Haibo Zhang

Profile

Haibo Zhang has spent more than twenty years in financial crime detection: as a software builder, as an analytics leader inside a global bank, and as a consultant. He began at major AML and fraud software vendors such as Searchspace, Fortent and NICE Actimize, in the core team designing detection algorithms and system architecture, and led implementation, tuning and peer-group analysis for global banks such as Bank of America and Citi.

At HSBC he held four successive analytics leadership roles, ending as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Applied Analytics for the Financial Crime Threat Mitigation function; the AML model validation analytics produced by his teams contributed directly to the lifting of HSBC's Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the US Department of Justice. He later built a financial crimes practice at a global consultancy.

He advises banks, fintechs, RegTech vendors and AI companies on transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, model validation and AI governance, and brings blockchain and crypto enhanced due diligence expertise from board roles at a digital asset exchange and a blockchain compliance firm. He holds a PhD in Computational Biology from Rutgers University/NJIT.

Areas of expertise

• 01AML monitoring design and tuning
• 02Sanctions and name screening
• 03Model validation and governance
• 04Blockchain analytics and crypto EDD
• 05Synthetic data capability testing
• 06AI risk and coverage assessment
• 07Actimize, Quantexa, Mantas, Ayasdi/SymphonyAI, Detica/BAE
• 08Regulator- and audit-facing evidence

Selected engagements & achievements

1. 01

   Established the model validation framework for a global bank's US AML transaction monitoring programme, and evidenced model performance, tuning and risk coverage to regulators, the independent monitor and internal audit.

2. 02

   Led the AML model validation analytics that contributed to the lifting of HSBC's Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the US Department of Justice.

3. 03

   Led the evaluation and implementation of two RegTech platforms, Ayasdi and Quantexa, at a global bank, and has since supported model governance and validation across several tier-1 deployments of the same platform.

4. 04

   Authored the model governance documentation for a UK retail and commercial bank's monitoring programme, and supports model validation workstreams for a Nordic bank's implementation.

5. 05

   Delivered sanctions and name screening remediation for an EU crypto exchange: list scope and coverage design, rule and threshold testing, and model documentation for the regulator.

6. 06

   Designed a synthetic-data methodology for testing sanctions screening capability, now used in client engagements, and is developing the Industrial Sensitivity Validation Protocol (ISVP) for validating prompt sensitivity in AI systems used in compliance.

7. 07

   Winner, 2019 Global Leaders in Consulting Award for Excellence in Execution in the Financial Crime Sector.