Investment Operations Officer

Operations Role In Edinburgh

This role is responsible for core processing within specific functions, depending on the individual team, within one of the designated Operations Functional Areas, and is responsible for the quality processing for Corporate / Retail Clients on behalf of FNZ.

This means the following key requirements:

• The role holder will be responsible for all aspects of day to day processing, ensuring that all processes are followed correctly and completed to a high level of quality.
• The role holder will be responsible for service delivery to our corporate clients from their core activities, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and achievement of service standards in accordance with clients' KPIs.

Specific Role Responsibilities:

Strategy

• Deliver best in class operational services to clients and internal partners.
• Support operational relationships across the global business, ensuring collaborative engagement and partnering to achieve the best results and protection for clients and the business.
• Participate as an internal stakeholder and positively support the relationships globally to create a positive, collaborative, and engaged relationship.
• Engage with external stakeholders in relation to their team's issues, service standards, change and risk including clients, custodians, consultants, potential clients, third parties, regulators, and non-executive directors.

Process

• Ensure that completion of daily tasks are true and accurate, minimising errors with processing and quality actions.
• Delivery of KPI / KRI's in relation to customer contractual terms, taking action to prevent failure, through quality processing.
• Support, contribute to, and challenge the delivery of the Operational Transformation Programme (or any other continuous improvement programme), ensuring delivering and milestone completion for the team.
• Complete personal risk management, covering Control Attestation, Risk Event and Breach Reporting, ensure accurate and timely reporting, with focus on quality and prevention.
• Ensure adherence of operational controls, to reduce errors and mitigate potential for fraud; and deliver reporting / evidence to the Manager and/or Senior Officers to evidence standards achieved.
• Support quality of processing for handling client assets and client money within role; and deliver reporting / evidence to the Manager and/or Senior Officers to evidence standards achieved.

People

• Maintain training requirements
• Encourage a culture of collaboration, supportive challenge and discussion through openness and ethical decision making.
• Be an effective communicator, ensuring that information is communicated effectively to necessary parties and in a timely manner for purpose of rapid resolution
• Ensure compliance with all mandatory training is completed in a timely fashion.
• Support, implement and manage the FNZ culture, meeting the FNZ conduct standards and focus on collaboration, debate, openness, and engagement for staff.
• Develop professional and technical knowledge and skills, via training & development, in order to meet Continuing Professional Development requirements.

Functional Area Responsibilities

Static Data & Pricing (APAC: Products & Pricing)

• Management of static data and pricing information across the FNZ platform for our customers.
• Managing data sources from multiple vendors ensuring timely and accurate provision of information to end users and to optimise timely and accurate straight through processing capability.
• Engaging with customers for both maintenance of existing instrument universe as well as support the ongoing development of the client proposition.

Dealing (APAC: Settlements)

• Order placement - Place mutual fund orders electronically or by fax, ensuring the external fund manager receives the order instruction prior to the valuation point or dealing deadline.
• Order monitoring - Monitor for any equity orders that are rejected by the broker, ensuring that the orders are then placed timely electronically or by telephone.
• Order monitoring - To monitor the progress of orders and also the receipt of manual / electronic confirmations from brokers and mutual fund managers.
• Production Monitoring - Carry out daily control tasks to identify any orders which may require manual intervention and ensure that these are placed timely and accurately before the dealing deadline.

Transfers

• To transfer platform holdings in and out of FNZ custody on a daily basis.
• Issuing Stock Transfer Forms to Fund Managers.
• Working with Electronic Transfer Solutions for Re-Registration.
• Ensure all accounts held by FNZ Nominees reflect accurate Transfer positions.
• Ensure that all platform assets are re-registered within KPI & SLA timeframes.
• Perform investigation on Transfer In and Out requests.
• Agree Trade & Settlement with counterparties and submitting requests to Broker/Crest.

Corporate Actions

• Processing mandatory and voluntary corporate actions on Managed Funds, Equities and Fixed Interest products within Key Performance Indicator targets.
• Sourcing of all relevant information, either from fund managers, data feeds, Bloomberg, custodian agents or relevant registry / company websites to ensure corporate actions are processed correctly.
• Maintaining internal stock and cash ledger control accounts and clearing them on a daily basis.
• Reconciling client holdings versus agent holding to ensure that they match during a corporate action.

Settlements & Payments (APAC: Cash)

• Support Client funds cash management including all client cash transactions and ledger processing.
• Process daily market settlement and ledger movements.
• Support Control Account Exception Reporting and Regulatory Reporting
• Undertake daily client and pooled FX trade processing and settlement management.
• Maintain up to date and accurate interest rates across all supported currencies.
• Internal/External stakeholder and client cash reporting in accordance with regulatory and legislative obligations that apply to FNZ and its client groups.

Reconciliations

• Asset Reconciliations - monitor investment holdings and transactions and the receipt of manual/electronic holdings and transaction statements from brokers and fund managers.
• Cash Reconciliations - Compare GL balances and transactions on the Platform against corresponding bank accounts. Perform daily reconciliations to ensure all internal GLs reconcile as expected either via automated sweeps or manual matching.
• To investigate variances/breaks from reconciliations.
• To ensure that all breaks are resolved and cleared within a given timeframe.
• To reconcile individual clients in a short position and ensure this is rectified in a timely manner.

Experience Required

Required Knowledge & Skills

• A degree or equivalent in a finance, business or numerate discipline.
• Operations experience within the Wealth Management / Platform industry.
• Experience in client services.
• Experience in using Excel for data analysis.
• The ability to work accurately and to deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Preferred Knowledge & Skills

• Proposition knowledge of platform industry, from Retail Client to Asset Servicing delivery.
• Technical operational knowledge relative to the team under role holders' remit,
• Change management experience,
• Understand of risk/compliance policies and processes for a financial services business
• Able to demonstrate understanding of regulations that apply within the region