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Keith Warden has a long and varied career in operational risk and now advises banks on financial, management, risk and operational strategy. His extensive experience in banking operations includes a strong focus in managing operational risk and preparing for compliance with the Basel II Capital Accord requirements. He is also well-versed in using balanced scorecard techniques to facilitate strategy implementation.
Keith graduated in law at Edinburgh University in 1976 and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1979. He worked in the accounting profession in West Africa and the Gulf between 1979 and 1986 when he returned to his native Edinburgh to join The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
During his time with RBS he was appointed as Deputy Chief Accountant and ran the finance function of the clearing bank while preparing the statutory and regulatory financial statements of both the clearing bank and the quoted RBS group. He served on a number of UK bank accounting committees and was responsible for the review and implementation of accounting policies throughout the RBS group. He also took an active role in a number of acquisitions, notably Citizens Bank, now a major contributor of profits to RBS.
One of his principal achievements was the project management of the implementation of the RBS group-wide general ledger. This involved gathering business requirements from all business users of financial information throughout the group and ensuring that ‘one consolidated version’ was presented to all business users. The success of the project led to National Westminster Bank adopting this general ledger format after its acquisition by RBS.
In 1997 Keith returned to the Gulf Region to join Qatar National Bank (QNB), Qatar’s largest national bank, at a time of rapid expansion of the bank as well as the Qatar economy. Keith was appointed as General Manager, Finance and Administration.
His initial remit was to develop the finance function into an effective executive support and risk control service, supplying deliverables such as financial statements, monthly management accounts, ALCO and risk management reports. He designed the bank’s strategy reporting and monitoring system by using balanced scorecard principles, which involved close liaison with each of the bank’s business functions. This process was further developed to incorporate personal performance objectives and effective individual performance measurement.
Keith was a key member of the QNB management team during the acquisition of its UK wealth management subsidiary, Ansbacher Holdings, and was responsible for corporate valuation, accounting and tax matters relating to this acquisition.
In the run-up to 2000, he developed QNB’s Y2K contingency plan, which was adopted as the industry standard by other banks in Qatar and in 2004 he prepared a comprehensive operational risk strategy and operational guidebook. The guidebook incorporated a detailed methodology to enable banks to comply fully with the Basel II operational risk capital requirements.
