Hasif Elias is a risk and compliance practitioner with fifteen years of experience in financial services, eleven of them at Bank Negara Malaysia. He has been Head of Risk and Compliance at BJAK since August 2022.

At BJAK

He leads the enterprise risk and compliance function across the group’s international operations, serves as BJAK’s primary regulatory liaison with Bank Negara Malaysia, and is its appointed Data Protection Officer. He led BJAK’s licensing approval as an Approved Financial Adviser and built the governance, compliance and risk frameworks required for that approval.

This work sits behind the part of the business that customers see. An Approved Financial Adviser must be able to demonstrate how recommendations are reached, how customer data is handled, and how complaints are escalated. These controls help ensure that policies purchased through a comparison platform have the same standing as policies purchased elsewhere, while the insurer, not the platform, remains responsible for underwriting the policy and deciding claims.

At Bank Negara Malaysia

He served as Associate Supervisor from July 2011 and as Supervisor from May 2016 to May 2022, leading prudential and conduct supervision of multinational insurers and takaful operators. His work covered capital adequacy, governance, risk management and market conduct.

He conducted on-site and off-site supervisory reviews and investigated compliance breaches and misconduct, recommending supervisory or enforcement action where appropriate. Eleven years spent assessing how insurers treat customers provides a distinctive background for a comparison platform, and it shapes BJAK’s approach to disclosure: what a page should tell customers about exclusions, excesses and situations where an insurer may not pay, not only what it will cover.

Areas of responsibility

• Enterprise risk and compliance across BJAK’s international operations
• Primary regulatory liaison with Bank Negara Malaysia
• Appointed Data Protection Officer
• Governance, compliance and risk frameworks
• Regulatory licensing and ongoing approval requirements