Troy Bulford

Troy Bulford is part of our Senior Management Team and leads the Projects Team, focusing on delivering high-quality regulatory licence applications to firms or start-ups establishing a presence in the DIFC, the ADGM or onshore in the UAE. Troy assists clients in assessing their business plans and provides experienced guidance on requisite permissions and licence categories for new applicants, as well as licence upgrades, variations and endorsements. Troy manages applications end-to-end, leading clients through the detailed drafting of the necessary documentation and providing governance, risk and compliance advice to our clients and liaison with the regulator throughout the authorisation process. Troy is an experienced Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer, having provided ongoing compliance support on an outsourced basis to a variety of clients in the DIFC, including private banks, fund managers, corporate advisory and brokerage firms.

Troy joined the team in 2011 and in addition to her applications and outsourcing experience, has contributed her expertise to a number of financial crime, governance and risk reviews, customer due-diligence reviews, expert reports and delivery of ad hoc advisory and documentation services to regulated and unregulated firms, SFOs and other DNFBPs. Troy’s compliance experience spans over 15 years in the local market, her professional approach and strong network of relationships with specialist providers and the regulators enables her to provide comprehensive, practical and trusted advice and solution driven support to clients across a range of financial services.

Troy began her compliance career at Standard Chartered Bank Dubai in 2005, where she was responsible for compliance risk monitoring for retail and wholesale banking. Collaborating on working groups for a number of key initiatives for this global bank provided an invaluable foundation in relationship-building, teamwork and project coordination. As Head of Compliance for Standard Chartered Private Bank, Troy was responsible for revising and enhancing Group codes and standards, forms and client documentation to comply with the legal and regulatory requirements of the DIFC and DFSA, as well as establishing systems and controls for ensuring that the bank was compliant with relevant regulations. In 2007 Troy joined Nakheel as Head of Compliance for its Fund Management initiative in the DIFC, supporting the CFO, providing advice on the DFSA authorisation process and developing a governance and compliance framework for a fund manager. Later Troy joined Nakheel’s Legal team where she gained valuable experience in local law-making and development of enforceable local regulations. Troy is admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa.

Recent work includes:

• Successful licensing of DIFC and ADGM firms across a broad spectrum and complexity of licences, including non-deposit taking credit institutions, fund and asset managers, brokerage, advisory clients and technology platforms
• Consultancy to international financial institutions on regulatory considerations for their UAE expansion
• Advisory in respect of regulatory changes and developments and licensing opportunities in the UAE, the DIFC and the ADGM.