Senior Analyst, FIC Post Trade Services

ICBC Standard Bank Plc (ICBCS) is 60% owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and 40% by Standard Bank. ICBCS benefits from a unique Chinese and African parentage and an unrivalled global network and level of expertise.

ICBCS is a leading financial markets and commodities bank, driven to deliver the right outcomes for our stakeholders, clients, counterparties and the markets in which we operate. We deliver products in an environment which considers the appropriate needs of our clients, whilst providing guidance and expertise to ensure our employees understand our business and uphold the highest levels of conduct.

Headquartered in London, ICBCS also has operations in Shanghai, Singapore and New York.

At ICBC Standard Bank, we share the same values, challenges and opportunities. We are a diverse, close-knit, global team with a unique heritage and purpose. We put people first, and give talented, self-driven professionals the flexibility, rewards and freedom to grow their expertise, seek new opportunities and realise their potential.

https://www.icbcstandardbank.com/

Division Summary:

The Operations department is responsible for ensuring the complete end-to-end processing of the Bank’s transactions and services. They are responsible for ensuring that the appropriate control framework exists to ensure the accuracy of this processing as well as the recording of this in the Bank’s books and records. Operations is also responsible for the accurate and timely reporting of the Bank’s transactions to multiple regulatory stakeholders globally.

The Operations department performs the following functions:

• Trade Support
• Financial Settlements
• Physical Settlements
• LME Trade Clearing Services
• Clearing and Vaulting Services
• Structured and Banking Products support
• Facilitation of trade finance and documentary credit products
• Confirmations
• Collateral Management
• Operations Control
• Balance sheet substantiation
• Nostro production and reconciliations
• Risk and control oversight and monitoring
• Regulatory Operations
• Cash, Interest Claims and Nostro management
• Brokerage Services
• Payment Sanction Screening

Job Purpose:

The Senior Analyst, FIC Post Trade Services is responsible for day-to-day functioning and performance of FIC Operations and Collateral Management tasks.

FIC Operations consists of the following key functions:

• FX, money market, NDF and OTC derivative settlements
• Cash Management
• Collateral Management (FOA/TOB/MTA/CSA/ISDA/GMRA)
• Interest Claims

Settlements are responsible for the settlement FX, money market, NDF and OTC derivative transactions. This includes settlement matching, standard settlement instruction sourcing and assignment, reconciliations and investigation of related breaks and client queries and escalation.

Cash Management is responsible for the daily management and monitoring of our nostro accounts which is a pivotal role in us fulfilling our contractual settlement obligations and also ensuring that we avoid any regulatory liquidity breaches. Job purpose includes:

• Management of Cash and Intraday Liquidity;
• Intraday monitoring of cash balances and escalating as per agreed Escalation Matrix
• Liaising with business and settlements teams to ensure that all cash movements are captured and accurately reflected;
• Cross training across the immediate team but also the wider Operations department to ensure that all staff are aware of the importance of accurate and timely funding.

Collateral Management manages the collateral aspects for the bank. This team is responsible to send out margin notices, monitoring margin acceptance from clients/AEs, maintain proper records of the calls, handles exceptions and acting as a key contact for client queries.

Interest Claims involved investigation, issuing and processing of interest claims from/to clients in a timely manner.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and management

• Delivering the strategy for Asia FIC Operations as communicated by Manager, FIC Operations
• Ensuring processes within FIC Operations work effectively and efficiently.
• Demonstrating commitment and attention to delivering an excellent service from the Operations department.

Client service

• Ensuring that the service provided by FIC Operations to internal and external clients is delivered to an excellent standard.
• Working collaboratively and effectively with other Operations teams in all global locations to enable excellent service to be delivered by the Operations department to internal and external clients.
• Ensuring that Cash Management maintains close communication lines with the relevant desks across all global offices.
• Proactively and promptly remediating any instances of substandard service delivered by the Operations department to any internal or external clients.

Stakeholder management

• Ensuring that FIC Operations works collaboratively with other departments in the Bank, particularly when providing information, contributing to Bank-wide initiatives/projects, and reporting information to management.
• Balancing FIC Operations’ compliance/acquiescence with stakeholder requests with some degree of respectful challenge to stakeholder requests.
• Contributing to the Operations department’s input into the Bank-wide New Products Process.
• Working closely and collaboratively with Technology colleagues to ensure that systems relied on by FIC Operations is fit for purpose.
• Working collaboratively and productively with the Bank’s second line of defense and third line of defense functions as well as external auditors to understand and remediate the risks within, relating to or impacting FIC Operations.
• Ensuring that the service provided by Cash Management to internal and external clients is delivered to an excellent standard

Processes and procedures

• Ensuring the effective and efficient operation of processes within FIC Operations.
• Ensuring that the daily tasks required of the function are carried out in an accurate and timely fashion.
• Taking proactive steps to optimize processes within FIC Operations on a continuous basis.
• Ensuring that processes are accurately captured in written procedures and that these procedures are continuously updated, particularly when there is evidence that procedures may be out-of-date, inaccurate, incomplete or insufficient to manage risk.
• Ensuring adherence to all relevant Bank standards and policies

Risk management

• Identifying and managing risks within FIC Operations including operational risks, regulatory risks, conduct risks, cyber security risks and financial crime risks (including, but not limited to, risks associated with money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery and corruption, sanctions breaches and fraud).
• Undertaking regular reviews of controls within FIC Operations to ensure that these are fit for purpose.
• Maintaining efficient operational and control processes to ensure that the intraday and end of day funding of our nostro and custodian accounts is appropriate and within agreed bank and regulatory tolerances
• Working collaboratively with Operations Control on risk management and control enhancements (but without over-reliance on Operations Control).
• Promptly escalating new risks to the Manager, FIC Operations
• Proactively and promptly managing any risk incidents that relate to or impact FIC Operations

Reporting and MI

• Providing regular performance MI to the Manager, FIC Operations
• Reporting promptly any significant performance, service or risk incidents to the Manager, FIC Operations
• Supporting Manager, FIC Operations with the preparation of any MI that is required from the Operations department.
• Reporting and escalating to relevant senior stakeholders with regard to funding anomalies/agreed thresholds

Skills and knowledge

• Demonstrate continuous development in knowledge and skills relevant to this role (with line manager support where appropriate).
• Staying abreast of industry matters affecting, or potentially affecting, the work performed by FIC Operations including evolving standards or new working practices.

Culture

• Role modelling the Bank’s values and promoting those values within the Operations department and the Singapore office.
• Promoting integrity and openness within Asia Operations, and in its client and stakeholder service.
• Supporting integration initiatives between the Operations department and/or the Bank’s Asia offices and ICBC head office / other ICBC entities.

Required Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Values:

Preferred qualifications:

• Degree holder

Experience required to successfully performing the role:

• At least 2 years of previous experience in a financial institution
•  Previous experience of interacting with an Organization’s senior stakeholders
•  Previous experience of presenting to committees of senior stakeholders
•  Previous experience of either FIC Settlement or Cash Management or Collateral Management within a bank
•  Previous experience of preparing MI for management

Knowledge, technical skills and expertise:

• Deep understanding of FIC products
•  Strong understanding of Cash Management
•  Strong understanding of Collateral Management
•  Solid understanding of typical risk management practices within a bank
•  Strong people management skills
•  Excellent command of both written and spoken English and Mandarin Chinese

Personal attributes:

• High level of integrity
• Self-starter
• Focused on results and delivery
• Effective stakeholder
• Resilient

The role would suit someone who:

• works well under pressure
• is able to adapt quickly and effectively to changing circumstances