CASS Manager

This job is with St. James's Place, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.

The role: The CASS Manager will work within the SJP CASS Office team, reporting to the Group Head of CASS. The SJP CASS Office is a regulatory function, overseeing the firm's compliance with FCA CASS rules, with particular focus on St. James's Place Unit Trust Group and St. James's Place Investment Administration, and Rowan Dartington & Co. The core function of the role is to assist in ensuring that SJP are exercising robust governance of all CASS regulated activities performed by the Admin Centre and Partners, through effective operational oversight, breach monitoring and trend analysis, risk management, and a robust programme of controls monitoring. The role holder will identify, and drive control, process and governance enhancements geared towards keeping SJP CASS compliant.

What you'll be doing:

• Interrogate all CASS breaches and assess them against the CASS notification policy for materiality and potential FCA notification.
• Exercise sound judgement in considering where breaches are linked and may collectively be material, ensuring decisions are tied to established SJP CASS policy.
• Draft FCA breach notifications for review by the Group Head of CASS, ensuring documentation is accurate, clear, and appropriate for senior executive review and sign-off.
• Use all available data and SME knowledge to proactively identify CASS breach trends and report them to the Head of CASS Office and the CASS Committee, along with steps to address the trends.
• Proactively identify measures to reduce breach volumes by working closely with SS&C to influence control processes, quality assurance, and identify potential automation.
• Ensure that all breaches, controls, and risks are maintained within the Axiom tool, and utilise the tool to drive new data insights to shape our approach to the CASS control environment.
• Use CASS expertise to shape and evolve SJP's CASS policy.
• Maintain awareness of CASS and HMRC (ISA) regulatory change, and pro-actively consider the impact to SJP.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews, on an ad-hoc basis, of significant operational or system change.
• Identify meaningful actions to address CASS risks and drive them through to completion.
• Create the CASS Committee pack, and identify and share key insights and commentary around escalations and current activities.
• Ensure information is presented accurately and concisely to the Committee.
• Review the ISEM inputs each month, ensuring that all inputs have fully considered in the context of the appropriate CASS rules.
• Provide clear and accurate assessment to the Head of CASS Office and the CASS Committee each month.
• Maintain and evolve the existing programme of CASS control testing activities.
• Clearly record the scope, outcome and actions arising from testing, reporting findings to the Head of CASS Office, the CASS Committee and senior executives - where appropriate.
• Oversee the review of daily reconciliations, ensuring CASS Office controls are executed accurately and timely, and that all anomalies and breaks have been escalated to the Admin Centre and the Head of CASS Office, where necessary.
• Identify emerging or crystallised issues and engage with Admin Centre SMEs to drive resolution.
• Support the data gathering and validation of the monthly CMAR returns.
• Ensure data is accurate, complete and that timely escalations are made where exceptions are identified.
• Provide inputs to internal SMCR and CASS board reporting.
• Assist in shaping the messaging to the relevant entity boards.
• Work closely with Admin Centre and PwC audit teams to ensure the smooth execution of controls testing and provision of audit deliverables.
• Take ownership of issues and pro-actively engage with our auditors to identify and address emerging findings.
• Respond to technical ISA escalations from the Admin Centre and Partners, in a timely and accurate manner.

Essential Criteria: Good CASS knowledge, specifically Chapter 6 and 7. Oversight or operations experience gained from the Financial Services sector, ideally Wealth Management. Operational Risk and Control Management. Able to create MI Pack for Senior Management.

Desirable Criteria: Strong third party and stakeholder management skills. Able to deputise in committee meetings, strong communicator and own agenda points and take questions.

Special Requirements: Please be aware that this is a certification role under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime.