Senior Financial Controller in London

Position Purpose

The Manager role forms a key part of the Wealth Management Europe (‘WME’) FC team and is responsible for ensuring that the end-to-end financial control framework supports the production of IFRS compliant Balance Sheets and Income Statements. The role will support FC, CT, and change management activities for all WME business while ensuring a robust control environment. It requires partnering with the business and functions where issues have been identified to ensure appropriate action plans are implemented and managed effectively.

Primary Responsibilities

• Financial Control Activities

• Review/input of journals ensuring impact of journal is in accordance with reporting requirements and business expectations.
• Preparation and review of analytical reviews of month-end results, providing relevant variance analysis, and communicating key drivers to Senior Management.
• Contributions to continuous improvements of the financial control process, constantly challenging the way things are done to save time and improve the control environment.
• Update documentation of processes and procedures maintained in Confluence as required.
• Review high-risk head office returns.
• Assist with the preparation of Legal Entity financial statements.
• Prepare the monthly IRRBB GAP01 returns and respond to any queries.
• Engage with CT PC to support month-end close activities.
• Reconciliation of accounts and attestations.
• Ensure the integrity and accuracy of the end-to-end general ledger is maintained at all times from transactions through to the general ledger.
• Ensure key control reconciliations, Standards of Documentation (‘SoD’) packages, and PEGA attestation are produced, reviewed, and signed off in line with policy.
• Monitor and resolve all reconciliation breaks and review points by developing and implementing appropriate action plans within agreed timescales.

• Be a key member of the project team in defining the end-to-end processes in relation to FC.
• Assess strategies for migration of future finance activities, building business cases, robust plans, and solutions.
• Identify and escalate issues that may arise during the various stages of the change process.
• Assist with new business initiatives (NBC), tactical enhancements, and strategic projects within assigned businesses to ensure Financial Control requirements are met that will enable IFRS compliant accounting.
• Contribute to the design, development, and enhancement of systems, processes, and reporting to achieve best practice targets and add value to reporting.
• Lead the closure activities of businesses that are being exited.

Authorities, Impact, Risk

This position supports the key functions listed under primary responsibilities. It involves management of operational risk within the Finance Team and partnering with the Finance Senior Management team, including the WME Chief Financial Officer, members of the wider Finance Team, head office Finance Team, Functions, Operations, Technology Global Finance Teams, Finance Change, Corporate Treasury, and project teams. The role also includes supporting the integration activities of numerous Wealth Management business projects.

Key Relationships

• Finance Senior Management team, including WME Chief Financial Officer
• Members of the wider Finance team
• Head Office Finance team
• Functions, Operations, Technology global finance teams
• Corporate Treasury teams

Working Conditions, Compliance

The candidate must be on the right learning curve to fully leverage the challenges presented by this opportunity for both client and candidate. Demonstrating leadership abilities is essential. The role requires managing tight deadlines and actively managing workload, with an expectation of some work outside of office hours to ensure deadlines are met. Peak periods are the month-end and quarter-end cycles, requiring the ability to work under sustained pressure and meet deadlines. The role has the authority to manage, coach, and mentor the team, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and timeliness of deliverables.

Education and/or Experience

Required: Qualified ACCA/ACA/CIMA (or by experience) with an undergraduate degree in quantitative fields and suitable financial services work experience. The incumbent should have solid knowledge of the accounting treatment of banking products and IFRS 9, a solid understanding of the control framework, and strong IT skills, particularly advanced Excel.

Preferred: Qualified ACCA/ACA/CIMA (or by experience) with an undergraduate degree in quantitative fields.