Senior Manager, Country Risk at Standard Chartered Bank

Job Description:

This role is a key position within the Enterprise Risk Management ("ERM") Country Risk team and is integral to driving the Country Risk agenda in the Africa and Middle East ("AME") region. The role involves embedding the Country Risk Standard; identifying emerging risks and preparing risk mitigation strategies; monitoring and accurately reporting Country Risk exposures; and acting as the point of contact for all Country Risk matters relating to the AME region.

Key Roles & Responsibilities:

The Senior Manager will:

• Support the team with Country Risk regional review reviews, including engaging with the first-line of defence on regional business strategies; preparation of sovereign rating reviews; and setting appropriate country appetite.
• Initiate ad hoc out-of-cycle review when required.
• Act as the key point of contact for all Country Risk matters for the AME region and escalate necessary matters to Head, Country Risk.
• Present views on key risks and sovereign rating outlooks to senior stakeholders as part of regional risk committees.
• Undertake in-country due diligence trips and represent the Bank through engagements with clients, policymakers and senior stakeholders.
• Take ownership for effective Country Risk management, monitoring and reporting practices, including identification and remediation of limit breaches.
• Support on regional stress-tests requiring input from Country Risk, specifically regarding stressed sovereign ratings.
• Support the Head, Country Risk in effectively embedding operational risk excellence through inherent risk assessments; designing key controls and ongoing monitoring of control effectiveness.
• Uphold the integrity of risk/return decisions, by challenging the 1st line of defence to demonstrate that risk origination and control decisions are properly informed and consistent with the business strategy and risk appetite across the region.
• Act quickly and decisively when any risk and control weakness becomes apparent and ensure they are addressed within an appropriate timeframe and escalated through the relevant committees.
• Support the Head, Country Risk in defining and continuously improving the policy framework for management of Country Risk and ensure this is fully embedded throughout the organisation.
• Ensure formalised procedures and Department Operating Instructions for all Group Country Risk processes are completed and maintained.
• Articulate the need for, and benefits of, effective Country Risk practices throughout the Group through training.

People and Talent:

• Support the Head, Country Risk in developing a high performing team.
• Support other team members during times of peak capacity.
• Foster an environment of continuous improvement and challenge existing processes.
• Lead through example and live the Group's value behaviours.

Key Stakeholders:

Internal:

• Group CRO
• Global Head, ERM
• Head, Country Risk
• Regional CRO
• Regional CEO
• CRO, CCIB
• CRO, CPBB
• Country CROs
• Credit Portfolio Management
• Stressed Assets Risk
• Business Heads including the Public-Sector Development Organisations unit
• Global Research economists

External:

• Credit Rating Agencies

Regulatory & Business Conduct:

• Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group's Code of Conduct.
• Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
• Lead the team to achieve the outcomes set out in the Bank's Conduct Principles: The Right Environment.
• Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Role Specific Technical Competencies:

• Knowledge of macroeconomic concepts
• Knowledge of international affairs
• Strong understanding sovereign rating approached used by credit rating agencies
• Advanced credit analysis skills for Financial Institutions / Corporates / Public Sector clients
• Analytical skills
• Written and oral communication skills - and the ability to explain complex matters in simple and intuitive terms, to non-technical audiences. Presenting views to senior stakeholders
• Inter-personal skills; comfortable in building relationships with stakeholders at senior levels and across teams
• Creativity and problem-solving abilities

Our Ideal Candidate:

• Post-graduate degree in Economics / International Relations
• Between 6-10 years of experience

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 160 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents. And we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.
Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion. Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Be better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term
• In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.
• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations
• Time-off including annual, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 weeks maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.
• Recruitment assessments - some of our roles use assessments to help us understand how suitable you are for the role you've applied to. If you are invited to take an assessment, this is great news. It means your application has progressed to an important stage of our recruitment process.

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