Senior Associate - Repo Bond Settlements

Primary responsibilities of the team includes:

• Settlement of Repo/Bonds transactions and associated products in a timely and cost effective manner
• Timely resolution of nostro and depot breaks
• Mitigation of operational and reputational risk by escalating in a timely and efficient manner
• Liaising with clients, brokers / counterparties and other internal support functions for smooth settlement of trades

• Responsible for the settlement of Repo and Bonds transactions & associated products booked in Calypso, on a timely and cost effective basis by:
  • Ensuring all trades are instructed, matched & settled on a timely basis
  • Monitoring of failing trades
  • Reducing fails and/or potential fails by means of pairing off or partialing down deliveries
  • Minimizing fails by means of partial deliveries where possible
  • Pre-matching trades in a daily basis
  • Cash Management related with funding trades

• Responsible for solving Nostro and Depot reconciliation breaks on a timely basis:
  • By investigating and, where possible, clearing all nostro breaks in reported by Securities Control teams
  • By passing entries to the Calypso systems to clean up outstanding items on a timely basis
  • By investigating and, where possible, rectifying all depot breaks on a timely basis reported by Securities Control teams
  • By investigating and solving accounting breaks raised by Securities Control & Accounting teams
  • Escalating items that represent operational risk to the direct Manager

• Contribute to the minimisation of settlement costs & operational risk:
  • By becoming more risk aware and by following the procedures or Compliance rules that are in place to mitigate operational or reputational risk
  • Monitors and take appropriate actions in case of market risks (buyins)
  • By seeking to improve STP rates at our custodians so reducing cost, by updating static data as and when necessary
  • By reducing the number of manual instructions sent to agents therefore reducing cost, manual intervention and settlement risk according to Compliance rules
  • If necessary, using the escalation process when operational risk is detected

• Contribute to the overall successful running of the settlement department:
  • By maintaining close relationships with traders and sales and escalating problems to them promptly where required
  • By maintaining good working relationships with domestic agents and custodians
  • By communicating with, and assisting, other operational departments where needed
  • Ensuring direct Managers are kept informed of any potential problems & issues where appropriate.

Skills and competencies:

• Ability to analyse, organize and report efficiently
• Flexibility on working methods and changing international environment
• Rigorous and reactive in order to face pressure and reach excellence anytime
• Diligently follow the set procedures and Compliance policies
• Knowledge of financial markets and products, and easiness/expertise in dealing with Excel.
• English speaker

Experience Required

Minimum of 5 years experience

Ability to deliver / Results driven

Communication skills - oral & written

Ability to understand, explain and support change

Ability to develop others & improve their skills

Bachelor Degree or equivalent