Job Summary
· This is a specialist legal role requires, experience in managing large ($50m+) and complex structured lending transactions to UHNW individuals, family offices, external asset managers, private investment vehicles, Trusts, LLP’s, LLC’s, variable capital companies and other forms of entity clients, secured over diverse collateral types including, but not limited to, commercial and residential real estate, portfolios of traded and illiquid securities (eg promoter shares), life insurance policies and other forms of tangible assets located, and subject to, the laws and regulations regarding lending, registration and/or perfection of security, in multiple jurisdictions.
· Act as the Affluent Clients and Group Wealth Solutions Legal Product Lead (Subject Matter Expert), responsible for defining and executing the strategy for legal support and product development to (a) Lending Solutions, Affluent Clients (and to also act as the primary transactional legal lead) and (b) Wealth Lending (CMPS) with overall accountability to the Head of Legal, Affluent, Wealth Solutions & WRB Asia, the Global Head of Lending Solutions, Affluent Clients and the Global Head, Wealth Lending
· Maintain close relationships with stakeholders including Global Head Lending Solutions, Affluent Clients; Global Head, Wealth Lending; Global Head of Wealth Lending Risk; Wealth Solutions Regional Heads; Regional Heads of Affluent Clients; Wealth Solutions COOs; WRB Credit and WRB CFCC and assist relevant Country WRB Legal teams to interface with and support such stakeholders.
· Accountability, together with relevant Regional Heads of Legal, Affluent Clients, and Country WRB Legal teams, on all Wealth Lending related legal matters, to Head of Legal Affluent, Wealth Management and WRB Asia
· Responsible, together with Central and Country WRB legal teams, for establishing and maintaining strong governance of Wealth Lending across all applicable WRB segments (including Personal, Digital and Business Banking).
· Anticipate and proactively engage with Central and Country WRB Legal teams to provide legal advice and specialised support/assistance to all WRB Legal teams handling Wealth Lending related projects and initiatives in all relevant markets.
· Promote the culture and practice of compliance with legal standards, including the Relationship with Clients Policy, Group Code of Conduct, Here for Good culture, as well as regulatory requirements and general high ethical standards
Key Responsibilities
Strategy
· A detailed understanding of the business strategy for Lending Solutions, Affluent Clients, and Wealth Lending more broadly across WRB, anticipating and investigating associated legal risks and issues and ensuring timely communication with relevant stakeholders, engaging counsel where required and ensuring matters are addressed pro-actively to support the delivery of strategic initiatives and business priorities.
Business
· Act as the Product Lead in providing related strategic, transactional and product specific legal advice to the Lending Solutions, Affluent Clients, and Wealth Lending (CMPS) businesses and providing subject matter expert support to Country WRB Legal teams supporting these products in relevant markets. Act as the primary legal lead for Lending Solutions transactions.
· Provide legal support in setting PPG parameters and, if applicable, Bank's minimum standards and guidance for the relevant Wealth Lending product or service. Work closely with Global Head, Wealth Lending, and relevant Central and Country WRB Legal teams to implement products and initiatives and develop template legal documentation supporting the Wealth Lending products suite and Lending Solutions.
· Close collaboration with GSAM, Disputes & Government Investigations Legal and Country WRB legal teams, to support and manage distressed assets, recoveries and restructuring, and litigation matters.
Processes
· Act as Process Owner for any Group processes owned by Legal where such processes are executed for Wealth Lending products and Lending Solutions.
· Be responsible for: (i) the management of such processes in line with the Group's process universe as set out in the Enterprise Risk Management Framework; and (ii) associated risks, including activities within the processes which are carried out by the WRB business or other functions or which are hubbed or outsourced.
People & Talent
· Act as the primary contact and subject matter expert for all legal related queries in respect of Wealth Lending products and Lending Solutions
· Act as a close collaborator with the WRB Legal lawyers, business, and functional stakeholders and the wider LCS colleagues
· Provide training as required to WRB lawyers supporting Wealth Lending and Lending Solutions products and services across WRB markets.
Risk Management
· Within the Bank’s Enterprise Risk Management Framework, establish and maintain appropriate risk based legal frameworks for identifying, assessing, managing, monitoring, mitigating, and reporting legal risks across Wealth Lending and Lending Solutions and support Country WRB lawyers in the same in relevant markets.
· Act as Risk Control Owner for Wealth Lending processes where Legal is the first or second line of Risk Control Owner.
· Ensure close coordination with GSAM and Disputes Resolution for input into litigation cases.
· Where external counsel is appointed, liaise with external counsel, and ensure the scope of work is defined and appropriate, oversee the quality of work and manage external legal costs, and ensure appropriate overall matter management.
· Maintain an awareness and understanding of the top risks facing the Bank and the role the individual plays in managing them.
Governance
· Ensure product approval documents reflect all relevant legal requirements for Wealth Lending products.
· Establish and maintain effective processes (including training, advice, and technical legal support) to ensure that policies, procedures and standards to address legal risks are effectively implemented for Wealth Lending products.
· Ensure that policies, procedures, and standards to address legal risks are effectively implemented across Wealth Lending via early socialization with stakeholders in procedure design/parameters, ratification by appropriate committees, and ensure corresponding appropriate communication and training across footprint.
· Provide support to senior management to ensure that they establish and monitor appropriate processes for compliance with legal policies, procedures, and standards (including meeting legal obligations and maintaining high standards of conduct).
· Ensure effective management of legal matters across Wealth Lending products and Lending Solutions.
· Provide reports to relevant Group and Business risk and control committees and management group on key legal risks and issues.
Regulatory & Business Conduct
· Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct.
· Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
· Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.
Key stakeholders
· Global Head, Lending Solutions, Affluent Clients
· Global Head, Wealth Lending, CMPS
· Global Head, CMPS
· Global Head, Wealth Lending Risk
· Head, CRM Wealth Lending Risk
· Regional Heads of Wealth Solutions
· Regional Heads, Affluent Clients
· Wealth Solutions CFCC
· COO, Wealth Solutions Products
Our Ideal Candidate
• 12+ years of experience of structured lending transactions across multiple client and collateral types
• Qualified to practice as an Advocate & Solicitor in Singapore or England & Wales.
• Relevant experience in private practice or in-house, including handling complex lending transactions.
• Substantial experience in legal, compliance and regulatory risk management.
• Substantial experience in the banking industry, including demonstrated success in a similar role.
• Sharp business acumen (including ability to assess risk and appropriate levels of return), strong leadership qualities, excellent interpersonal skills and multi cultural awareness and sensitivity.
• Ability to manage geographically dispersed and highly varied customer and product base.
• Ability to collaborate and work dynamically across country, region, business and group stakeholders.
• Understanding of best practice risk management techniques and frameworks.
• Understanding of the key features of relevant laws and regulations relevant to the Group.
• Sound judgement on business practices, regulatory relationship management and reputational risk.
• Exemplary integrity, ethics, independence and resilience.
Role Specific Technical Competencies
· Knowledge of secured lending products and associated legal risks and regulatory landscape
· Knowledge of applicable types of security for Wealth lending, including applicable registration or perfection requirements and steps for enforcement in relevant markets
· Ability to pro-actively identify legal risk and appropriate mitigants
· Communicate with stakeholders and cascade information and advice as appropriate
About Standard Chartered
We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.
Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.
Together we:
· Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
· Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
· Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term
What we offer
In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.
· Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
· Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
· Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
· Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
· A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
· Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.
Recruitment Assessments
Some of our roles use assessments to help us understand how suitable you are for the role you've applied to. If you are invited to take an assessment, this is great news. It means your application has progressed to an important stage of our recruitment process.
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