27 years inside the institutions we now advise.
Fayyaz guides Keel Pragma's advisory practice across enterprise risk, governance and AI controls. Over 27 years in senior risk leadership at global and leading regional institutions, including Citibank, American Express Saudi Arabia, Banque Saudi Fransi, SOFINCO (Crédit Agricole), ABN AMRO and BankMed, he has built and run ERM frameworks, risk appetite statements and GRC structures, and served on Board Risk, Audit and Executive Committees.
Throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 to May 2021, he additionally served as Head of the COVID-19 Operational Risk Task Force, acting as the focal point coordinating across all functions of the institution.
Why Fayyaz founded Keel Pragma
ERM is not new. Hands-on application is another matter: the practitioners who have run frameworks through systemic shocks remain scarce. The institutions now carrying the most new risk are digital banks, fintechs, VASPs, family-owned groups moving into regulated activity, newly formed government entities and public bodies, and organisations adopting AI. They are building risk and governance under tighter regulatory scrutiny, without the bench strength global banks take for granted.
Fayyaz founded Keel Pragma to bring that experience to markets where it is underrepresented. His conviction, formed from the inside, is that frameworks fail not in design but in execution: where appetite meets incentives, committees meet deadlines and policy meets the front line. Having been accountable to boards and regulators for those outcomes, he builds frameworks to be run, not just approved.