Markets Business & Client Solutions, West Africa Head at Standard Chartered Bank

In 1965, the Standard Bank of South Africa merged with the Bank of West Africa acquiring businesses including a banking operation in Nigeria, which dated back to 1894. The name was then changed to Standard Bank of West Africa. Four years after the merger, Standard Bank Nigeria was incorporated locally to take over the business in Nigeria. In 1971, 13% of the share capital was placed with Nigerian investors. The end of the civil war saw a major economic upturn and as a consequence, the military government sought to increase local control of the retail-banking sector, hence the Bank’s investment in Standard Bank Nigeria (renamed First Bank of Nigeria in 1979) was reduced to 38%. Standard Chartered remained a shareholder of First Bank of Nigeria until 1996.

Standard Chartered re-entered Nigeria in 1999 and opened to customers on 15 September 1999 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank Plc, headquartered in United Kingdom. It now has 42 branches located in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Ota, Aba, Onitsha and Onne offering a wide range of products and services in Retail, Corporate and Institutional Banking. It employs over 900 employees and sees Nigeria as a growth centre.Job Summary

The role holder is responsible for full end-to-end governance, oversight and reconciliation of Markets products for In-country Financial Markets trades across West African sites .This includes but is not limited to, line management of all team members, both in-country and across West African sites, development of teams, objective setting and support for career progression. Strong understanding of local regulatory requirements, identification of process gaps, review of existing onshore controls and introduction of new controls, maintaining seamless high quality regulatory reporting standards across all West Africa sites and governance for all operational outsourced service undertaken by offshore hubs servicing West Africa.

Key Responsibilities
Strategy

Clearly define key objectives for all West Africa Markets Business & Client Solutions (MBCS) teams and ensure full alignment to global Objectives & key results (OKRs)
Provide both local and cross-border team management, ensuring connectivity for all local teams.
Ensuring consistency of service standards / processes where possible across West African sites.
Ownership (COO) of all open operational risk issues originating in West African sites and responsible for closing them out as a priority, in partnership with Chief Operating Officer and Risk Managers.
Act with integrity with stakeholders, ensuring regular follow ups on ad hoc issues and delivery as a priority.
Understanding and ensuring compliance for all West African local regulatory requirements.
Attending all local regulatory working groups and local risk committees for West African sites and responsible for remediation of all open risks for West Africa.
Liaise with and govern Global offshore teams in India / Malysia to ensure services delivered are of high quality, with appreciation of local business nuances.
To support their country MBCS Country Team Leads to deliver the Markets Business strategy as it relates to role.

Business

Management and oversight of the day-to-day operations impacting West African desks. Aligning operations team focus to the business strategy and priorities.
Monitoring service issues and ensuring the relevant team is proactively reviewing and implementing action plans to rectify issues.
Ensuring compliance with all Group and Country policies, Code of Conduct, and consistency in execution, and to ensure that statutory regulations and laws as a corporate body are met and satisfied.

Processes

Escalation contact for all Market West Africa Sales/FX Trading Desks/Rates/Treasury Market / Change to wealth management (CMPS/) COO.
Accountable for all MBCS customer service for internal and external customers
Management of referred issues by Offshore External validation and Foreign exhange money market (FXMM) Settlement and Clearing teams.
Responsible for coordinating and providing sign off for new local system testing and verification.
Accountable for ensuring required standards of customer service quality, efficiency, and productivity; and where necessary, approve / agree analysis undertaken by local incountry operations teams, identify and implement process efficiencies and reduce Turn around Time (TAT)
Ensure compliance with all relevant laws & regulations, responsible for ensuring all processes are documented and up to date.
Point of escalation for any irregularities observed within job role.
Reviewing and signing off detailed testing of disaster recovery contingency plans.
Oversee Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) for West Africa to ensure no thematic or aged breaks are outstanding across all sites.
Responsible for the local Regulatory projects.
Responsible to ensure the regulatory reports are rendered within timelines and processes are clear and mitigate operational risks.
Correctly apply local and group policies, procedures, and circulars to transaction processing.
Oversee all outsourced processes and risk issues as well as the local contact/escalation point
Responsible for all local errors, near misses and loss raised ensuring the teams escalate within bank guidelines and all write ups are detailed and concise as well are remediation plans are implemented within agreed timelines.
Represent West Africa MBCS in Client Journey Service Reviews and Client Service Meetings.
Accountable for all of Foreign Exchange (FX) Branch suspense account breaks and ensuring they’re matched off quickly.
Oversight of Nostro and suspense breaks for West Africa.
Responsible in ensuring all Balance Sheet Substantiations are completed across West Africa on time.

People & Talent

Identify and foster local talent within the West Africa teams.
Consistent upskilling of team members through cross-training and support of soft skills development.
Provide clear vision and objectives to the West Africa teams.
Be a thought leader and be a good example to the teams via appropriate behaviours, culture and values.
Lead and support to MBCS West Africa team.
Provide detailed cost & feasibility analysis for market & operational initiatives and team transformation.
Oversight and accountable for all local and global projects which impact the local department’s processes.

Risk Management

Escalation contact for any operational risks identified along with the Risk Manager and responsible for ensure appropriate controls and mitigations are put in place.
Accountable for ensuring all identified control testing defects are resolved, including identification of root causes and any associated process changes required to minimize the probability of process failures.
Accountable for ensure team is aware of money laundering risks and understand key principles in relation to: Identifying your customer, knowing your customer, reporting suspicions, safeguarding records, and not disclosing suspicions to customers.
Support Markets Business Client Solutions Cluster Head to execute risk and control responsibilities as a Country Process Owner.
Ensure operational incidents (losses or near misses) are logged in accordance with relevant polices.
Ensure root causes reports relating to operational incidents are completed in line with the Banks policies including meeting of all reporting timelines. This includes the implementation of any appropriate process and control changes to minimize the probability of a recurrence.
Responsible for the proactive identification and escalation / reporting of all exceptions on non-compliance with standard controls.

Governance

Provision of oversight for all process ensuring a sustainable level of control is applied to daily processes.
Undertaking trend analysis of performance benchmark standards (straight through processing attainment, query resolution turnaround times etc)
Accountable for all External and Internal audits and remediation management
Owner of country Service Level agreement (SLAs).
Define and review departmental performance metrics for local and outsourced process.
Carry out daily and monthly reviews of service provide performance.

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.
Support MBCS in achieving the outcomes set out in the Bank’s Conduct Principles: [Fair Outcomes for Clients; Effective Financial Markets; Financial Crime Compliance; The Right Environment.] *
Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate, and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Key stakeholders

Markets Trading / Sales / COO / Credit Risk / Centre of Excellence (CoE) Sites
Finance
Technology
Legal & Compliance
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Regulator & FMDQ Exchange

Skills And Experience

Manage Risk
Manage Change
Business Governance & Support
Manage People
Develop Talent

Qualifications

Education University Degree in Business, Economics, Finance, Maths, Engineerin

Certifications ACI Certified, preferred

Languages English

This role would require a university degree, 10+ years of relevant experience in financial institution.
FM products expert in FXMM, Rates, Credit.
Experience in cross-border team management of multiple teams.
Market Knowledge: Awareness and understanding of the wider business, economic and market environment in which the firm operates.
Risk Management and Control: – Accountable for governance of Key Risk Indicators for West Africa.
Expert in understanding complex matrix systems and global banking operations.
Knowledge of Regulatory reporting requirement is required.
Proficient in PC Skills particularly Microsoft Excel
Ability to work within a multi-function, multi-discipline team environment with good stakeholder management skills.
Good communication, Interpersonal and excellent analytical skills.