CFO, Trade Finance

Summary

• The CFO of Trade & TB Sales reports into the Transaction Banking (TB) CFO and supports both the Global Head of Trade Finance & The Global Head of Transaction Banking Corporate Sales. The role has management oversight for the Trade Finance team in Singapore and is responsible for financial & strategic planning as well as accounting and financial control at a global level.
• The CFO of Trade would also be responsible, in conjunction with the TB CFO and the Head of Trade, to tangibly drive commercial outcomes for the business, ensure optimisation of resource allocation, and maximise operating profits, thereby improving the return on tangible equity of the business.

Responsibilities

Financial Control:

• Active oversight of processes within the local and regional finance teams to ensure a robust financial control environment as well as consistent and accurate application of accounting treatment of TB transactions/bookings at a sub-product level that are compliant with IFRS, Group Accounting Policy, and management reporting principles. This includes conducting regular financial reviews and health checks, driving consistent booking models across the regions’ transaction processing systems.
• Provide a source of genuine expertise on accounting policies, their applicability to the Trade business, and their interpretation in the case of individual transactions and new product launches, engaging with group technical accounting teams where necessary.
• Act as a main contact point for documentary support with external auditors for Trade and ensure satisfactory outcomes from annual auditing processes.
• Finance RFO and permanent member of the Trade Risk Forum required to discharge responsibilities in line with the terms of reference.

Strategy:

• Lead the annual corporate plan and target setting process for Trade and TB Corporate Sales, liaising with Group FP&A, Treasury, regional, and country business heads to ensure a robust business plan with sufficient challenge and rigor. Link the business plan to the overall business strategy and scorecard metrics and ensure full visibility and transparency on performance across all metrics.
• Provide finance support to new business initiatives and projects such as TradeXpress.
• Contribute to the creation & delivery of Trade business strategy and execution of this strategy through the corporate plan process, client, market & peer analysis, understanding of financials, and deep understanding of the market for Trade Finance.
• Shape the internal and external view of the Trade business through clear and articulate inputs into quarterly reporting, strategy papers, and investor decks as required.

Performance Management:

• Ensure that Trade & Corporate TB Sales have robust plans & KPI’s, with accurate timely revenue, cost, Impairment & RWA information to enable performance to be monitored against these plans.
• Active engagement at regional and global MBRs to drive performance management and cost discipline, ensuring regional and global alignment on financial outlook and forecast.
• Provide support to TB CFO during forecasting, half yearly/year-end business reviews, annual budget, and Strategic Plan for TB, ensuring drivers of performance are well communicated and understood.
• Act as a senior business advisor to deliver business insights and high impact, executive-ready analysis to drive performance and enable management decision making (i.e., Pricing and margin analysis).
• Spearhead deep dives and strategic initiatives to drive continuous improvements to the business’s returns.

Cost Discipline and Control:

• Develop and maintain appropriate policies and procedures which ensure that cost budgets are rigorously adhered to, that resources under the direct control and influence of the TB Business are spent carefully, and only in support of approved plans and initiatives.
• Work with colleagues at Group and Country level to ensure that service charges (allocated costs) and impairment costs are clearly understood, so that Trade cost owners understand how it influences costs in these areas and can identify improvement opportunities for the business.
• Ensure that Trade investment costs are properly managed and accounted for, including effectively supporting the investment attestation process with proposals which are realistic, and articulate clearly costs and benefits in sufficient detail to enable the ongoing tracking & performance management of investments.

Balance Sheet Management:

• Responsible for Risk Weighted Assets (RWA) management and Returns optimization at a sub-Product level. Drive effective RWA reporting – ensuring quality numbers from local teams and assisting the business with understanding their balance sheet and RWA drivers.
• Active engagement with Head of TB Credit and portfolio Management as well as Treasury on FTP policies and incentivization frameworks.
• Ensure capital usage and allocation is optimized across the TB Business and drivers of capital usage are well understood.

People and Talent:

• Lead through example and build the appropriate culture and values. Set appropriate tone and expectations from their team and work in collaboration with risk and control partners.
• Ensure the provision of ongoing training and development of people, and ensure that holders of all critical functions are suitably skilled and qualified for their roles ensuring that they have effective supervision in place to mitigate any risks.
• Employ, engage and retain high-quality people, with succession planning for critical roles.
• Responsibility to review team structure/capacity plans, actively drive further offshoring opportunities.
• Set and monitor job descriptions and objectives for direct reports and provide feedback and rewards in line with their performance against those responsibilities and objectives.

Risk Management:

• Responsible for identifying, assessing, monitoring, controlling, and mitigating risks to the Group. Also, an awareness and understanding of the main risks facing the Group and the role the individual plays in managing them.
• The ability to interpret the Group’s financial information, identify key issues based on this information and put in place appropriate controls and measures.

Governance

• Responsible for assessing the effectiveness of the Group’s arrangements to deliver effective governance, oversight, and controls in the business and, if necessary, oversee changes in these areas.
• Awareness and understanding of the regulatory framework in which the Group operates, and the regulatory requirements and expectations relevant to the role.
• Responsible for delivering ‘effective governance’; capability to challenge fellow executives effectively; and willingness to work with any local regulators in an open and cooperative manner.

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.
• Lead the Team to achieve the outcomes set out in the Bank’s Conduct Principles: Fair Outcomes for Clients; Effective Operation of Financial Markets; Financial Crime Prevention; The Right Environment.
• Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.
• Responsible for playing a role in the context of stress tests and provide support to the CFO.

Key Stakeholders & Relationships

• CFO, Transaction Banking
• CFO, Cash
• Head of TB FP&A
• Global Head, Trade
• Global Head, Corporate TB Sales
• COO Trade
• FRM, Treasury & Balance Sheet Management Teams
• CIB Finance Teams
• GFS team

Other Responsibilities

• Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Country, Business or Functional policies and procedures.
• Manage the performance, growth, and development of the team in India supporting the Transaction Services business.

Our Ideal Candidate

• Qualified Accountant, CFA or MBA preferred
• 15+ years of relevant experience in finance, 5+ years of team management experience
• In-depth understanding of transaction banking products, relevant accounting standards, capital and liquidity-related regulation.
• Executive level written & verbal communication skills, able to communicate with a diverse group of stakeholders, consider multiple points of view and influence outcomes.
• Able to make sound, timely & well-reasoned decisions with incomplete information.

Role Specific Technical Competencies

• Manage Conduct
• Manage Risk
• Manage People
• External Reporting
• Risk & Controls
• Performance Management
• Balance Sheet Management
• Tax Management
• Regulatory & Compliance

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

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