Decoding our Market Operations with Kapil Veluri

It takes a lot of hard work, creative thinking and constant innovation to keep our global NatWest Markets working effectively every single day. We sat down with Kapil Veluri, our Head of Market Operations to find out how such a task is even possible.

What sort of work do you do in Market Operations?

‘In addition to keeping the core functions operational, we also manage a whole suite of services for NatWest Markets including; risk and control, analytics capabilities, transformation, data analytics, and so on. So, I would call it operations plus, but right now it’s branded as Market Operations.’

What does being Head of Market Operations mean to you?

‘I think, for me personally, it’s about the opportunity to add value in different ways. Market operations sits in a sweet spot between the wider business and our Digital X team.’

‘It’s a unique opportunity for me personally to understand strategies of the various different parts of the organisation, stitch it up into something that the teams can understand and start to execute on the back of that.’

‘There’s a lot of focus on risk control. There’s a lot of regulatory oversight, but at the same time, there’s a lot of focus on our people and how to make sure that we build leaders for the future. So, for me, it’s about managing the team of about 750-800 individuals that all provide different services. But at the same time, bringing all of them together cohesively to drive market strategies. I joined the bank only seven months ago, so it’s an amazing opportunity for me to drive this forward. But also work with amazing individuals, not just within my team, but stakeholders and peers and leaders alike. So, that’s the value I see.’

How do you manage to balance all of those different priorities?

‘I think it’s very important to build a strong team. People who you can rely on, people who can work with you to share the responsibility and collectively move on the agenda.’

What are the main goals for your team, and how are you getting there?

‘Embedding a very strong risk and control mindset and culture by bringing that to the front foot is really important. We also want to empower our people to ensure we retain and engage the team to drive the organisation forward. At the same time, given that we are part of Digital X, it’s also about simplification. How do we ensure that we simplify our processes? We get more efficient, we look at technologies that can transform what we do. And looking at it from an India lens to say. How do we ensure that we can create mature capabilities within India to support not just markets, but also other parts of the organisation that require similar capabilities? So those are our main goals I would say.’

Are there any new technologies or programmes you are excited about?

‘So, one of the things that we are doing as part of our market transformation is implementing a strategic solution called DX. Which is a new technology that is expected to take away all of the different settlement platforms and create one settlement platform. So, that’s a strategic technology build-out for markets and that’s something which teams within DX are delivering.’

‘We are also trying to implement AI toolkits to ensure that we can get our MIs correct in our books work using a lot of pattern work, pattern analysis. It’s not rocket science, but I think it’s quite exciting to bring in new technologies to help us manage our business more effectively.’

How would you describe your leadership style?

‘I think my leadership style has changed over the many number of years. As I think about it, it’s centred around mentorship I would say, collaboration, and also empowerment. I believe in nurturing the growth of my team members by providing guidance, support, constructive feedback, but also by serving as a mentor, because what I aim to do is help them in their professional development. I don’t micromanage, I ensure that I empower the teams to make the right decisions and make mistakes on the way, and for them to also understand that it’s okay to make mistakes, but learn through the process. I absolutely believe in collaboration.’

Why should someone join your team to build their career?

‘So, what Market Operations offers is a one-stop shop for all trading-related activities. So, for somebody who starts their career with us there’s the opportunity to learn a lot of different things while working with a very tenured organisation. We have a lot of investment. We do a lot of work happening in the transformation space. But given that the team is mostly in India and a little bit in London, there is a greater opportunity for them to learn from the heads of function who are present with them.’

‘So for people who want to learn, for people who want to build their careers, I think this is an amazing place to be. For the last seven months, I’ve continued to be surprised with the level of maturity that we have in the teams, the amount of work that we do, the amount of work that we’re involved in, not just within markets, outside markets, outside in the industries.’