Head of Operations Control

ICBC Standard Bank Plc
Job Title: Head of Operations Control Job Code:

Skill Band: Operations Location: London

Type: Permanent Date Posted: 9 Jan 2024

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.

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
• Physical Settlements
• Clearing and Vaulting Services
• Structured and Banking Products support
• Facilitation of trade finance and documentary credit products
• Confirmations
• 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.

Job Purpose:

The Head of Operations Control is responsible for management oversight of the day-today functioning and performance of Operations Control on a global basis.

The purpose of Operations Control is to define and maintain a framework for the Operations department which ensures that risks and control deficiencies are continuously identified, assessed, mitigated and remediated in a timely and transparent manner in line with the Bank’s risk and control framework.

Operations Control fulfils this role by:

• defining and implementing processes to identify and manage risks within the Operations department 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);
• implementing processes which successfully detect control failures within or relating to the Operations department;
• performing and acting on root cause analysis;
• performing spot checks and reviews to ensure the Operations department’s control framework is reliable and robust;
• driving a forward-looking and proactive quality assurance programme;
• providing meaningful risk and control reporting for the Head of Ops Control, Sanctions

Screening & Regulatory Operations;

• providing oversight of any remedial work programmes in the Operations department, particularly those designed to remediate regulatory risks;
• ensuring that the Operations department has adequate written policies and procedures/working instructions in place with appropriate governance over those documents;
• taking ownership for the timely remediation of findings raised by the Bank’s second line of defence and third line of defence functions, and working with Operations teams to ensure that issues are appropriately resolved to prevent reoccurrence;
• working in partnership with enabling functions in the Bank to ensure that controls are adequately identified using the Risk and Control Self-Assessment (“RCSA”) process and monitored appropriately via the Key Control Indicators (“KCI”) process;
• defining and implementing an appropriate Balance Sheet Substantiation framework across the Operations department globally;
• defining and implementing an appropriate strategy for the execution of nostro, contra and stock reconciliations;
• providing oversight of the Operations department’s business continuity plans, as well as the testing approach and risk assessment outcomes from this process;
• providing support and oversight of functional teams to ensure that change is effectively embedded in the Operations department; and
• delivering risk and control training to Operations staff.

Operations Control consists of the following teams:

• Risk and Control (which has a presence in both the Bank’s London and
  Singapore offices);
• Balance Sheet and Reconciliation Control

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and management

• Leading and managing Operations Control under the direction of the Head of Ops Control, Sanctions Screening & Regulatory Operations.
• Delivering the strategy for Operations Control as communicated by the Head of Ops Control, Sanctions Screening & Regulatory Operations.
• Managing Operations Control within the budget allocated by the Head of Ops Control, Sanctions Screening & Regulatory Operations.
• Ensuring that staff and processes within Operations Control work effectively and efficiently.
• As a senior member of the Operations department, demonstrating commitment and attention to delivering an excellent service from the Operations department.

Client service

• Ensuring that the service provided by Operations Control is delivered to an excellent standard.
• Leading Operations Control in 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.
• Proactively and promptly remediating any instances of substandard service delivered by the Operations department to any internal or external clients.
• Ensuring that Operations Control works collaboratively with other departments in the Bank, particularly when providing information, contributing to Bank-wide initiatives/projects, and reporting information to management.
• Contributing to the Operations department’s input into the Bank-wide New Products Process.

Processes and procedures

• Ensuring the effective and efficient operation of processes within Operations Control.
• Taking proactive steps to optimise processes within Operations Control on a continuous basis.
• Ensuring that processes carried out by Operations Control are accurately captured in written procedures and that these procedures are continuously updated.
• Providing support and oversight of Operations teams to ensure that change is effectively embedded in the Operations department.
• Identifying and managing risks within Operations department 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 the Operations department to ensure that these are fit for purpose.
• Working collaboratively with the Operations teams on risk management and control enhancements (but without doing the work for them).
• Escalating promptly new risks to the Head of Ops Control, Sanctions Screening & Regulatory Operations.
• Proactively and promptly managing any risk incidents that relate to or impact the Operations department.
• Performing and acting on robust root cause analysis of incidents.
• Driving a forward-looking and proactive quality assurance programme.
• Ensuring that the Operations department has adequate written policies and procedures/working instructions in place with appropriate governance over
  those documents.
• Taking ownership for the timely remediation of findings raised by the Bank’s second line of defence and third line of defence functions and working with
  Operations teams to ensure that issues are appropriately resolved to prevent reoccurrence.
• Working in partnership with enabling functions in the Bank to ensure that controls are adequately identified using the RCSA process and monitored appropriately via the KCI process.
• Defining and implementing an appropriate Balance Sheet Substantiation framework across Operations globally.
• Defining and implementing an appropriate strategy for the execution of nostro, contra and stock reconciliations.
• Providing oversight of the Operations department’s business continuity plans, as well as the testing approach and risk assessment outcomes from this process.
• Delivering risk and control training to Operations staff.

Client assets

• performing robust first line assurance of the Bank’s CASS adherence (including oversight of the Bank’s processes relating to CASS and ensuring that the Bank’s staff are adhering to the CASS rules);
• Creation and ongoing maintenance of adequate policies and procedures . click apply for full job details