Chief Operating Officer: Transactional Banking CIB - Sandton at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• The Transactional Banking COO will lead and direct the operating environment and business architecture assessment of the operational control measures that drives productivity and business unit performance portfolio including Change, Systems, Operations and Risk for Transactional Banking. The COO will play a pivotal role in driving operational excellence, risk governance, strategic execution, and business growth, translating of strategy into action. Ongoing tracking and measurement of strategy against execution plans by means of the appropriate measurement framework.

Job Description

Accountability: Strategy Execution

• Translate the overall Transactional Banking strategy into key deliverables across Pan-Africa and work with the Transactional Banking ExCo and senior leaders to build the execution plans.
• Lead  the  formulation  and  execution  of  the  Transactional  Banking  scorecard,  ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
• Collaborate closely with senior leaders across Transactional Banking to provide strategic guidance and decision support for business goals by developing and refining strategic plans that leverage market insights.
• Monitor progress against strategic goals and identify areas for course correction, presenting recommendations to the leadership team.
• Collaborate with  senior leaders to  cascade strategic priorities throughout  Transactional Banking, CIB and the Group.
• Foster a culture of accountability and performance measurement to drive the achievement of strategic initiatives.
• Drive special projects for the office of the Managing Executive that include culture, colleague engagement, innovation, efficiency, citizenship / force for good, and other initiatives that will advance Transactional Banking.
• Collaborate with the Transactional Banking ExCo and senior leadership to formulate, execute and track clear Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that align with the vision and strategic direction of CIB.

Accountability: Programme Management

• Monitor project performance, timelines, and budgets, providing regular updates to senior leadership.
• Align the portfolio of change initiatives to CIB strategic principles. Work with business unit managers in Transactional Banking to ensure that their agendas are also in alignment.
• Review the Change portfolio on a monthly basis and communicate relevant information to
• Transactional Banking OpsCo and the Transactional Banking Exco.
• Collaborate with project teams to identify and mitigate risks, ensuring successful project delivery.
• Foster  a  culture  of  collaboration  and  knowledge  sharing  within  the  PMO  and  across departments.
• Implement  performance  metrics  to  evaluate  project  outcomes  and  identify  areas  for continuous improvement.
• Report the Cluster overall change portfolio to the CIB COO/ CIB OpsCo to ensure broader review and assistance with the Transactional Banking SI agenda.
• Play an active role in the CIB OpsCo to influence the change, systems and operations agendas of CIB.
• Accountability: Business Enablement
• Oversee the design and maintenance of operational activities in Transactional Banking, and provide advice and guidance on improvement of strategic projects and initiatives that are of priority for Transactional Banking.
• Develop and execute a strategic communications plan to effectively communicate progress against the strategy, business accomplishments, and other initiatives to Transactional Banking to internal and external stakeholders.
• Oversee the creation of consistent messaging to colleagues that aligns with the Transactional
• Banking strategy and values, to drive colleague engagement and awareness
• Provide ongoing advice and direction to the operational environment ito procedure, policies, legislative and regulative operations whilst maintaining the appropriate commercial/regulatory balance.
• Ensure the implementation of a robust Service Level Management process including the formalised contracting of internal and external service level agreements, regular service reviews and remedial actions for poor service delivery.
• Oversee   the   process   engineering/process   improvement   and   business   architecture development (including systems architecture) for all products, processes and systems that are unique to Transactional Banking.
• Collaborate with Sales and Solutions teams to develop strategies that drive revenue growth and market expansion.
• Lead a capability that provides insights to optimise enhance client engagement and improve sales effectiveness by overseeing the development and deployment of enablement tools, training, and resources.
• Lead the execution of the Transactional Banking scorecard and OKR, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives
• Oversee   the   measuring,   tracking   and   reporting   against   the   Transactional   Banking
• Transformation, Diversity and Inclusion tactical plans

Accountability: Risk Management – Governance & Controls

• Develop and implement a robust Governance and Controls Framework to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies.
• Oversee  crisis  management,  resilience,  and  business  continuity  planning  to  ensure operational stability across Transactional Banking.
• Collaborate with compliance and legal teams to ensure effective governance and controls across all Transactional Banking operations to proactively implement measures to mitigate and manage vulnerabilities in the operational environment.
• Provide guidance to senior leadership on risk-related matters and ensure risk awareness throughout the organisation to foster a culture of risk awareness and accountability among colleagues.
• Together with the Head of Product Risk, review the risk profile of Transactional Banking, define the risk appetite for the Enablement area and support the definition of the risk appetite for Transactional Banking.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with regulatory bodies and external auditors.
• Drive periodic attestation of principal risks within Transactional Banking.

Accountability: Stakeholder Management

• Actively  promote  the  collaborative  engagement  of  internal  and  external  stakeholders including suppliers, clients, call centres, service providers, business partners and other Absa Group entities.
• Be a proactive member of the COO community within the CIB under the direction of the CIB Chief Operations Officer.
• Manage the relationship between all Shared Services capabilities in TxB, CIB, Senior Leaders and other business units in TxB, CIB and the Group.
• Agree and manage service offerings and Service Level Agreements with internal customers [agree annually and measure monthly].
• Interact with executive management to appraise them of developments and progress in

Operations management.

• Represent and actively participate in CIB meetings related to risk management, change councils, operating model design areas and strategic planning forums.
• Build strategic governance strictures to coordinate and ensure operational alignment across all Transactional Banking business units.

Education and Experience Required

• At least 15 years general working experience preferable across multiple industries or multiple disciplines in financial services.

Commercial Degree

• Risk management exposure of at least 5 years.
• 5 years upper middle management experience
• MBA (Preferred)
• CA(SA) or equivalent (Preferred)

Education

• Bachelors Degree and Professional Qualifications: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)