ANTHONY VELLA
Waxhaw,NC
Summary
Senior leader with 18 years of experience defining and executing enterprise fraud, payment, and control strategies within large financial institutions. Proven ability to lead diverse teams, influence across product, operations, technology, and risk, and balance fraud mitigation with positive client experiences. Deep expertise in payments, commercial and institutional client environments, regulatory engagement, and building scalable defense infrastructures to address evolving fraud threats.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Executive Director, Shared Services Operations
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
03.2024 - Current
- Defined and executed an enterprise-wide commercial and retail payments risk strategy, mitigating losses while maintaining operational efficiency and client experience
- Established and interpreted key metrics to determine which programs held the greatest risk reduction or required further horizontal analysis for success.
- Partnered across operations, technology, product, and enterprise risk to deploy scalable payment risk mitigation solutions targeting $22T in manual activity
- Developed executive-level business cases quantifying fraud loss reduction, control effectiveness, and return on investment
- Led and mentored managers and analysts responsible for risk identification, monitoring, and remediation
- Established effective communication among organization leadership, increasing project effectiveness and ensuring efficient program funding
Director, COO Payments Control
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
11.2022 - 03.2024
- Conducted a comprehensive bank-wide analysis of payment risk using RCSA, issue management, and $2B in operational loss event data
- Developed a centralized inventory of 78 manual payment initiation applications across the enterprise
- Redesigned and aligned enterprise procedures to standardize control expectations for manual payments
- Enhanced data reporting and thematic analysis for the enterprise-wide payment committee
- Led remediation efforts for regulatory-identified issues related to payment risk
Director / Vice President, CIB Operations
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
12.2016 - 11.2022
- Created and launched the Move Money Program for CIB Operations, establishing governance and strategic direction
- Served as primary contact for OCC and FRB regulatory engagements
- Strengthened payment process controls through short- and long-term initiatives
- Owned payment and reporting applications including UAT and release governance
- Designed and delivered training programs educating operations teams and client-facing partners on fraud trends, red flags, and best practices
- Acted as senior representative for fraud risk topics with regulators, executives, and cross-enterprise stakeholders
Assistant Vice President, Electronic Execution Services
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
06.2014 - 12.2016
- Supported 25 million daily U.S. and international electronic execution trading operations
- Led client onboarding and operational integrations
- Improved efficiency through automation initiatives
Specialist / Supervisor / Operations Manager
Merrill Lynch | Bank of America
10.2007 - 06.2014
- Supported equity, options, and derivatives trading desks
- Supervised reconciliation and regulatory reporting
- Managed broker relationships and dispute resolution
Education
Bachelor of Science - Economics
Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business
State College, PASkills
- Payments Fraud & Manual Payment Risk
- Commercial Fraud Strategy
- Emerging Risk Identification
- Enterprise Risk Governance (RCSA, Issues, Loss Events)
- Regulatory Engagement
- Executive & Regulator Communication
- Client & Stakeholder Education
- People Leadership & Talent Development
- Data-Driven Risk Decisioning
Certification
- Certified Six Sigma Green Belt
- FINRA SIE, 7, 24, 99
Timeline
Executive Director, Shared Services Operations
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
03.2024 - Current
Director, COO Payments Control
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
11.2022 - 03.2024
Director / Vice President, CIB Operations
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
12.2016 - 11.2022
Assistant Vice President, Electronic Execution Services
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
06.2014 - 12.2016
Specialist / Supervisor / Operations Manager
Merrill Lynch | Bank of America
10.2007 - 06.2014
Bachelor of Science - Economics
Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business