Business Analyst - IFRS 9

Background:

IFRS 9 represents the biggest change in the accounting of financial instruments since IAS 39 was adopted in 2005. Its impact includes:

- Revision of the ~- 25bn credit loss provision

- Revision of the approach to identifying credit deterioration and calculating impairments / provisions

- Change to the Bank's Capital Ratio due to the revised levels of expected loss

- Revision of the Bank's Chart of Accounts to reflect new classification requirements

- Redesign of Hedging processes and protocols

- Business impacts arising from these changes

Scope of Role:

The IFRS 9 Business Integration (BI) Team is responsible for supporting the multiple work streams of the programme to implement the changes to business processes, operating model & systems across cross-functional teams within Finance. BI team will work in collaboration with extended change team to deliver:

- Cross functional business engagement & mobilisation

- Requirement detailing/ requirement validation

- UAT approach & strategy

- UAT test preparation (conditions, cases, scripts)

- Requirements traceability maintenance

- User Trainings

- UAT co-ordination/ execution

- Facilitate UAT sign off

- Warranty support

- Embedding of - To-be State- into BAU

The principal responsibilities of the role are as follows:

- BAs to demonstrate business analysis experience in the regulatory function of a global bank

- BAs will be working with Finance users/ Finance Change users spread across global locations to define the requirements specifications, create solution options, document business processes & operating model, define end-to-end business test cases & work with the project teams to deliver the solutions.

- BA will be associated with the project throughout the project life cycle and will ensure delivery of the complex book of work meeting the requirements of the business stakeholders.

Purpose of the Role/ Accountabilities:

- Lead the business change & partner with Finance teams globally to do requirement detailing & requirement validation, applying appropriate challenge to stated requirements.

- Research and analysis of issues within the scope of designated assignments supporting the decisions required to introduce new accounting policy, the introduction of new internal reporting and new external disclosures and the development of SOX compliant reconciliations.

- Managing change control process over requirements, and ensure requirements can be traced to business case and implemented solution.

- Manage the change control process & responsible for change request impact analysis

- Support the BI Lead in key business readiness activities like facilitating & co-ordinating across different global working groups for key project activities like business case, requirement gathering, process mapping, UAT (planning & execution), training, communication & deployment.

- Act as back-up to the BI Lead & work on project plans, test plans, test strategy & governance packs.

- Work with technical teams to ensure accurate conversion of business requirements into functional specifications & technical design

- Identification and development of options to address issues.

- Influence the selection and recommendation of preferred solution options and facilitation of key decisions.

- Communication of issues and solutions with stakeholders and subject matter experts.

- Ensure complete coverage of requirements into test cases

- Partner with business in creation of UAT test scripts & agreeing on the entry/ exit criteria

- Partner with business to develop user training guides

- Knowledge of SDLC lifecycle, project management methodology and governance concepts with understanding of importance of project standards and consistency.

- Project status reporting and key updates to be done in governance meetings involving senior business leaders across Finance

Key Role Deliverables:

- Delivery of Change Programme artefacts through the whole Project Life Cycle (including Business Requirements, Use Cases, Functional Specifications, Test Strategy followed by Test Plans, RAID Log, Traceability Matrix)

- Produce all relevant project documentation for the following streams of activity:-

New External Reporting Disclosures

Finance Reporting system changes

Control processes

Revised Operating models

- Management of relevant stakeholders through the whole delivery process (i.e. GFS, CAD, Risk, SOX etc)

- Effective communication with stakeholders and delivery teams throughout the life of the project

- Delivery of appropriate project governance documentation

- Effective liaison with relevant Business and Technology areas to ensure accurate and appropriate analysis

- Documented evidence of successful results from testing cycles performed by Programme and Business teams

People Management Responsibilities:

- Based on project requirements lead team of BA- s

Role Maturity (Possible career advancement options )

- Change Manager

- Business Integration Lead

Behavioural Competence required (PEF): Please identify the applicable competencies and appropriate level from the list below:

Serving Customers - Build Trust, Focus on Customers

Doing the Right Thing - Make Sound Decisions, Act with Integrity

Thinking Long Term - Learn & Adapt, Deliver Lasting Results

Working Together - Enable Others to succeed, Collaborate with others.

Technical Competence required:

- Good understanding of Regulatory & Statutory reporting environment of banks - IFRS9, IAS 39, BASEL III ( Fin Rep, Co Rep, Liquidity, RWAs), Ring Fencing (ICB), Fair Value Accounting, Credit Risk etc.

- Accounting background gained either through direct involvement in accounting change programmes or accounting policy / function or Finance function

- Comprehensive functional knowledge of Finance and familiarity with RBS General Ledger / sub-ledgers and understanding of disclosure requirements

- Strong working knowledge of risk metrics such as PD, LGD, EL, Watch List and their impact on Risk and RWA's

- Good exposure of financial products/ applications used across banking sector

- Strong understanding of business processes and end reporting to Regulators

- Strong Microsoft Office skills including MS Word, MS Excel, Project, Visio & PowerPoint

- Strong SQL experience

Role Selection Criteria and Guidelines

Essential Experience: (Must have skills)

- Under graduation (Any stream) & post graduation like MBA (full time), CA, ICWA, CS with an overall work experience of 8 to 12 yrs

- Strong business analysis skill set. Knowledge of industry best practise around business analysis

- Experience of working in a full project lifecycle as a BA

- Experience of producing requirements specifications & business process diagram. Capability of thinking Outside The Box with a view to improve processes

- Experience of Investment banking and cross-asset class knowledge

- Good understanding of tools, methods, processes and techniques used to gather requirements

- Experience of producing UAT test cases

- Experience of working in Finance domain & Finance systems

- Ability to understand/ contribute to functional specifications & technical design & link it with requirement specifications

Supplementary Experience: (Useful additional skills)

- Knowledge of Finance Control, Product Control, Treasury & Ledger

- Knowledge of Operations, Risk & Treasury domain & systems

- Experience of executing a product implementation using waterfall / agile methodology

- Knowledge of database & system architecture

Personal Attributes:

- Excellent verbal & written communication skills. Excellent active listening skills

- Experience in creating strong partnerships with key stakeholders

- Self Starter & proactive with determination and persistence to achieve goals

- Ability to plan and prioritise workload efficiently and effectively

- Creativity in problem solving and issue resolution

- Attention to detail

- Strong presentation skills. Ability to facilitate business workshops.