Hi, I’m Malki Senevirathne. I’m a compliance and AML professional based in London, with more than 10 years in banking and financial crime prevention.

My career began in 2014 at Pan Asia Banking Corporation in Sri Lanka, where trade finance was my main focus. I managed import and export letters of credit, documentary collections and various trade finance payments, reconciled the bank’s Nostro and suspense accounts, and oversaw SWIFT operations. I also helped migrate the bank’s core system from Globus to Finacle; an experience that reinforced my belief that strong controls rely on strong systems.

In 2018 I joined Bank of China as one of the founding members of its Colombo branch, where I helped set up the new Trade Finance department. With no existing processes to follow, we built everything from the ground up. I wrote the department’s AML procedure manuals, carried out KYC for import and export clients, and screened transactions for sanctions and fraud red flags. I later moved into the middle office, covering treasury and loan administration, where I monitored FX, money market and loan transactions and helped reduce compliance breaches

After relocating to the UK, I spent close to two years at Bank of Ceylon (UK) Limited, an FCA-regulated bank, supporting the MLRO and compliance team with second-line oversight. My work included transaction monitoring investigations and SAR escalations, compliance monitoring and quality assurance, regulatory horizon scanning, and ICAAP and ILAAP stress testing. I also worked closely with the MLRO to set up a standalone compliance function after a restructure, building its procedures, tools and logs from scratch.

I hold an MSc in Investment and Risk Finance from the University of Westminster and an MBA in Finance from Cardiff Metropolitan University, both awarded with distinction. I’m also certified by the ICA in Anti Money Laundering and in Know Your Regulator: UK Financial Services.

I started this blog to share what I’ve learned along the way, from trade finance, KYC and transaction monitoring to the way UK and international AML rules keep evolving. Whether you work in compliance, are studying for a career in it, or are simply curious, I hope you’ll find something useful here.

The views on this blog are my own.