Barclays - Product Control

Overall Job Purpose :

Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, we operate in over 50 countries and employ over 140,000 people.

- We provide large corporate, government and institutional clients with a full spectrum of solutions to their strategic advisory, financing and risk management needs. Our clients also benefit from access to the breadth of expertise across Barclays. We- re one of the largest financial services providers in the world, and are also engaged in retail banking, credit cards, corporate banking, and wealth and investment management.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.

- The Finance department covers Product Control, Financial Control, Financial Decision Support and Tax.

- The primary function of Product Control is to work closely with all business stakeholders in achieving the objectives of the firm, in compliance with all relevant regulations and reporting requirements.

- The PC Product Line teams play a key role in ensuring an independent validation, substantiation and reporting of financial information for a particular FO business unit.

The responsibility by Line PC Teams for completeness and accuracy of the books and records comprises of :

- P&L and B/S substantiation and reporting (including P&L explain / attribution, reconciliations, P&L commentaries, adherence to accounting principles, etc.).

- Monitoring trading activity for compliance with various related policies.

- Providing management with technical and operational analysis of the business unit.

- Regular interaction with FO business, Financial Control, Technical Accounting Group, PC Change Management, Technology and other infrastructure areas.

Key Accountabilities & approximate time split :

Responsible for the line product control of an asset class, managing the line PC team to fulfil responsibilities below:

Daily Responsibilities:

- Review daily P&L, including understanding risk positions and market moves for P&L explanation, and review of flash vs formal differences.

- Engage in detailed discussion with traders and risk managers on risk positions and P&L.

- Ensure that the team's KPI and SLA are met.

- Attend to ad hoc queries from the traders and other infrastructure partners relating to trading revenue and Balance Sheet.

Weekly / Monthly Responsibilities

- Review key weekly & monthly MIS to senior management.

- Gain in-depth understanding of provisioning and price testing controls and processes, and review the month end working.

- Engage in detailed discussion with traders, risk managers and Independent Valuation Control team on the results. Liaise with valuation expert on modelling appropriateness and other technical/booking issues.

- Perform detailed review of month end adjustments, and Balance Sheet substantiation

Controls :

- Ensure the maintenance of a strong internal control environment. Monitor control reports to ensure accuracy of data for P&L, validation and downstream processes.

- Raise the team's level of control awareness. Lead by example and engender a strong control culture.

- Ensure clean audit results from internal and external reviews. Be the owner of key stroke documentations for key PC processes, risk assessment and SOX documentation.

Projects and Continuous Improvements

- Identify and drive process re-engineering and constantly challenge status quo for control improvement and process efficiency.

- Motivate and empower the team to deliver continuous improvements

Management :

- Responsible for performance and development of the staff.

- Responsible for resource allocation within the team and setting clear objectives for both business deliverables and personal development.

- Provide leadership and support/advice to the team. Focus on prioritisation and delivery.

- Drive team training.

The jobholder is specifically expected to deliver continuous improvement in financial processes and controls by:

- Ensure all staff are effectively led, motivated, developed and appraised so that their individual and collective performance is of the required high standard and meets the current, as well as the future, needs of the business.

- Providing strong leadership to Finance staff and act as a coach to communicate and achieve the Finance objectives and vision.

- Manage staff recruitment and turnover; ensure consistent training and development plans are rolled out across the BarCorp Finance teams in BSS.

- Promote and facilitate the application of Finance policies and procedures across the teams by monitoring adherence to the policies by the various Finance teams and ensuring in particular that they remain fully compliant with all finance regulatory/statutory requirements.

- Lead performance review within the Finance teams, analyzing and interpreting financial information, and advising/challenging and supporting the team leaders in improving the financial control and reporting environment.

- Take personal ownership for Performance Improvement by developing a meaningful and insightful performance management matrix capturing causal linkage between hard and soft performance deliverables.

- Seeking ways of rationalizing, leaning and enhancing the existing processes and controls.

Strategy :

- Develop and implement the business strategy for own business area.

- Monitor and drive plans to achieve successful completion of work as per the time, budget and quality standards.

- Work extensively with the onshore stakeholders to identify and exploit opportunities for effective migration of processes.

Leadership :

- Provide leadership to the process managers with an oversight for issue resolution.

- Create an environment that promotes continuous improvement and high levels of employee engagement.

- Embed a culture of regular reviews and performance management aligned to GRB standards.

- Leverage and integrate the capabilities of resources across all levels of the organization to accomplish complex objectives.

Service Delivery :

- Ensure adherence to daily schedule and service level agreements (SLAs).

- Ensure process compliance as per the regulatory guidelines and audit requirements.

- Oversee the preparation of basic financial analysis, impairment analysis, financial reports, financial planning and financial statements analysis.

- Review and analyse complex financial reports and financial statements analysis and present the same to the management.

- Establish innovative systems and procedures for handling data & reports and continuously improvise on them.

- Identify process improvement opportunities.

- Understand customer needs and provide innovative solutions.

- Manage and monitor quality for the business area.

- Respond to and resolve issues arising out of interactions with clients.

- Ensure open communication and address issues/ concerns raised.

Relationship Management :

- Establish and maintain effective working relationship with key stakeholders across businesses served.

Team Management :

- Measure performance of the team against SLAs and KPIs.

- Ensure effective allocation and utilisation of resources across the team in order to maximise effectiveness.

- Engage, motivate and coach the team towards achieving goals.

- Assist in identifying the developmental needs of the team & encourage taking suitable training programs to enhance capabilities and skills.

- Communicate strategic developments within the business area.

- Groom and mentor the team to handle wider span & higher responsibilities.

- Build effective communication channels to ensure open communication and address issues/ concerns raised by the team.

- Build effective vertical and horizontal communication channels.

Controls and Compliance :

- Ensure adherence to and compliance with governance, risk policies, procedures and compliance policies.

Other :

- Ensure escalation of issues to management on timely basis.

- Proactive involvement in new business initiatives.

- Build close working relationship with Front-Office, Middle-Office, Operations and Risk departments and promote PC profile. Be viewed as a trusted business advisor.

Person Specification :

Qualifications /education:

- Qualified accountant / CIMA

- CFA / Masters in Finance / Financial Engineering would be an advantage

Working experience:

- 7-10 years of product control experience in a top tier investment bank with minimal of 2-3 years at the VP level.

- Audit exposure in large financial institutions / banks preferred

Technical knowledge / skills :

- In-depth knowledge of Financial product and markets of the relevant asset class

- Good understanding of end-to-end processes of an IB and associated controls

- Excellent communication and presentation skills in both formal and informal settings & ability to interact with the region and London as part of a global team (written and verbal)

- Excellent time management skills and able to prioritise

Candidate Profile :

- Strong control awareness

- Confident and assertive manner

- Ability to work independently with a spectrum of people from junior finance staff to front office business heads.

- Proactive and change focused with problem solving ability.

- Mature and able to negotiate through difficult situations

- Ability to drive the team's agenda in large forums spread across various locations.

- Good influencing and negotiation skills and excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

- Displays enthusiasm, initiative and diligence.

- Opportunity to be groomed to be future leaders, where there will be expended remit for future growth.

- Works well in a team with high standards for team work

Leadership requirements :

Judgment : Balances short-term & long term goals, manages ambiguity well, is an astute risk taker, can see things in new and innovative ways and understands the business.

Influence : Adept at influencing and aligning colleagues to make things happen, builds trusting and collaborative relationships, knows self deeply and creates teams to complement own strengths.

Execution : Turns strategy into results, measures, manages and delivers performance, always delivers on promises. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills and the ability to be creative and to - think outside the box- .

Drive : Passionate about making a difference, relentlessly seeks out and overcomes major challenges, has real drive and determination, continuously raises the bar and is emotionally resilient. Proven track record in delivering to tight deadlines under pressure.

Excellent Communication & Presentation : Excellent people-management and relationship-building skills with ability to operate at most senior levels.

Process improvement : drives through change and process re-engineering by continuously leaning and streamline processes.

Language :

- Ability to speak /write English fluently

Risk and Control objective :

Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Barclays Operational Risk Framework and internal Barclays Policies and Standards.