VP, Business Unit Control

Company Description

Now it's your time to join the #1 bank in the Middle East and one of the most prestigious financial companies in the region. Shaking up the world of banking requires a lot of smarts and skill. We're looking for the brightest and best to help us reach our goals and we'll also help you reach yours. Your success is our success as you grow stronger in your career. Join us and leave a legacy of your own, as a pioneer in both the company and the industry.
Job Description

JOB PURPOSE:

The Global Markets Business Finance team comprises Business Unit Control, Independent Price Verification and Central MI and Change Management teams. The team supports the Global Markets and Group Treasury businesses locally and internationally. The unit falls under the Group Finance department and reports to the CFO, CIB Finance & International.

Key priorities of this role include:

• Providing world class financial reporting & support services, adding value through providing professional, independent & objective financial advice which assist in the achievement of business objectives whilst complying with Group policies and standards, and external statutory obligations.

• Production of financial & management accounting reporting statements for the functional area of responsibility in line with Group reporting standards, whilst maintaining a robust control environment.

The Business Unit Control team is responsible for accounting and financial reporting of the Global Markets & Treasury business, acting as a primary control function, and monitoring trading activity to ensure it is in a specified remit. Tasks include Profit & Loss (P&L) reporting decomposition and attribution, dealing with ad hoc management reporting queries, reconciliation and substantiation of P&L and Balance Sheet between the General Ledger (Oracle General Ledger & OneSumX) and Source (e.g. Murex). This role is focused on the day-to-day tasks related to the International Business Unit Control function, such as daily preparation and control of P&L, general ledger reconciliations and variance analysis, explanations, commentaries, and MI reporting.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

This section shall not be customised to reflect accountabilities, which may be unique to one role. Please use Section 5 to capture any accountabilities specific to the role which are over and above those mentioned in this section.

Policies, Systems, Processes & Procedures

• Follow all relevant departmental policies, processes, standard operating procedures, and instructions so that work is carried out in a controlled and consistent manner.

• Demonstrate compliance to organisation's values and ethics at all times to support the establishment of a value drive culture within the bank.

Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to the identification of opportunities for continuous improvement and sustainability of systems, processes and practices considering global standards, productivity improvement and cost reduction.

Reporting

Assist in the preparation of timely and accurate statements and reports to meet department requirements, policies and quality standards.

Job Context

• Finance business partner and trusted advisor on reporting and day-to-day support of the Global Markets business, providing prompt and effective support to the Global Markets Front Office, Market Risk, Group Treasury, Group Financial Planning & Analysis, Group Financial Reporting and GM Finance management.
• Provide relevant support to Head of GM Business Unit Control, ensuring all business transacted is 'compliant, safe and sustainable'
• Provide independent validation of the financials reported for the GM businesses by maintaining a robust control framework between FO and reported financials. Maintain a strong understanding of the products traded and the trading strategies within the business.
• Understanding of specific business models, analysis of structured deal packages and application of appropriate accounting standard thereupon. To provide professional & ethical behaviours by ensuring compliance with external legislation, bank standards, internal operating policies and procedures.

• Support of new business requests, ensuring they are controlled through the existing or new system architecture, providing responsive support to front office, ensuring "speed to market" of new products. Delegated authority for New Activity Working Group (NAWG), for new product sign-off.

• Drive development projects to enrich financials and MI data at source systems and aligning / standardising process across groups to have consistent reporting.

• Enhance Sales, Segmental & Customer Profitability Reporting.
• Act as a central point of contact for Group Finance functions and Global Markets desks: Financial & Regulatory Reporting, Treasury, FP&A, Tax, Financial Control relating to GM Products, and Valuation Control
• Engender and role model a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring operations are kept continually under review. Identify and implement any opportunities for re-engineering to achieving economies of scale.
• Escalate any issues to the management and assist in mitigating any operational risk.
• Use of sophisticated arithmetic models for numerical analysis and evaluation. Writing papers on strategy or other complex issue with logical sequencing and supporting recommendations. Synthesising information from a variety of sources and extracting relevant concepts / themes.
• Preparing and delivering presentations with context across business functions to deliver maximum impact.
• Manage and lead personnel within the Business Unit Control team, end-to-end ownership of functions, guiding the team on complex matters and resolution of any issues.
• Development and ownership of Business Unit Control policies and accountability for adherence therewith. Identification & reporting of any policy breaches.
• Establish and maintain the market data governance framework to ensure the market data are consistently and appropriately applied in fair value measurement and reporting process
• Review the valuation methodologies, both primary and alternative, in accordance with accounting and regulatory standards and guidance
• Undertake IPV regularly to verify the accuracy of front office marked price, rates or model inputs aligned with market best practice
• Develop IPV and fair value adjustment methodologies for new approved product
• Provide timely, relevant, reliable and insightful valuation reports to facilitate decision making for senior management
• Perform on-going assessment on model performance and escalate issues around model weakness/vulnerability
• Deal with Front Office and Risk functions to clearly articulate valuation results and integrate it into financial reporting and risk management
• Assist technical accounting on the Fair Value Hierarchy determination
• Review Significant Day 1 P&L

• Assessing trade booking accuracy, valuation input reliability and model parameter calibration appropriateness and proposing valuation reserves accordingly to mitigate valuation risks, where applicable

• Decomposing Day 1 P&L into sales margin, execution margin, various valuation reserves to show the transparency of trade economic profitability

• Producing deep-dive management report on franchise value by desk based on Day 1 P&L behaviours.

• Review of (unexpected) large Day 2 P&L

• Substantiate large Day 2 P&L by risk factor attribution against risk based IPV

• Challenge MR and MRA on selected market data source which caused dubious P&L movement

• Advise and quantify valuation reserves to neutralize the temporary valuation inputs noise disruption to ensure Day 2 P&L integrity

• Extend the Totem/RVS consensus coverage to Commodity and Equity
• xVA roll-out and integration with GM financial reporting

• Work with FO quants, Project team and Vendor to push forward financial requirements on xVA roll out and ensure seamless integration of xVA elements with finance workflow

• Leverage on Mx xVA tools to participate in Totem xVA consensus service and provide market intelligence analysis to assist on-going refinement of xVA pricing and valuation

FRAMEWORKS, BOUNDARIES, & DECISION MAKING AUTHORITY:

• Functions within the framework and boundaries of Group policies as well as overall organisational and governance frameworks.

• Authorised to take decisions as per the approved authorisation matrix.

Qualifications

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

• Extensive track record of successfully working in a Product Control function, with proven leadership and managerial experience within a top tier financial institution

• Strong verbal and written presentation and senior stakeholder management skills

• Min. 10-12 years' experience in reputed international / global banks

• Advanced degree in a financial discipline or relevant qualifications (CA/ CPA/ ACCA / CFA

• Strong understanding of Global Markets and Investment Banking products, with related Technical and Accounting treatments. Excellent understanding of modern governance, risk and control assessment techniques

• Familiar with market conventions across IR, FX, Credit and Commodities, for both vanilla and exotic products, and have holistic understanding on the entanglement of valuation and risks

• In-depth understanding of wide range of valuation models, e.g. BS, Bachelier, Local Vol, SLV, Sabr, (one factor and multi factor) Short Rate models, LMM models and the numerical techniques (PDE, MC); Solid understanding of Risk Factor evolution (including limitations) and its application particularly in xVA

• Robust knowledge on multi-curve framework and curve construction techniques such as interpolation mechanism, curve bootstrap & calibration (multi-dimension root finding/Jacobian) and understand the risk implications for the corresponding technique.

• Hands-on IPV and valuation adjustment experience including setting up automated consensus submission (API), establishing calibration/non-linear solver process and performing full revaluation and risk based IPV