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Job Description

Role purpose

  • IFRS 9 Financial Instruments is the most significant risk and accounting change since the initial adoption of IFRS, and one of the most significant changes in credit risk measurement since Basel II.
  • IFRS 9 is a HSBC Group flagship initiative, with strong visibility at Board level and offers an excellent opportunity for individual development and career progression. It involves facing off to numerous areas of the bank and working together to produce Impairment provisions which ultimately get reported into the financial statements.
  • The Head IFRS9 - Impairment Execution and Controls role will report to the Global Head of Wholesale Impairment, and coordinate & manage the end-to-end impairment process and manage key interactions with other related teams. The role will involve managing an onshore team aswell as interacting with dedicated offshore teams.

Tasks include but are not limited to:

  • Periodically deputize for the Global Head of Wholesale Impairment 
  • Ensuring smooth running of a new Operating Model and Governance process introduced for IFRS 9
  • Ensure compliance to Group policies and governance and controls framework
  • Ensuring the team are performing Review and Challenge activities for key regions in a timely manner
  • Strong ability to build and manage relationships across a range of seniorities
  • Oversight of the business and data analyst teams
  • Working with Group Risk Analytics teams to understand credit risk methodology's relating to IFRS 9
  • Coordinating activities with Stress Testing, Sovereign Risk & Forward Economic Guidance Teams

To be successful in the role, you should meet the following requirements:

  • Strong IFRS 9 subject-matter, business knowledge and technology sense
  • Some understanding of policy setting, model inputs, forward economic guidance, stage allocation, disclosures and financial reporting, SOx controls
  • Solid communication skills with stakeholder at all levels
  • Understanding of accounting and/or credit risk concepts
  • Experience of financial or risk reporting processes
  • Be able to articulate complex information in clear and structured way to suit audience
  • Experience in managing teams and stakeholders across the regions
  • Ability to cope with rapidly changing priorities
  • Well organized, logical thinker, problem solver

Key accountabilities

Impact on business

  • Build effective working relationships with the business teams and related teams (Forward Economic Guidance, Finance, Stress Testing etc)
  • Facing off to senior management across business lines and ensuring all queries are resolved in a timely manner
  • Manage any conflicts with internal and external stakeholders

Leadership & teamwork

  • Act as a role model to achieve high standards and lead, develop, motivate and inspire high performance in others
  • Mentor and develop the team in their professional skills and development 
  • Deliver requirements against the objectives of Wholesale Credit Risk and understand the broader world of Capital

Operational effectiveness & control

  • Help drive changes of IFRS 9 approaches, and lead the implementation of innovative solutions.
  • Actively monitor regional practices and guide delivery to ensure that they are in line with Group policies. Ensure that Group Audit reviews of systems and practices related to stress testing and risk measurement proceed smoothly.

Major challenges

  • Large organization with many internal stakeholders to deal with, influencing through the existing governance.
  • Priorities work under high demand from all stakeholders, particularly as this is a regulatory driven project with a fixed deadline.
  • Operate under tight deadlines with a process that can be prone to errors and re-runs.
  • Sustain a broad range of activities under a changing infrastructure and regulatory environment.

Role context

  • The WCR Regional function support both local business and regulatory requirements as well as providing the link to Group function for consolidation purposes.

Role dimensions

  • The jobholder’s responsibilities cover the Wholesale Credit Risk related sections of the Group’s consolidated external financial statements for key regions.
  • Interacting with Regional and Group senior management on a daily basis, being a trusted partner
  • Working with Group Risk Analytics teams to understand credit risk methodology's relating to IFRS 9
  • Collaborating on strategic change project, either risk driven or regulatory driven

Management of risk

  • The jobholder will continually reassess the operational risks associated with the role and inherent in the business, taking account of changing economic or market conditions, legal and regulatory requirements, operating procedures and practices, management restructurings, and the impact of new technology.
  • This will be achieved by ensuring all actions take account of the likelihood of operational risk occurring.
  • Also by addressing any areas of concern in conjunction with entity management and/or the appropriate department
  • The jobholder will ensure the fair treatment of our customers is at the heart of everything we do, both personally and as an organisation.

Qualifications

  • Understanding of IFRS 9 and the IFRS 9 impairment process or alternatively of RWA/stress testing processes
  • Understanding of financial close processes 
  • Understanding of financial reporting controls and SOx processes
  • Understanding of Finance & Risk processes at a Global Bank
  • Ability to a provide a proactive focus on risk/issue identification and mitigation, recognising where MI should be escalated for further review
  • Promote a culture of control awareness and best practice across the IFRS 9 impairment process
  • Ability to effectively work with global and regional teams in Risk, Finance and relevant Transformation functions.
  • Ability to lead offshore teams
  • Capability to provide adequate challenge where necessary
  • Ability to demonstrate leadership qualities across the impairment process
  • ACA or ACCA or CISI or CSA qualified, relevant professional qualification, or relevant advanced degree 
  • Ideally experience of credit risk management and/or measurement
  • Communication with senior stakeholders, e.g. lead technical discussions, prepare executive-level commentary and technical papers etc.
If you are interested in this role please apply below or contact me for more information.