The Opportunity Group has over 30 years of successful development and management of numerous significant commercial banking and banking supervision programs involving the modernization and strengthening of the commercial banking sector in the following countries: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Croatia, Egypt, Belize, and Bangladesh.
The United States government and other international donor organizations, including the World Bank, the IMF, the IFC, the EBRD, and the Inter-American Development Bank, have financed these projects. Each was intended to assist the economies of these countries in their historic transition from a centrally planned system to a market-based economy. Our core competencies in these programs included:
- Establishment of the financial reporting and accounting infrastructures for the emergence of a competitive banking system built on an efficient allocation of credit resources.
- Enhancing the legal infrastructure and financial reporting systems for financial sector activity.
- Design and implementation of accounting and auditing systems that will help achieve the following:
- Compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
- An effective safeguard for asset values.
- Development of audit manuals and procedures.
- Internal controls questionnaires.
- Reliable financial reporting systems.
- Design and implementation of a risk-based reporting system.
- Development of non-bank financial services, including new laws, regulations, and supervisory strategies for regulating these groups.
- Problem bank resolution, including rehabilitation, recapitalization, and liquidation.
- Development of anti-money laundering laws, regulations, and best practices.
- Anti-corporation strategies.
- Development of human resource systems.
- Problem bank resolution programs, including rehabilitation, recapitalization, and liquidation.
- Design and implementation of a strategy for privatizing and reorganizing state-owned banks:
- One noteworthy accomplishment during a recapitalization effort was the successful resolution of a privately owned bank that could not be allowed to fail from a political perspective. This particular bank posed a significant systemic risk to the banking sector, as it held the deposits of the United States Embassy, the Russian Embassy, and several ministries of the host country.
- Developed and provided training modules to hundreds of banking regulators and commercial bankers on various topics, including:
- Credit Analysis
- Credit and Collateral Documentation
- Loan Workout Strategies
- Internal and External Audit Principles
- Corporate Governance
- Foreign exchange risk
- Asset-Liability Management practices
- IFRS Accounting Principles
- Examination Management Techniques for Risk-based and Consolidated Supervision
- Communication Programs, including effective writing and presentation skills.