Senior Specialist Trade and Settlements Support at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Description

In this role you will be required to :- 

• Provide cover for JSE Settlement Officer and where spikes in volumes for the settlements and/or trade support teams, or where training required by the operations staff.
• Querying BDA Database for trade data, static data as required by the Operations team or any of the infrastructure support areas.
• Reconcile exchange trade cash settlements to forecasted funding requirements.
• Resolve and Investigate exceptions/breaks timeously/within standard times as documented by internal policies.
• Review of the daily reconciliations (trades, bank, dividends and positions) between the Front Arena systems (or any other systems as these may be implemented) and the market systems/settlement agents .
• Assist in preparation of Weekly/Monthly KRIs and investigation/explanation of threshold breaches and planned action for remediation Responsible for developing and maintaining the Business Continuity Plan and requirements of the team, as well as organizing and planning for any testing required.
• Recommend change to processes to enhance the operational process and preparation of a proposal for a new process which is presented and implemented once agreed.
• Assist the Head of Operations in developing and rolling out support processes and controls for new products Developing the business motivation and assisting the business analysts with new ops requirements for enhancements and straight through processing.
• Troubleshooting problems and trends with current issues/breaks/automation experienced with certain automation initiatives and liaising with IT development team to improve process.

Education and Experience Required:-

• JSE Settlement Officer Exam or in the process of writing
• Degree in finance advantages
• Minimum 5 years recent experience of the BDA system (JSE Broker Dealing Accounting system) with regards to Settlements, SLB, Corporate Actions and general trade query resolution.
• 3 years’ experience with the various JSE BDA dissemination files and use of Excel to extract/manipulate required data and assist the Business Analysts and IT developers in their automation enhancements of business processes.

Knowledge & Skills:

• (Maximum of 6) Up to date on STRATE Off-Market Rules and Regulations, JSE Rules and Directives regarding off-exchange and on-exchange equity trade settlements and penalties
• UK/SA Removals as well as understanding of SARS issues affecting a stockbroker as to Dividends Withholding Tax, Manufactured Dividends and STT.
• Sound understanding and working knowledge regarding internal control and operational risk management in a stockbroker environment and market interaction.
• The role requires the interaction with Operational Risk Management team and preparation of Risk Control Matrices and KRIs/OLIs. Sound financial background of stockbroking practices and the BDA General
• Ledger/Trial Balance module and accounting to support P+L query resolution from Product Control. Above average computer literacy (Windows, MS Office - Excel Intermediate Level required due to data manipulation and use of Excel reconciliation models with macros).