Operations Control Head at Citi

Job Id: 23657804

Job Purpose:

• Execution of Operations control plan & strategy in conjunction with functional leadership and country business management.
• Proactive identification and assessment of risk and controls; working with businesses to reduce operational, franchise, reputational and strategic risk.
• Maintain a flexible control framework to support evolving technologies and risks
• Establishing a common control framework across Operations through analysis, reporting, training, and control forums.
• Partner with Operations to ensure operating resiliency through standards, controls, and governance.
• Enrich human capital through diversity, ethics, learning and meritocracy.

Key Responsibilities:

• Standard Controls Test Plan – Execution of the Standard Controls Test Plan, review country specific processes based on any local requirements, ensure timely submission of review results and corrective actions with focus on content & quality. Work with Operations in planning corrective actions and ongoing analysis and monitoring of exceptions trend.
• Proactive & Conformance reviews – Design, plan & execute proactive review schedule for the year including:
  • Health checks: Conduct targeted reviews focused on specific operating areas/functions or a business unit driven by control concerns/high risk areas/OREs.
  • Process deep-dive: Conduct front to back review of a function or business aligned process driven by function/process failures and control indicators.
  • Conformance reviews: Conduct targeted reviews to ensure compliance/conformance with procedures and programs relating to operations global, regional functional policies etc. driven by new or changed policies, standards or directives, audit, and business monitoring issues.
• Controls Advisory - Provide guidance to Operations as it relates to control design. Control evaluation of NACs (New Activities), key policies, standards, and directives as it relates to Operations. Review Operations submissions for DCQ (Disclosure Committee Questionnaire) for escalation to senior management and be a participant in policy committees and forums.
• Risk & Control Project Support - On an ad-hoc basis, provide any specific onsite support on the following areas Third Party Management, Continuity of Business, Fraud Management, Access Entitlements, EUCs.
• Control Forums/Meetings – Lead O&T Risk & Controls forums, focus on emerging trends and key risk indicators, be engaged in key developments and awareness, Participate in Risk & Control forums (BRCC, RCMC etc.). Provide input for regional forums and initiatives.
• MPP – Provide guidance on Manual Payments Processing (MPP) to Operations. Monitor MPP deviations, review of MPP deviations prior to submission for approval. Review of MPP process and underlying controls on periodic basis.
• Operational Risk Events (ORE) oversight (e.g., PLE/Near Miss, Ops Losses etc.) – Provide guidance & be point of escalation, follow through with units to ensure timelines are adhered to for input into system, challenge remedial actions and root cause. Check data quality for OREs and be part of the approval chain wherever required. Work with stake holders in root cause analysis and documenting lessons learnt.
• Audit Interface & Oversight - In partnership with Operations, ensure a consistent state of audit readiness. Closely monitor Internal Audit, Regulatory, External, and other reviews. Engage with the entity owners on audit issues raised and analyse non IBAM/previously self-raised issues.
• Issue/CAP Management – Be engaged with Operations through full lifecycle of CAP, review of the CAPs prior to raising in iCAPs to ensure the quality of the CAP. Monitoring of issue/CAP retarget & approval process with owners. Monitoring of timeliness of issue/CAP activation in iCAPS. Monitoring & escalation of O&T Issues/CAPs at risk, past due issues/CAPs, length of planning CAPs, long dated Issues. Support ICG Ops Issue Data Quality and validation process.
• KRI Oversight & Challenge – Monitor metrics and key risk indicators via ICG dashboards and other sources. Analyse and monitor emerging trends, engage with Operations to drive remediation, challenge key risk items within Operations metrics and engage with ops to drive remediation. Continuous monitoring for improvements in key risk indicators.
• MCA Oversight - Support the implementation of EMP/SMP & local specific ARCMs for ICG O&T AUs. Support & challenge O&T Quarterly Risk Assessments (QRA) and Annual Risk Assessments (ARA). Support O&T AU owners on improving the effectiveness & content of MCA.
• Balance Sheet Exceptions Reporting - Monitor BSER exceptions, work with Operations to understand key BSER risk items for escalation where required, monitor trends and variances, work with operations on remediation plans and minimize manual touch points. Promote BSER data integrity
• Red account oversight - Monitor the number and value of red accounts, review underlying root cause, analyse and monitor trends, work with Account Owner/Proof Owner and Balance Sheet Substantiation (BSS) team on remediation. Also ensure controls representation in regional Accounts Review Committee where required.
• Regulatory Change Management - Oversight of the regulatory change management process. Publish periodic reporting to track status of key regulatory changes. Monitor Impact Assessments and creation of Action Plans as required for new/revised reg changes assigned to EMEA TTS Ops AUs.
• New Activity Committee (NAC) - Controls evaluation of NAC impacting EMEA TTS Ops. Including review of proposed NAC for understanding, review of the Operations Summary impact write up for completeness, engagement with TTS Ops to Assess Key risks and preparing the summary for approval in the workflow tool.
• Build a diverse talent pipeline aligned to business needs. Management and development of staff including training and professional development, career and performance management. Effective succession plans.
• Ensure our group’s vision is clearly communicated at levels within the team – guide for ethical decision-making. Enhance the culture of controls and reinforce the institutional operating principles & code of conduct.
• Provide support for the preparation of annual budgets for the unit. Review of monthly variances vs. the plan.
• Enhance the controls plan by identifying opportunities to improve, eliminate, automate and/or centralize controls testing to focus on pro-active reviews and extend coverage to all ICG business lines.
• Participate in projects as per supervisor requirements and guidelines.

Knowledge/Experience:

(What knowledge or experience of the role or the industry does the individual need, e.g. relevant work experience, industry and/or product knowledge)

Previous experience of/as:

• Control and operational risks, fraud risks Banking products
• Payment processing
• Management of a team

Skills:

• Ability to maintain and co-ordinate working relationships across multiple geographies, cultures and time zones.
• Ability to work under pressure and prioritise within tight deadlines across different time zones,
• Identify problems, gather evidence through research, evaluate options & derive conclusions
• Attention to details - summarizing, reporting accurately.
• Strong operations, controls and execution skills.
• Excellent verbal, written communication skills.
• Good presentation skills.
• Ability to embrace and adopt changes.
• Ability to build a strong, successful, motivated team.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree, preferably in business, accounting, or finance is the minimum educational requirement
• 15 years post-graduation experience out of which 10 years must have been in the banking industry and at least 2 years must have been on the Assistant General Manger grade.
• Mandatory working experience in at least 3 major areas of banking operations.
• Fluent in English language

Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and management skills are essential
• Analytical thinking
• Attention to details
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Good presentation skills
• Computer competency – working with MS Office
• Self-starter