Transcript | Risky Women - Regulatory Change Transformation Diane Minunni Callan

This is Risky Women Radio – a show to connect, celebrate and champion women in risk, regulation, and compliance. Sharing insight and perspectives from the most influential members of our global Risky women network on the latest developments, we need to think about, the challenges we should all talk more about and the innovation we are most excited about governance, risk, and compliance. Bringing together the hundreds of senior women professionals already connected with a new emerging group of leading women and men. I’m Kimberley Cole, your chief risky woman.

Welcome back to our transformation series on Risky Women Radio, where we will be talking about change innovation, and taking a look ahead at the views from some amazing risky women on what’s next in the world of governance risk and compliance. Let me briefly introduce today’s risky woman Diane Callan, Diane leads TD Bank’s enterprise corporate office compliance program. And in this role, she is responsible for leading the enterprise in the ongoing development and enhancement of the corporate office functions compliance programs. Diane is also responsible for compliance’s regulatory change management process, covering all business segments globally. Diane partners with compliance teams, business leaders and control functions to keep TD business leaders updated on all current and potential business conduct regulations and guidance. In addition, Diane is responsible for TD Compliance Academy, a dedicated in house training program for compliance team members focused on the knowledge and skills that promote core competencies and excellence in compliance. Welcome, Diane.

Thank you. Great to be here.

I know I briefly touched on this, but I’d love to hear in your words more about your story and your career journey.

Sure, I actually started as a bank regulator, and during my time as a regulator I actually split it between safety and soundness and consumer protection. It’s a great way to start anybody’s career and risk by the way. From there, I went into the industry, right. Until a local financial institution, and then with a few different financial institutions spreading my time, mostly in the risk area. So I’ve done risk, compliance, Community Reinvestment Act, global anti money laundering programs, and a brief but not wonderful stint in human resources. It’s where you find you don’t have your fortes, but right now, I’m sitting in the compliance function at TD happily.

Fantastic. That’s a very diverse career that you’ve had, what’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

I would say the very biggest risk I’ve taken is, during a merger and acquisition, I was offered a fantastic role at the acquiring institution. And I was also offered another role to start a de novo institution is a 90 day contract. That was it. And I took the 90 day contract, which I’m a bit I’m a tad risk averse. That’s kind of a surprising move for me with three little kids and a husband starting his business. It just was not the right time. But it just was the best move I’ve ever done. And it taught me so many things. That’s the biggest lesson.

And with all of that in mind, what advice would you give your younger self, if you were starting out on your career journey again?

It’s the same advice I give myself just about every day, which is relax. Just just relax.

Yes, good, good advice, stay calm and carry on, as we say. And the industry is changing so much around us, particularly driven by the COVID pandemic, what excites you most about working in the financial services industry?

It really is that constant change, there is so much to take in and it changes literally daily. There’s always an opportunity to learn and to solve problems. That tends to be my forte, so I’ve never been bored in this job. Never been bored, in this job.

Very good. Before we dive into our main topic, today, tell us a bit about the transformation work that you’re doing and the role you’ve taken on with TDs global regulatory change and Compliance Academy.

Sure, high level for regulatory change, we’re working on leveraging technology to accelerate and reduce risk in our process. I don’t think that makes us unlike others in the industry. And I’m sure you’re aware of all the advances of technology that are happening in that space. For the Compliance Academy. This is our in house training program. We curate a lot of content to try and develop quickly and targeted to our compliance individuals. And we’re transforming there is we’re trying to move a bit from the traditional training space to deliver content in microbursts branded approaches just rethink the more traditional way that you deliver training.

Very good. So let’s let’s set the scene. Can you outline the regulatory landscape as you see it today, along with the biggest challenges and opportunities that you think arise coming out of that landscape. And where do you think companies are going wrong?

Yeah. Where we talked before about the constant change – The pace varies, but change is always been part of our business, right? I mean, this regulatory change is not a surprise to anybody. But I think what’s different now, is that you still have the pace of, you know, regulations coming out globally. But now you’re seeing some of them be driven societally. The ESG space, environmental, social governance structure, that’s not new. I mean, we’ve had fairness standards in the US, but seeing this sort of focus and the pace with which these regulations or the evolving regulatory expectations are coming out. I think that’s, I think that’s just completely different than I’ve seen it. And I think where companies can go wrong, is not paying attention to regulatory expectations and waiting for the actual regulations to drop. I don’t think that’s just an ESG. I think that that’s actually across the industry.

Yeah, it’s a it’s a fast moving environment, and many organizations can’t keep up with with that ever increasing change.

I would say you would ask me about the challenge in there, right? The challenge is not taking it in and not managing it in a cohesive manner. And by that, that means you really have to understand that if a rule seems to be impacting this business, how does it really impact other businesses, the strategy you have in place, the strategy you’re looking towards? So I think understanding how those expectations play into the broader base is just it’s tantamount here.

And if we think about the technology aspect of keeping up with those ever changing regulations, how do you think organizations can really successfully take that first step in leveraging more new and emerging technologies to really transform the way that they’re, they’re managing that regulatory change process? And how are you doing that at TD? How are you leveraging emerging technologies, and in particular, predictive or advanced analytics?

I would say the first thing you need to do to embrace technology is to actually know your compliance management program, your risk management program, and that you need to know how technology can enable what you already have in place, right. If you’re going to try and build a house on sand, you know, I don’t usually look for technology to solve those programmatic issues, they should enable it and make it much better. I will tell you that for regulatory change operates on a continuous feedback loop. And when you do that, in a manual environment, you have risk inherent in that approach, because you’re often doing it on Excel spreadsheets, you’re looking for your stakeholders, you’re trying to find your controls. Technology is a wonderful way to introduce an automated system that if it’s set up right, can can enable that sort of intake analysis, the gap assessment, the impact assessment, everything you need to know, without losing a citation, or missing a stakeholder or not capturing a control. And it also helps quite frankly, at the end of the end of the regulatory change, in a post implementation review to know that you had it right. You asked how we’re doing that. Right. One is we’re making sure our program is ready and good. And I actually think we do have a very strong one. We’re implementing a platform that will enable exactly what I just talked to you about. And we’re midway into that stage.

There’s lots of emerging technology, you know, you’ve got FinTech starting to help used with AI and ML, but the whole downstream impacts of a new regulation coming in, what are you seeing the leading organizations do to help really transform and manage that downstream impact every time a new regulation comes in? And do you think that technology, particularly AI and ML is really where the focus should be for compliance at the moment?

The short answer is yes to that last part, but there was a lot to unpack with that question. I think that leading is really incremental in this space. Right now, most large financial institutions are exploring how technology can enable regulatory change here. I think artificial intelligence and machine learning for sure is where we should be focusing now. But you have to do that compliance program first. You have to make sure that’s in place. Do you know the rules that apply to your institution? Do you know the businesses if they impact? You know, what’s your current control structure? All those things I was running through before and then AI can actually bring bring the speed to those efforts. It can bring in or can reduce the risk associated with all of those elements. I think it’s actually a way you can reduce cost and the process too. I mean, time is money in this case.

Yeah, and I think data, the use of AI and ML is is a key enabler for the data challenges that most organizations find. Leveraging AI to unpack really unstructured data, disparate data, siloed data, I think, is a key enabler for compliance functions to at least read their environment, and then be able to do something with it.

I think you’re completely right. And I think the other place that we see your changes the expectations under data governance as a whole, right, often what you’re doing in this space is being enabled by the bank’s overall data governance structure. So it’s all very interesting, but I think it’s going to be an exciting space for the next couple years, for sure.

And I think the landscape around technology is changing, you know, there’s much more appetite for digital transformation, it goes in peaks and troughs, but we’re, we’re really seeing a lot of energy around it. largely driven by the fast paced environment. And again, it’s coming to the foreground, as well starting to open up coming out of that pandemic, the environment’s changing even even more quickly than it was say even six months ago. But you know, based upon all of that, what are the most thought provoking ideas that you’re hearing in the global arena of compliance?

This is not necessarily the regulatory change, I would stick with environmental social governance, because I just think that’s completely fascinating. But I think the other idea is the use of digital currency to reach more un- and underbanked people. Watching a lot of that, I mean, cryptocurrency obviously, has a lot of regulatory attention right now. But the fact that you could do good, and reach a population that may be struggling, I think, is is absolutely fascinating. So, you know, I think financial institutions are similar, expanding their capacity in that space. I think that that’s kind of one of the more disrupting ideas that are quite fun right now.

And a disruptive idea, you know, I’ve heard Diane is, is having bots on the front office desk, in place of a risk and compliance officer.

Never in a million years! I will tell you, I think bots have a space right, in searching for a rule or finding a policy or something like that, or whatever your element is, but I will tell you that, and this does not reflect necessarily a long career, I think you need that advice. And I need you, that you need context, you need all kinds of other information where you’re always going to need the warm body to do it. But bots do certainly have a place and, you know, you find which policies, procedures, controls, speak to this element.

Totally agree! Thank you for that. We’re going to move into Rants & Revelations which is the third part of the podcast.

From a revelation perspective, what is your revelation? What’s the lightbulb moment that shaped the choices that you’ve made during your career?

I would tell you, my lightbulb moment for me just with career management, honestly, was that I could balance having, you know, a family and a life and a career all once were when I was younger and started out I pretty, I was pretty certain it was hands down 60 hours a week. I think that honestly, was my lightbulb moment, I could manage a really cool career and compliance and risk, you know, with other things that I wanted.

That certainly rings true fit for me as well, Diane, it’s it’s a light bulb when you realize that that’s the case. And what’s your rant, what’s the one thing that if you were the ruler of the world, that you would change for the day?

You know, it’s going to take more than one day and certainly one ruler, but man if I could change one thing and be the hate that, you know, seems to permeate these days.

So now to the rapid fire round. We’re gonna give you one rapid fire answer for every question. In one word, what do you see is the top priority for the year ahead?

Transformation for sure.

And how would you describe you in one word?

Happy.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I am not kidding at all, a Zamboni driver.

Fantastic. So a slight variation from working in compliance! Who do you most admire?

It’s a tie between both of my parents. They’re fabulous people.

And what’s your favorite podcast or book?

Aside from this podcast, right? I’m a huge fan. My default while I’m driving is Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert.

Very good. What advice would you give to women pursuing careers in risk and compliance?

I have two daughters starting their career journeys, actually now, one of them is actually studying for her last exam to complete her MBA as we speak. The advice that seems to be resonating with both them now is to be bold, to find their voices to trust their guts to only work for companies where you align with their culture and to maintain their integrity. And I think that that’s probably true for anybody else I give advice to but I would also say for what we’re talking about today, I would tell women to jump into careers in risks. I think there’s so many paths within our world that are interesting. And they’re varied, that if one doesn’t resonate, another one will. And I think the career progression, you know, shows really no end in this role.

Yeah, I would agree with that. I think there’s a great career in risk today. And in the future. Well that brings this episode of Risky Women Radio to an end, and I’m super excited to continue on our transformation series. Thank you so much, Diane, for joining us today and sharing, sharing your thoughts with us and your valuable insights. Thank you.

Thank you for having me. This was fun!

Thank you for listening to this exciting episode of rescue women radio, to connect, champion and celebrate women in risk regulation and compliance. I’m Kimberly Cole, based in Hong Kong. For more information on the risky women global network, head to our website, and the Episode Notes and please be part of the ongoing conversation by subscribing to this podcast, connecting with us at risky women on Twitter, or even reaching out to me directly by email.