Sarah McNicol has over 20 years of experience in risk analysis and management, specializing in UK retail mortgages. She has extensive knowledge of mortgage processes, systems, and regulatory changes. She currently leads a team focused on data quality issues in personal and business banking at Royal Bank of Scotland. Previously she held risk analyst and manager roles, where she produced reports, identified risks and data issues, and supported major projects. She enjoys finding solutions to complex problems by leveraging her strong understanding of source systems and data.

1. Curriculum Vitae
Sarah McNicol
Email: Sarah.mcnicol@rbs.co.uk
Phone: 0131 626 4727
Office: Risk Data, House B, Floor 1, Gogarburn, Edinburgh EH12 1HQ
Personal Profile
I am a highly experienced risk analyst specialising in the UK Retail mortgage portfolio. I have wide
experience of the mortgage business including application processes and decisioning systems and
have recently worked on major projects such as Rainbow (RBSIP), MMR, Single View of the
Customer, Ulster brand onto Transact and all regulatory driven changes. I have detailed knowledge of
the intermediary channel and am regarded as a subject matter expert on the decisioning systems and
data relating to this channel. I use SAS to data mine the portfolio in order to find risks, quality issues
and opportunities, and to produce regular and ad hoc reports. I enjoy finding solutions to complex
system or process issues, using data and my knowledge of, and access to, the source systems to
drive and verify the suggested solution. I have well developed communication and stakeholder
management skills. I have enjoyed presenting to various teams and projects on how the intermediary
mortgage channel’s systems and processes work.
Career History
Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Edinburgh, 1996 – date
Risk Data Analysis & Remediation Manager, Personal and Business Banking 2014 to date
 SME in risk data, lineage and processes especially mortgages
 Supporting projects to ensure risk data quality is maintained/focused on
 Root cause analysis of data quality issues, proposing strategies and delivering remediation
 BCBS 239 material and full compliance
 SME on Retail data into Ring Fencing projects
Key Achievements
 Completion of company wide leadership programme
 Chair of reporting reconciliation work stream for BCBS 239 compliance
 Building of central database for all data issues raised by all business areas
 Building a new team dealing with Personal and Business Banking data quality issues
 Supporting a manual migration of account data from a legacy mortgage book on to the current
platform, ensuring data quality and consistency.
Credit Risk Analyst, Home Lending Portfolio Risk, 2010 – 2014
 Production of the regular and ad hoc MI data to support requests from within Risk, for
stakeholders and for regulators
 Give insights into the portfolio quality, look for deteriorating trends and opportunities for growth
 SME for Credit Risk on changes to decisioning systems hosted internally and externally, and all
application processes
 Identify data issues, materiality on internal and external reporting and liaising with technology
teams to resolve
 Continuous Improvement Champion, development and up keep of huddle board and analysis of
employee surveys
Credit Risk Analyst, Mortgage Policy, 2006 – 2010
 Review and analysis of mortgage policy across all RBS Retail brands
 Preparing risk committee papers

2.  Implementation of policy changes, liaising with key stakeholders and ensuring smooth transition
to the new/amended policy
 Dealing with mortgage policy queries and exception requests from all parts of the business
 Keeping up to date with competitors’ policy and movements in the marketplace
 Facilitating policy reviews, completing paperwork and tracking documentation.
Direct Line Financial Services/Own Brand Business, Glasgow, 1996 – 2006
Senior Business Analyst, Change Management, 2001 – 2006
 Producing Business Requirement Documents for change requests on behalf of the business
 Liaising with all department of the business to agree current processes and requirements for
new or amended processes
 Drawing up new business processes that adhere to regulatory and compliance obligations
 Liaising with technology and testing areas to agree solutions to the business requirements
 Supporting changes through development and testing until implemented
 Supporting the Project Manager and adhering to the project methodology
 Identify risks, issues and dependencies for each project
 Project management of smaller changes
Trainer, 1997 – 2001
 Designed courses covering all financial products and statutory regulations according to
business requirements. Also designed and delivered courses on PC skills including Word,
Excel, PowerPoint and FrontPage, and personal development courses including business
writing skills, presentation skills, fraud prevention and customer care.
Mortgage Administrator, 1996 – 1997
 Employed to analyse the validity of mortgage repayment vehicles. Moved to training after 3
months due to request from training manager after she had attended a training session I had
designed for my team.
Clydesdale Bank: Telephone Operator/Personal Loans Administrator (1995 – 1996)
Norwich Union Life Insurance Society: Life and Pensions Technician (1988 – 1995)
Albany Life Insurance Company: Branch Administrator (1988)
HM Customs and Excise: VAT Executive Officer (1987 – 1998)
Eagle Star Insurance Company: Pension Clerk/Mortgage Accounts Senior Clerk (1985-1987)
Qualifications
Professional Awards: CeMAP (Scottish)
IPD Certificate of Training Practice
Financial Planning Certificate part 1
Chartered Insurance Institute – Practice and Principles of Insurance and English
Law
A Levels: English, Economics, Geography
A/O Level: General Studies
O Levels: English Language, English Literature, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Music, RE
CSE: French
Other Details
Home Address: 10 Ferguson Drive, Falkirk FK2 8QA
Driving Licence: Full and clean