Passing a CISI exam is always something to be proud of, but Mike Harlock, Chartered MCSI, had extra reason to celebrate after obtaining his
Combating Financial Crime certificate: he scored the highest mark out of all students who took the exam recently, which earned him a Recognising Excellence award at the CISI’s Awards Ceremony 2015.
Mike, who is Senior Compliance Associate at The Share Centre, says: “I was quite surprised to get the call to say I had got the highest mark. I was just happy to have passed, really, but to get told that was pretty pleasing.”
There was no magic formula to his success; the key was good old-fashioned discipline. “I made myself do at least 30 to 45 minutes studying every day,” says Mike, whose biggest challenge was finding somewhere peaceful to revise.
“You need people skills, because sometimes the job involves delivering difficult news”He explains: “I have two young sons, so it’s very difficult to get anything done at home, plus my fiancée and I decided to move house in the middle, so I stopped studying at home and started booking meeting rooms to use after work. I became something of a fixture around the office for a few months, with my head in a book.”
Compliance monitoring
If Mike has been at The Share Centre all hours of late, it is an environment where he is more than comfortable. He has worked for the company, which provides stockbroker services for private investors, for more than ten years, and has spent the last seven-and-a-half of those as Senior Compliance Associate.
Developing our defences
To reflect the fast-moving regulatory and technological context in which financial crime occurs and is countered, the CISI is re-designing its Combating Financial Crime exam, which will be offered later in 2015 in partnership with a unit on managing cybercrime.“The role involves day-to-day monitoring of what’s coming out of the regulator that we need to know about, as well as executing our compliance monitoring programme and reviewing what our various teams are doing,” he says.
Mike’s work ranges from reviewing reconciliations with the finance team and looking at research produced by the advice team to giving advice to the customer service team on complaints issues and working with the dealing team to monitor transactions.
“We’re involved pretty much with every other part of the business,” he says. “It means you need people skills so you can influence colleagues, because sometimes the job involves delivering difficult news and saying, ‘this isn’t working and we need to change it,’ and trying to put that across in a positive and constructive way can be a challenge.”
Regulatory changes
An even bigger challenge is keeping pace with regulatory changes. “There are certain regulatory hot potatoes that crop up, such as a different focus on protection of client assets, which stretch you,” says Mike, who would like to see the Financial Conduct Authority do more to guide financial services firms on how to adapt to changes in regulation. “I think clarity is the main thing from the regulator that can sometimes be lacking,” he says. “They can change their interpretation without necessarily clarifying why.”
Mike is also The Share Centre’s Deputy Money Laundering Reporting Officer, so understanding how technology can help facilitate financial crime is a particular focus for him at present. “I’m brushing up on my knowledge of cybercrime,” he reveals. “I’m looking at things like mobile payments, use of social media to further scams and phishing and so on.”
When it comes to studying, Mike has benefited greatly from the learning tools available to him since becoming a member of the CISI as a student in 2006.
He emphasises: “The
Professional Refresher elearning modules you can do to evidence your continuing professional development are exceptionally helpful. I also find CISI TV and the webcasts really useful for a quick refresher on something.”
Deciding to specialise
CISI membership clearly helps him in a role he did not envisage having when he entered the world of full-time work.
“I didn’t plan on a career in compliance,” admits Mike, who joined The Share Centre in 2004 as Customer Service Assistant before becoming Team Leader. He previously worked for Equitable Life Assurance Society as Customer Service Adviser for three years before trying a career change, working in the hospitality industry for a year.
“It didn’t really work out, so I went back to looking for something I had some experience in,” he recalls. “I got a job here in customer service which I did for three years. Then a job came up in the compliance team and I thought it would be nice to specialise in something I could build a career in.”
His current role is one he really enjoys. “There’s a lot of problem solving and dealing with regulation, and you’re involved with every area of the business at some point,” he says. “It gives you nice variety.”
As for his future career plans, Mike is happy to stay in the compliance arena for now. He is preparing for the CISI’s
Diploma in Investment Compliance. However, he says: “Currently I’m enjoying some downtime and reading something other than a study book!”
Finding time for hobbies
That reading includes comic books and graphic novels, which Mike discusses in the book club he formed with colleagues.
Much of his life outside work involves spending time with his fiancée and sons, but he also finds time to cook – “I like making my own pizzas from scratch and experimenting with toppings” – and go hiking. “There’s a group of guys who I hike with about once a month,” he says. “We go on eight- to ten-mile walks.”
With more studies and regulatory changes on the horizon, Mike’s powers of endurance should prove invaluable to both himself and The Share Centre over the coming months.