Treasury Officer at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/19/115
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL6
Position N°: 50055250

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for Finance (FIVP) oversees the financial management of the Bank Group
• This encompasses the Bank Group’s treasury activities including borrowings from the capital markets and investment activities; controllership functions including financial reporting and loan administration; strategic resource mobilization and the strengthening of the non-statutory financial resources and instruments; the overall asset/liability management for the Bank Group.

The Hiring Department

• The Treasury department is responsible for raising funds from capital markets, managing and investing the Bank Group’s liquidity and shareholders’ funds, processing and settlement of all financial transactions and managing the institution’s banking relationships.
• Under the supervision of the Division Manager, Treasury Operations Division (FITR.2), the Treasury Officer settles Asset and Liability Management (ALM) transactions, reviews the borrowing and derivative documentations, reconciles the securities accounts, processes the corporate actions and the tax claim linked to investment instruments (Money Market, fixed income securities and derivatives), and assist in the management of collateral activities.

The Position
The objective of the job is to work for the settlement of the Bank Group's capital market operations, collateral management and custodian relationships and investigations, with the objective of:

• Validate, affirm and settle the Bank Group ALM transactions timely
• Perform daily margin calls on the Bank Group OTC derivatives portfolio
• Process corporate actions and tax claims and reconcile timely custody accounts to avoid financial loses.
• Participate in the review of ISDA/CSA agreements and borrowing documentations and process all derivative contracts.
• Review and update all counterparties and Bank Group Standard Settlement Instructions (SSIs)
• Investigate all exceptions related to payments and receipts and negotiate adequate compensation in line with the ALM guidelines and best market standards.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Principal Treasury Officer of the Capital Market Operations, the responsibilities of the Treasury Officer will include, but are not limited to the following:

Validate, affirm and settle the Bank Group ALM transactions:

• Verify set-up of capital market operations (Bond, Money market, Futures, Swap and Gold swaps etc.) economic terms in Summit against related trade confirmations received from counterparties to ensure accurate cash flow generation and report any exceptions to the middle-office/front-office for regularization;
• Generate and send Money Market and FX Swap trade confirmations to the respective counterparties, Match confirmations issued and received using GT Match (automated reconciliation system) and investigate and regularize discrepancies before the release of the related settlement instructions;
• Validate trade SSIs, check the availability of funds on the cash flow report, assign the appropriate place of settlement, generate the adequate settlement instructions and cash transfer to avoid settlement failures;
• Validate debt service payments before due date with the Issuing & Paying Agent (IPA) and the swap counterparties to ensure the Bank meets its financial obligations;
• Perform periodic review of counterparties SSIs and contacts and update Summit database.

Process tax exemptions and corporate actions event related to the bank's investment and borrowing portfolio:

• Tax Exemptions:
  • Periodic review of the Bank's tax exemptions and certificates of withholding tax with custodians and correspondent banks and provide necessarily information to avoid any financial losses;
  • Gather and process tax claim notices issued by correspondent banks to avoid tax deduction on income;
• Corporate Actions:
  • Generate the income and entitlement reports on the investment portfolio in Summit and reconcile with information received from the custodians and investigate any discrepancies;
  • Monitor corporate actions (certification, tender, class action) and take appropriate actions to avoid financial losses;
  • Process Call notifications and Buyback notices on borrowing transactions; inform the respective Issuing and Paying Agent (IPA) and transfer the necessarily cash amounts to avoid settlement failures.

Perform daily margin calls on the Bank Group OTC derivatives portfolio:

• Swaps, Swaptions, FX Swap trades:
  • Generate in Summit the Bank daily margin requirements on OTC exposure and send margin calls to CSA/GMRA counterparties and Clearing Broker before contractual cut of times;
  • Validate accuracy of margin calls (response/initiation) received from counterparties (market value of the portfolio, credit support balance, applicable Threshold and Minimum transfer amounts etc.) to ensure adequate margining of the Bank derivatives exposure and investigate discrepancies;
  • Validate collateral movements including substitutions, reflect credit support flows in Summit for generating the related settlement instructions and accounting postings;
  • Reconcile the month end collateral positions and interests on cash credit supports with CSA/GMRA counterparties and generate the related payment instructions;
  • Maintain the CSA/GMRA statics in Summit;
• Futures and Options:
  • Ensure adequate margining of the bank's Futures and Options portfolio with the Clearing Brokers;
  • Generate in Summit the daily margin requirements on Futures & Options exposure and send them to the Clearing Brokers before contractual cut of times;
  • Validate accuracy of margin calls (response/initiation) received from the Clearing Brokers and investigate discrepancies;
  • Reconcile the bank's Futures and Options portfolio;
  • Maintain the Give-up Agreement (Futures & Options) statics in Summit;

Participate in the review of ISDA/CSA agreements and borrowing documentations and process all derivative contracts:

• Ensure that a confirmation is received for each derivatives transaction on a timely basis.
• Ensure that derivative confirmations comply with the current ALM guidelines and the Treasury open mandate's terms.
• Verify the accuracy of the borrowing and derivative contracts against trade tickets and transaction's final terms sheets. Report discrepancies to the traders or counterparties for regularization.
• Monitor and manage discussions between the Bank's Legal department (PGCL), Treasury Risk management's division (FIFM3), Operations (Private and Public sectors), Accounting department (FIFC) and counterparties to achieve agreement on the financial and legal terms of the confirmation
• Ensure, after PGCL's clearance, that confirmations are signed by the authorized signatory (The Treasurer) archived and subsequently forwarded to the counterparty.
• Implement "MarkitServ" application to enable real time affirmation and confirmation of derivative transactions;
• Maintain an adequate record of the status of all confirmations.

Review and update of standard settlement instructions (SSIs):

• Perform periodic review of all SSIs in line with market standard and regulations and prepare a consolidated SSIs list for distribution to all stakeholders;
• Update timely all SSIs in the treasury applications to avoid settlement failures

Investigation and Reporting:

• Daily:
  • Reconcile the daily internal coupon and redemption schedule against custodian income statements, transfer cash available to the main accounts for investment and investigate any discrepancy;
  • Identify bonds that undergo partial redemption and inform both the Front and Middle Office.
  • Review daily settlement notices (match & unmatched alerts) issued by custodians and counterparties and take necessarily actions to avoid settlement failures;
• Monthly:
  • Reconcile the Bank securities and Futures & Options positions against custodian/Clearing broker statements using GTMatch on a monthly basis and investigate any mismatch;
  • Prepare the monthly settlement failure, custodian fees and non-performing counterparty's reports

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Minimum of a Master's Degree or equivalent qualification in Business Administration, Finance, Banking, Accounting, Economics or similar fields;
• 4 years’ relevant practical working experience within a Back-Office environment.
• Sound understanding of financial instruments and very good knowledge of capital market operations and instruments settlement procedures;
• Strong analytical skills, ability to work without supervision to resolve complex settlement problems;
• Proven ability to reduce settlement failure of capital market operations transactions.
• Private Sector Experience an added advantage
• Good understanding of payment processing in an automated environment that includes Swift messages.
• Marketing and presentation skills are needed to communicate with stakeholders
• Teamwork & Relationships: Work with others to maximize the effectiveness of the team as a whole, share the knowledge and workload.
• Develop strong working relationships with colleagues and contribute to creation of a positive team environment.
• Strong ability to work under pressure
• Articulate, meticulous and well-organized
• Demonstrable familiarity with and knowledge in the use of a Treasury Systems (preferably Summit, Bloomberg plus common IT skills)
• Communicate and write effectively in English or French, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint);
• Knowledge of SAP/FI or other ERP, Cards management, SWIFT, GTMATCH is desirable.