PATTISON BINADEIGHA BOLEIGHA is a professional with over 29 years banking experience with 14 years of experience at senior management level in compliance, internal controls, conduct, monitoring anti-money laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), IT Governance and Anti-Fraud, including providing strategic and visionary leadership and guidance.

• Early Career

• Early Career

• The Turning Point

• A Trail Blazer

1980-1987

Unknown to many, Pattison began his career outside the banking sector as a Radio Journalist at Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation. He then completed his National Youth Service Corps as a teacher at Oyenakazi Commercial School Obibiezena.

1988-1997

Immediately after his service, Pattison decided to take his career a step further and got a job at All-well Brown & Co. Chartered Accountants. He was the Audit Supervisor and this is where his began to harness his auditing abilities. Pattison was charged with the task of auditing corporate bodies in the public and private sectors. Some of his services rendered were: Tax Consultancy, Advisory services, Secretarial services, Accounting Services, Mergers and Acquisition services.

When he moved to Rivers State Univ. SCI. & Tech, the institution had audits which were overdue for the past two years. Pattison immediately completed special audit of all income yielding ventures in less than one month. This was no small feat and was only a glimpse of how far his abilities would take him.

In 1990, he applied for the role of Senior Internal Auditor at National Provident Fund Port Harcourt. He was responsible for the pre and post audit of benefits payments and the internal controls of the Port Harcourt offices.

1991-2004

Prior to his current position he worked for thirteen years at Citibank Nigeria covering internal control, internal audit, operations and financial control. Within these 13 years, Pattinson started out at Citibank Nigeria, Port Harcourt Branch during a Pro-longed Leased line failure and was able to resolve various system differences amounting to millions of Naira.

As Cash Officer, he designed a tool for blocking funds offline for over-the-counter transactions during temporary system down. This enabled the Counter Services to provide uninterrupted services even when the VSAT link was down. The system also improved productivity and turn-around time since funds are blocked using the PC instead of flipping through huge pages of printed reports.

In 2000, Pattison moved to Lagos and assumed the role of Finance & Strategic planner of Citibank Lagos branch. He pioneered the preparation of the Financial Statement of the Bank for publication (hitherto prepared by the external auditors).

Due to his never say die spirit and diligence, he won a Quality Dividend Award for his ability to cope under severe stressful situations arising from six months of combining his job with that of two other colleagues who left the bank.

2004-Present

In 2004, Pattison left his role at Citibank to take up bigger responsibilities in his career. He joined Access Bank as the Group Head of it’s Systems & Control Department. With the knowledge, broad expanse of experience and professional qualifications in banking. He was able to efficiently handle his divergent duties. Securing an enviable reputation as a trail blazer and advocate in the fight against money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in Nigeria.

Pattison is currently the Group Chief Conduct & Compliance Officer and Head, Group Conduct and Compliance of Access Bank Plc which is one of the largest banks in Nigeria with presence in ten countries in Africa, Asia and the United Kingdom. Pattison is the backup to the bank’s Chief Risk Officer, an Executive Director, whom he reports to on a day-to-day basis as the Executive Compliance Officer in compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria regulation.

In 2015, as Chairman of the Committee of Chief Compliance Officer of banks in Nigeria, Pattison set up the Compliance Institute, Nigeria which currently has over 2,000 members. In November 30th 2018 in Lome, Togo, he worked with GIABA to create Compliance Officers Forum of GIABA member States. Pattison also spearheaded the setting up of the Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria (CCCOBIN) thereby creating a level playing ground for all banks with respect to AML/CFT compliance.

The CCCOBIN was established ten years ago through the solo efforts of Pattison working as head of Compliance in Access Bank Plc with objective of creating a level playing field for banks in Nigeria in the fight against Money laundering and terrorist financing. This effort contributed to the removal of the country from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Non-cooperative countries list in 2006 and the grey list in 2013. Pattison represents Access Bank Plc in the International Banking Security Association (IBSA) based in the U.S.A (the only African bank in the Global body) and has been an active participant in the AML/CFT National Risk Assessment process since 2011. Pattison was also appointed to serve in the Nigeria e-Fraud Forum working committee on the setting up of the Dedicated Police Cyber Crime Unit (De-PCCU).