Associate, Middle Office

JOB SUMMARY

The Issuance Middle Office is made up of the Transaction Management Group (“TMG”) and New Issuance Group (NIG) and is a middle office team that provides support for Structuring and Origination as well as Trading and Sales in respect of certain Structuring initiatives and Debt Origination, these include the build out and processing of Securitised Products. The team has recently expanded its remit to provide support for the Credit and Portfolio Management (CPM) Front Office, which continues to expand its business. The role is expected to be varied and to cover multiple products, including securities and loans and any other bespoke transactions. As such it requires the implementation of best practices and procedures across all issuance and ongoing lifecycle events associated with the products, across a number of the Bank’s issuance platforms. This may include, but is not limited to, providing continuous support and assistance to the CPM desk in its day to day activities, along with other internal stakeholders in the roll out of new initiatives; assisting the responsible teams to ensure ongoing adherence by relevant parties with internal governance requirements and internal policies and procedures; and regularly liaising with external stakeholders including, inter alia, the Clearing Systems; various Agent Banks and Trustees; IPA’s , settlement banks, Stock Exchanges and any other appropriate parties. 

Products may include, but are not limited to:
Securitised Loans; Bonds (all asset classes); and Deposits 
Notes, Warrants and Certificates issues from the Structured Product Programme
Notes and Loans issued from the Merit Repackaging Programme and SARAH Repackaging Programme, as well as any 3rd party platforms or new Programmes/stand-alone issuances

The position is an excellent opportunity for candidates with significant operations or middle office background in Financial Markets or Debt Capital Markets who wish to apply their knowledge and leadership skills; interact with other parts of the bank; and help facilitate the growth of a key business. The applicant must have good banking knowledge, have excellent communication skills and above all must be ambitious, have a willingness to continue to learn about new products and regulations, and a desire to introduce best practices whenever possible. It is important that the applicant demonstrate an ability to lead and take ownership of a broad array of new initiatives and to become a go to person for both the business and each support function. 

Responsibilities

Responsibilities will revolve around, but not be limited to, supporting the CPM desk to facilitate new business; liaising with multiple internal and external stakeholders; and the following and creation of new processes as well as other operational tasks that we accrete from expanding our product range. This will also cover the full catalogue of tasks for TMG and NIG and will actively assist in the training of other team members to create capacity, broaden the team’s bench strength and enable continued growth across the different businesses and products which TMG + NIG  supports.

Credit and Portfolio Management Support 

Due to the bespoke and evolving nature of the CPM desk’s business the responsibilities will vary, but a typical example might include such activities as

• Information Sharing with Noteholders (e.g. Compliance Certificate, Prepayment notices or Waiver Letters or Covenants), upon direction from Front Office or GB Legal
• Monitor Pre-payments/Cancellations of loan collateral
• Monitor Credit Grade changes
• Monitor if any defaults, waivers & material changes like Event of Default.
• Substitution – population of the schedule and notification to Noteholders (including prepayments/cancellation, additional of new loan collateral, breach of collateral ratio, switch event)
• Whitelist update – sending of Notification to Noteholders
• In addition to the above there will at all times be the need to continue to support the ongoing tasks in TMG + NIG, particularly the structured note issuances, MTN’s, VFN, CW and  repackagings of which CPM is an active and growing participant. Likewise the role may at times also require supporting the New Issues Group (NIG) in Hong Kong, with both TMG and NIG working closely together and sharing a number of common roles and responsibilities, whilst supporting different business units.

Other Functions

• Participate in evaluating system enhancements, UATs and projects 
• Work closely with the Front Office in supporting any new products or businesses.
• Constant review of DOI to ensure complete and accurate recording of process procedure. 
• Escalation of all exceptions and KCSA breaks. 
• Ensure audit issues are being addressed and solutions provided.
• Ownership of various operational duties, including KCSA tasks and general requests from Operational Risk
• Identify and pursue technology initiatives to reduce manual workload of all activities.
• To be a first port of call for Front Office regarding transaction related queries, where Middle Office is unable to deliver a solution, engage parties who can and follow through to see resolution delivered.

Skills:

• 10+ years’ experience of working in middle office or similar position within a wholesale / investment bank, with detailed operational experience for the new bond and loan issuances
• Excellent and proven attention to detail in documentation review
• Experience or knowledge in Bond Origination, Syndication loan, Asset backed Securities, Convertible bonds & Derivatives Products 
• Familiar with the clearing system settlement mechanism via CMU, Euroclear, Clearstream & DTC etc  
• Financially numerate with good Excel and PC skills
• Ability to work independently and under tight deadlines and time pressure
• Strong and demonstrable communication and coordination skills 
• Proven ability to communicate with all levels of the bank – front to back office as well as external parties
• Proven ability to be flexible with work responsibilities and react to changing situations
• Ability to recognise best market practices and apply them within a growing product franchise.

The title and grading given to the successful candidate will depend on the experience levels.