Natalie Howman ACSI has reason to celebrate, having won the CISI’s compliance award
Natalie’s first thought on leaving school in Cambridgeshire in 1998 with A-levels in History, German and Business & Economics was to become a lawyer. However, she decided on financial services instead, as she would have built up too much debt by taking a law degree.
Natalie’s strategy from the outset was “to work in as many departments as possible to get an overview of what I wanted to do – and get a qualification if I needed to”.
Her first job was with Pearl Assurance as an assistant in the sales division, where she was able to observe different departments and get an overview of the roles that financial services offer. She was soon drawn to a field she had previously not heard of: compliance, where “the regulation side of things is most exciting”.
To get there, however, she first needed a qualification. While working in her administrative role – not to mention becoming a mother for the first time – Natalie studied for the CISI’s Financial Planning Certificate. She passed, and soon found herself working for Pearl in compliance.
The appeal of compliance is the challenge of being involved with new regulation from the outset, says Natalie. Few days are the same; the challenge lies in interpreting new regulations and embedding them in the business with the relevant team’s support
Following the sale of Pearl to Diligenta in 2006, Natalie gained experience dealing with a variety of regulation concerning money laundering, outsourcing, risk, approved person management and data protection, until, in 2007, she left “for a change of career”. This was spent at BPP, helping the college to write and edit some of its academic material. She found the experience “very interesting and challenging” and spent much of her time reviewing a variety of textbooks to bring them up to date with the latest regulatory or tax legislation.
By 2008, Natalie wanted to get back into industry and, following a spell at BNP Paribas, made her first move to a smaller firm of stockbrokers, Vartan & Son. Her experience until then had involved working for financial institutions employing large compliance teams; at Vartan, where the payroll numbers ten, she is a one-woman band.
“It is challenging and you have to be extremely organised. There are always 101 things to do, so you must prioritise – but not forget anything,” she says. Like many compliance officers, Natalie is a self-confessed perfectionist, a trait that tallies with sentiments expressed by her CEO, Andrew Vartan, Chartered FCSI, who describes her as “extremely hard-working”.
For Natalie, the advantages of operating in a small office far outweigh those of large firms. “I can knock on people’s doors – in particular senior management – any time and chat to them about various things,” she says. “It’s easy for us to reach consensus in many areas and it’s easier for me to create the compliance culture.” In her words, “most regulation is created for larger firms, but nine times out of ten, the smaller companies have to comply”, so it helps to have an adaptive set of colleagues.
Over the coming months, Natalie will be helping Vartan adapt to the rigours of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and suitability practices.
Vartan & Son is currently merging with another firm of stockbrokers, Ravenscroft Ltd, which is based in Guernsey and Jersey and has assets of more than £1.5bn on its books. Natalie has been heavily involved in this process, liaising between the two firms and the FCA.
Natalie will still be based in the Precincts of Peterborough Cathedral and is looking forward to what the future holds – for her and the rest of the team.
Do you have a back-office story?
janice.warman@wardour.co.uk