.
His approach includes refusing to endorse processes or documents without a clear understanding of their rationale and implications. This disciplined stance ensures that decisions are made with integrity and accountability, reducing reputational risk and regulatory fallout.
Setting Risk Priorities: The Role of a Robust Risk Management Framework
One of Sadiq’s key responsibilities is prioritizing and managing a diverse risk universe that includes financial crime, bribery and corruption, market and operational risks, IT security, data protection, and more. The challenge encompasses both identifying risks and allocating finite resources strategically.
His solution is a comprehensive, evolving risk management framework rooted in a risk-based approach. This means focusing efforts where risks are highest and acceptable residual risks are clearly defined in alignment with the board’s risk appetite. Without this alignment, organizations often expend effort on negligible risks, losing efficiency and exposing themselves to material issues.
Successful risk management—especially across multiple jurisdictions including the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain—depends on a foundational framework that is flexible enough to integrate local regulations while adhering to group-wide policies. The framework must evolve continuously in response to regulatory changes, business expansion, customer segments, and market conditions.
A critical insight is that defining and communicating the organization’s risk appetite is foundational. Boards and investors set this appetite, and risk teams translate it into operational priorities, controls, and mitigation strategies. This governance approach fosters a culture of informed risk-taking rather than reactive risk aversion.
Navigating Conflicting Appetite Between Boards and Regulators
In practice, tension often arises between regulatory constraints and business aspirations. Boards or investors may desire to pursue opportunities that regulators consider high risk or borderline. Sadiq stresses that the role of compliance and risk officers is not to impose blunt “no’s” but to educate and inform decision-makers of the associated risks and mitigation options.
Ultimately, if the board elects to proceed with the residual risks accounted for, that is their prerogative. Compliance officers provide insights and safeguards but do not override governance decisions. This dynamic calls for constructive dialogue, transparency, and revisiting appetite levels when discrepancies occur.
Moreover, strong corporate governance structures and regular board oversight meetings ensure accountability and risk-awareness at the highest organizational levels. For publicly listed companies, these structures are mandated and rigorously enforced.
Integration of Technology in Compliance Oversight
With rapid advances in fintech and digital transformation, the role of technology in compliance has expanded dramatically. Automated transaction monitoring, surveillance systems, and fraud detection tools are now essential for effective financial crime management.
Though not a technology expert himself, Sadiq emphasizes the importance of risk assessment for any new technology, especially customer-facing systems. His teams actively participate in “discovery sessions” with technology and business units to balance innovation with risk controls.
He highlights the necessity of open, sometimes challenging discussions—where business units seek to enhance customer experience but the risk team ensures safeguards against new vulnerabilities. This collaborative approach helps integrate compliance “by design” into digital solutions.
Collaboration with Regulators, Legal Teams, and Consultants
Given the complex regulatory environment, managing relationships with regulators and legal advisors is a constant task. Al Ansari Financial Services, as a regulated entity operating across multiple jurisdictions, engages actively with regulatory bodies for inspections, disclosures, and compliance verifications.
Sadiq describes his role as a principal point of contact for regulators, responsible for ensuring that the organization meets regulatory expectations and commitments. He underscores the indispensability of legal experts, especially those fluent in local languages such as Arabic for Kuwait and Bahrain, to accurately interpret regulations and guide implementation.
Consultants play an important role too, especially in areas like restructuring or system implementation following compliance incidents. The Central Bank and regulators typically take the lead in critical crisis events, overseeing resolutions and ensuring proper governance throughout.
Managing Reputational Risk: A Strategic Imperative
Reputational risk is perhaps the most challenging to quantify yet one of the most critical risks organizations face. Sadiq’s approach integrates reputation risk explicitly into the risk management framework and decision-making processes.
Every major product launch, process change, or investment decision is scrutinized not only for financial or operational risk but also for potential reputational impact. This ensures board-level discussions include reputational considerations and risk advice is independent, transparent, and actionable.
His team’s independence from business units enables unbiased risk assessments, while open-door policies foster collaboration rather than conflict, garnering the business’s trust and support.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Financial Crime Compliance in the Region
Sadiq is optimistic about the growth and formalization of financial crime compliance in the GCC and the broader MENA region. Emerging postgraduate programs, increased regulatory focus, and expanding fintech ecosystems are creating rich career opportunities for youth entering this space.
He foresees continual evolution driven by technology, regulatory developments, and market expansion. Firms will need agile frameworks, strong governance, and skilled professionals capable of navigating this complex environment.
Sadiq’s own journey is a testament to the dynamic nature of risk and compliance leadership—a role with constant learning, challenges, and high stakes impact.
Final Thoughts
The interview with Sadiq Ansari reveals the multi-dimensional, deeply strategic, and inherently collaborative nature of financial crime compliance today. From regulatory evolution and risk frameworks to crisis management and technology integration, the role of a Group Chief Risk & Compliance Officer demands sharp analytical skills, adaptive leadership, and robust ethical standards.
For businesses, compliance is no longer a mere checkbox exercise but a vital driver of trust, reputation, and sustainable growth. For professionals, it offers a challenging yet rewarding career path at the intersection of finance, law, and technology.
As the regulatory landscape continues to mature globally and regionally, pioneers like Sadiq inspire a generation of compliance officers dedicated to protecting financial systems and the people they serve.