Senior Manager – ICAAP, FCA, PRU – Asset & Wealth Management

The Governance, Operations and Controls Senior Manager is a key member of the Wealth and Asset Management Consulting team. The individual will work closely with the Partners and Directors to lead the delivery of advisory engagements to company's wealth and asset management clients. Advice will focus on best practice across a range of areas including governance, investment operations, and control environments to ensure their clients have effective governance structures, policies, procedures and controls, which meet the expectations of investors, regulators and other key stakeholders. These projects can take different forms depending on the client's needs, for example:

• Asset manager risk and control reviews – reviewing a firm's front, middle and back office operations, identifying key risks and internal controls to assess whether they are suitably designed, and make recommendations based on our knowledge and experience.
• Operational due diligence – reviewing operational aspects of an asset manager, including hedge funds and private equity houses, on behalf of investors, platforms and/or part of transaction activity within the Asset Management sector. Areas covered include governance arrangements, trade life cycle, investment monitoring and oversight, risk and compliance arrangements, valuation arrangements, and business continuity planning / disaster recovery.
• Policies and procedures reviews – assisting firms with developing industry-leading policies and procedures. These cover a range of areas from the front to the back office and take into consideration the firm's strategy, culture, risk appetite and regulatory.
• Governance reviews – assisting firms with a review of their internal governance structure.

Example Projects

Below are some example projects that we have worked on:

• Helped a global provider of indices and data services with their benchmark assurance review. This project covered the governance framework, and design and operating effectiveness of controls relating to index administration and calculation activities.
• Helped establish a new asset management business including developing policies across all business functions including investments, investment operations, distribution, risk and compliance.
• Reviewed processes and controls in the Liability Driven Investment (LDI) and structured equity business for a UK asset manager.
• Conducted operational due diligence reviews over a new fund platform, a UK based infrastructure manager and an international fiduciary manager

The Person

• You will have extensive knowledge and experience in the financial services industry, in particular the asset and wealth management sectors.
• You will have significant experience of conducting governance and controls reviews as well as operational due diligence or investment operations reviews either as part of another large consultancy firm or have had broad experience in investment operations function at an asset management firm, hedge fund or investment consultancy.
• You will have gained a good knowledge of key policies, processes and control environments at an asset manager and have experience working with organisations to advise on and implement industry best practices. This will include but not be limited to governance arrangements, trade life cycle, risk and compliance arrangements.
• You have a strong understanding of various asset classes, including but not limited to, equities, fixed income, real estate and private equity as well as the investment strategies that employ these asset classes.
• You have assisted in developing robust control environments within the asset management industry and have a good knowledge of how key players (e.g. asset managers, asset servicers, benchmark providers, valuation agents) operate.
• You adapt quickly in a fast-paced environment, taking on new challenges, grasping new technical concepts rapidly, whilst delivering work to a high standard of quality and demonstrating strong attention to detail.
• The above skills makes you a strong role model for more junior staff and you willingly share your technical and professional knowledge taking a genuine interest in developing the careers of your team.
• Share your technical and professional knowledge taking a genuine interest in developing the careers of your team.