Posted by Brian Monroe - bmonroe@acfcs.org 10/17/2022
ACFCS Member Spotlight: For Sensa’s Deleep Nair, background in data science, statistics, leads to finding illicit drug shipments, census cheats, sharpening compliance tech, tactics
The Skinny:
- Early in Deleep Nair’s career, he confided to a mentor that he felt a “bit intimidated” and wondered whether he could compete in such a crowded field when his competitors could easily impress recruiters and target employment firms with just a word: Harvard, Yale or Princeton.
- His mentor’s response not only buoyed his flagging spirit, but formed the bedrock of a foundational philosophy that has propelled him to his current position as chief solution engineer of the Americas for SymphonyAI Sensa – an AI-based software company crafting fincrime detection technology for the financial services industry.
- His mentor responded: “And you still have a seat at the table.” That conversation more than a decade ago nudged Nair to believe in himself and see how far his background in advanced math, statistics and data science could take him – a career that has seen him craft models for stopping illicit drug shipments, census cheats and more.
For any professional in any field, there is a time where you look at yourself, and those around you – maybe they come from influential, politically-connected families or hail from a prestigious school – and you wonder: “Do I even belong here?”
For Deleep Nair, that moment came early in his career, when, at a new company, he found himself surrounded by graduates form top tier, Ivy League schools, when he came from a less well-known state school.
He confided to a mentor that he felt a “bit intimidated” and wondered whether he could compete in such a crowded field when his competitors could easily impress recruiters and target firms with just a word: Harvard, Yale or Princeton.
His mentor’s response not only buoyed his flagging spirit, but formed the bedrock of a foundational philosophy that has propelled him to his current position as chief solution engineer of the Americas for SymphonyAI Sensa – an AI-based software company crafting fincrime detection technology for the financial services industry.
After a thoughtful pause, his mentor responded: “And you still have a seat at the table,” Nair said.
“That simple statement by my mentor validated my presence at the table and made me consider that education and training can only bring us so far in life,” he said. “It is what we do now – the decisions we make and the relationships we nurture that move us forward in our careers.”
That conversation more than a decade ago nudged Nair to believe in himself and see how far his background in advanced math, statistics, data science and modeling could take him.
The result: stints at major government agencies and private sector firms, including the New York State Department of Labor, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Census Bureau, Accenture and BAE Systems, among others.
In all, he worked on building machine learning models to interdict drugs coming into the United States with customs, identify unemployment insurance claims fraud, detect copyright infringement in air express shipments and uncover fraudulent Census responses.
“It was satisfying to know that our models helped agents at our borders make informed decisions on which of the 273 million shipments that come into the United States each year to inspect,” he said.
He subsequently went on to help build out the first fraud detection system for the 2020 Census.
“A system several years in the making, it ensured the validity and reliability of household responses to the 2020 Census,” Nair said. “Throughout my career, I worked to uncover ways in which folks have tried to take advantage of the systems we have in place to perform daily functions of society.”
Becoming a countercrime compliance champion: a predestined eventuality
Looking back, he believes it was only natural to transition into other areas of fraud and financial crime compliance detection and prevention – a sector that has seen in recent years a historic degree of disruption in technology and tactics.
“I think the biggest change in financial crime detection and compliance has been the effective use of machine learning,” Nair said.
Legacy technology, developed in the 1990s and 2000s, focused on rule-based detections, as they were the most versatile, scalable, and explainable models available.
However, with the advent of machine learning, automation, cloud technology and the increase in banking data volumes, these “legacy technologies began to generate huge workloads with very few productive alerts,” he said, cognizant of the soaring scourge of compliance: frivolous false positives.
Machine learning promises to change that.
They adapt, we adapt and overcome: the eternal ethos of the fincrime fighter
“With AI models, a well-trained data scientist can understand the behavior of financial crime to develop sophisticated models to help detect and deter it,” Nair said.
As money launderers and fraudsters become more sophisticated in their schemes, it is imperative that banks and regulators keep up with the times.
“Machine learning opens up a new world of explainable and scalable models to predict ever more complex financial crime,” he said.
The complexity of fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, sex trafficking and other crimes is not decreasing.
“In fact, criminals are becoming more sophisticated – targeting vulnerable populations, utilizing social engineering, figuring out compliance weaknesses and even working in the banks,” Nair said.
“With this onslaught of threat vectors, it’s not surprising that 90% of money laundering crimes go undetected,” he said. “Detection technologies need to keep up with the times to ensure more effective and efficient detections.”
Nair was kind enough to share some of his knowledge and insight in our latest ACFCS Member Spotlight:
Who or what inspires you?
Shrinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician who lived during British rule in India.
While he had almost no formal training in mathematics, he developed some of the most prolific contributions to the areas of infinite series, continued fractions, and numerical analysis.
Many of his innovations in mathematics were said to come to him in his dreams. His creativity in what many would be considered a monotonous subject is inspiring.
What is one thing - industry-related or not - that you learned in the past month?
Online payment fraud losses globally will reach $343 billion between 2023 and 2027.
What is something about you that not many people know?
Not many people know that I headed up a team that built the first fraud detection system in the US Census Bureau’s 230-year history.
The 2020 Census was the first time the Bureau started using online submissions for households.
This new method of census taking has significant impact, increasing the ability of the Bureau to ensure every single person in the United States is counted and counted accurately.
The Census count is closely connected to our political process – state population is used to determine the number of seats in the House of Representatives – as well as the distribution of more than $675 billion in funds across the US.
Given the importance of the Census, it was imperative that we catch any domestic or foreign actors looking to influence the census and our political process.
What do you do in your current role
I lead solution engineering in the Americas for SymphonyAI Sensa – an AI-based software company that creates financial crime detection technology for the financial services industry.
What does your career trajectory in financial crime look like?
I started my career as a data scientist – not in financial crime.
I worked on building machine learning models to interdict drugs coming into the United States, identify unemployment insurance claims fraud, detect copyright infringement in air express shipments and uncover fraudulent Census responses.
Throughout my career, I worked to uncover ways in which folks have tried to take advantage of the systems we have in place to perform daily functions of society.
It was only natural to transition into other areas of fraud and crime detection in the Banking and insurance space.
Working with BAE Systems on their NetReveal platform, I was responsible for solutions engineering work with both Insurance and banking clients.
Much of my time was spent understanding the problems facing the banking and insurance industries, speaking about case studies and providing technical sales support and machine learning expertise to our commercial teams in banking and insurance.
A little more than two years ago, I came on board with Symphony Sensa.
Sensa is a leader in the AI-based financial crime detection space and I felt it was a natural fit given my varied background and ML expertise.
Since then, I’ve focused on AML and fraud technologies, speaking at various conferences on the merits of AI and machine learning in financial crime detection.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
When I was first started my career, I started with a company that hired a lot of recent grads from top tier, Ivy League schools.
At the time I confessed to my mentor that I was a bit intimidated given that many of my colleagues were from well-known schools, while I came from a state school. She said to me, “And you still have a seat at the table.”
That simple statement by my mentor validated my presence at the table and made me consider that education and training can only bring us so far in life. It is what we do now – the decisions we make and the relationships we nurture that move us forward in our careers.
What is the worst advice you have ever received?
“Just have one more shot.” – No explanation necessary.
What would you say are the most important attributes for someone in your position to succeed?
My role involves providing technical and functional expertise in the sales process.
In order to perform my duties appropriately, I have to have a strong understanding of financial crime, the technical underpinnings of our software, common technologies within our industry, data science and cloud computing.
However, the most important skill and the one I’ve consistently worked on is the ability to listen to a customer.
Often, our customers do not tell us exactly what problems they face. We must act as investigators, asking the right questions and building relationships, to truly understand their needs, pain points and the ideal solution.
Listening and allowing our customers to speak and be heard has been more effective than knowing all the intricate technical details of our software.
How has (compliance, investigations, etc.) changed and evolved during your career?
I think the biggest change in financial crime detection and compliance has been the effective use of machine learning.
Legacy technology, developed in the 1990s and 2000s, focused on rule-based detections, as they were the most versatile, scalable, and explainable models available.
However, with the advent of machine learning, automation, cloud technology and the increase in banking data volumes, these legacy technologies began to generate huge workloads with very few productive alerts.
Machine learning promises to change that.
With AI models, a well-trained data scientist can understand the behavior of financial crime to develop sophisticated models to help detect and deter it.
As money launderers and fraudsters become more sophisticated in their schemes, it is imperative that banks and regulators keep up with the times. Machine learning opens up a new world of explainable and scalable models to predict ever more complex financial crime.
What do you see as the key financial crime challenges in your role or in the sector overall?
The complexity of fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, sex trafficking and other crimes is not decreasing.
In fact, criminals are becoming more sophisticated – targeting vulnerable populations, utilizing social engineering, figuring out compliance weaknesses and even working in the banks.
With this onslaught of threat vectors, it’s not surprising that 90% of money laundering crimes go undetected. Detection technologies need to keep up with the times to ensure more effective and efficient detections.
FIU Investigations need to be streamlined with the aid of automated processes to help an investigator reach an appropriate conclusion quickly and succinctly.
What motivated you to become a financial crime professional?
I’ve always been interested in the intersection of machine learning and crime prevention.
Before moving into financial crime, I worked with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to develop machine learning models focused on finding drug shipments into the United States.
It was satisfying to know that our models helped agents at our borders make informed decisions on which of the 273 million shipments that come into the United States each year to inspect.
I subsequently went on to help build out the first fraud detection system for the 2020 Census. A system several years in the making, it ensured the validity and reliability of household responses to the 2020 Census.
Financial crime detection was an obvious transition for me as I already had significant training and experience building out fraud detection systems.
I first started with BAE Systems and NetReveal as a solutions engineer in both their banking and Insurance divisions.
Afterward, I moved on to Symphony Sensa as the Head of Solution Engineering in North America – working with clients to understand their fraud and AML pain points and ensuring we can provide a relevant and capable solution for their needs.
Is there anything that surprised you in your current role?
Working in financial crime is truly an intersection of many fields.
Banking is a highly regulated industry and as such there is a long history of AML regulation and enforcement that one must be aware of when working in this field.
Furthermore, understanding the investigation process, model and scenario validation and the importance of model governance is critical to being successful in this industry.
I think it was most surprising how much information you need to understand at a global level (global regulations, investigation processes, data science techniques, existing technologies, etc.) to be able to effectively speak to customers and industry practitioners.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Meeting like-minded practitioners at banks who are focused on reducing financial crime.
Many of these clients are aware of the impact they are making and working diligently to find innovative ways to find more crime.
How did you get your first job in the field and what advice what you give other job seekers to land their first position in compliance?
I was recruited through a former coworker who I kept in touch with after they left the consulting industry.
My biggest piece of advice to young professionals is to make sure they network whenever and wherever they can. Strong social networks can help you move into new fields that you may only have dreamt of being in.
While I had significant data science expertise, I was relatively new to the intricacies of banking. Having colleagues in the banking industry helped me understand the field and move forward in my career.
For professionals with 5-10 years of experience, what advice would you give them to help advance to senior management roles?
I think it is especially important to work on understanding innovative ways to detect financial crime.
Understanding the trends and movements within the industry helps banks to hone their detection strategies, find new, previously unknown risks and continue to provide value to their customers – both inside and outside the bank.
Involvement with trade organizations such as ACFCS helps to ensure they stay connected to new innovations, understand the impacts of new regulations and keeps them abreast of changes in the regulator’s view of risk and compliance.
Why did you join ACFCS and/or get CFCS-certified?
I believe ACFCS provides significant value to its members through training, conferences and networking opportunities.
ACFCS is one of the largest communities of AML and fraud specialists in the industry, and it is an important tool in the risk and compliance professional’s toolbox to stay on top of trends in this space.