Snr Spec: Legal at Liberty Group South Africa

Purpose

• To provide specialist legal advice and support through the provision of sound legal services, with a primary focus on the identification and assessment of all regulatory measures, current and upcoming, impacting on the Insurance and Asset Management Business Unit of Standard Bank Group.

Qualification and Experience

• An admitted attorney or advocate
• Completed LLB
• 5 or more years’ experience in Financial Services (preferably in insurance)
• An in-depth knowledge detailed understanding of the insurance and financial service sector
• An in-depth knowledge and understanding of inter alia the Financial Sector Regulation Act, Insurance Act and Standards, Long-term Insurance Act, Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, Pension Funds Act, Financial Markets Act, Collective Investment Scheme Act, Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill.
• Involvement with the implementation of regulatory changes within the financial service sector such as Amendments to the Policyholder Protection Rules, Retail Distribution Review, Protection of Personal Information Act, FICA Act etc
• Participation in Industry Bodies

Key Responsibilities

• Keep abreast of new legislation and regulatory changes, advise business stakeholders of potential impact that such changes would have on the business and manage IAM's collated response to the regulator or industry bodies.
• Understanding and applying relevant legal requirements from new and emerging regulation in the provision of proactive and holistic advice and training, through collaboration with different business areas to provide staff with knowledge and awareness of relevant laws, regulations and standards.
• Liaison between Regulatory and Industry Bodies and applicable areas in IAM.
• General Regulatory support to the business areas within IAM, including participation as the SME (subject matter expert) on Regulatory Projects.
• Deliver exceptional legal service that exceeds customers’ expectations through proactive, innovative and appropriate legal solutions.
• Cultivate and manage objective working relationships with a variety of stakeholders, including external attorneys, industry bodies and regulators and act as ambassador of the organisational brand.
• Contribute to a TCF service excellence culture, which builds positive relationships and provides opportunity for feedback and exceptional service.

Skills

• An in-depth understanding of all major legislation in the financial services sector.
• Proactively keeps up to date with pending/emerging regulatory developments in the financial services sector.
• A deep and specialist knowledge and insight of pending/emerging regulatory developments in the financial services sector.
• Ability to integrate this understanding and knowledge into a complex and detailed impact analyses.
• Ability to draw on a wide range of relevant sources and to add value to interpretations, advice and impact analysis.
• Ability to contribute to changes and improvements to legislation and regulation.
• Ability to identify, interpret and communicate the impact or risk of regulatory development.
• Ability to apply this knowledge and understanding when giving deep specialist advice to the business.

Interpersonal Skills

• An understanding of the consulting process as it relates to partnering with our business areas to diagnose their needs, developing a realistic response, planning and implementing an intervention and evaluating results in a manner that yields the desired outcome.
• Developing and maintaining ongoing working relationships, networks and partnerships, requiring personal interaction and mutual support to help achieve business goals.
• Effectively meet the business areas needs, understanding and exceeding their expectations and requirements using the relevant technical skills, business acumen and optimal resources.
• Applying effective verbal, nonverbal and written communication methods to achieve desired results. Presents ideas effectively to individuals and groups.
• Understands team dynamics and uses flexible interpersonal style to contribute to the effective functioning of teams and facilitate the completion of team goals.

Interpersonal Competencies

• Confident and assertive with an understanding of themselves and the impact they have on others.
• Continuously learns and improves through applying an open and proactive approach to work.
• Builds credibility and trust through being honest, ethical and fair.
• Shows pride and a love for the work that they perform.
• Willingness and support for learning and development opportunities in the advocacy and regulatory discipline and area of expertise.        
• Both big picture strategic thinking and attention to detail required.
• Analytical thinking.