Specialist: Investment Reporting at Liberty Group South Africa

Purpose

• The role presents and exciting opportunity for the successful incumbent to further their career by gaining sought after experience and skills, and interaction with other departments and business units. The main function of the role is to ensure that information in relation to the Group’s investment assets is valued correctly, processed timeously & accurately in the general ledger; and is reported and presented/classified correctly in the financial statements.
• The successful candidate will be a member of the broader Group Finance Execution (GFE) function, which is a specialized finance division that encompasses the entire finance value chain.
• The role falls within the Investment Solutions (IS) capability of GFE, with specific responsibility for the accurate and complete valuation and reporting of the Liberty Group’s investment assets on the accounting system and ledger (SAP), as well as the day-to-day interaction with key external and internal stakeholders.
• The role is responsible for the development and managing of two direct reports.

Qualification & Experience

• Qualified Chartered Accountant CA(SA), Associate General Accountant AGA(SA) designation will also be considered
• Minimum 2 - 3 years' experience (post-articles) within financial services firm or auditing financial services clients
• Other relevant managerial qualifications and experience will be considered

Skills

• Astute understanding of IFRS (specifically IFRS 9 & 13, IAS 32 & 39)
• Good working knowledge of Accounting for Financial Instruments
• Knowledge of Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT) would be an advantage
• Advanced Microsoft Excel (Advanced formulas)
• Basic understanding of PowerBI and Power Query
• Experience in working with the SAP Ledger
• A working knowledge of Hi-Portfolio or similar system would be an advantage
• A working knowledge of the Blackline Reconciliation System would be an advantage
• Firm commitment to upholding the Liberty and Standard Bank values and behaviours.

Duties and Responsibilities

Oversight of general ledger posting process for investment assets information from source systems

• Review and sign-off of investment assets reconciliations performed by direct reports
• Accountable for the operating effectiveness of internal controls over investment assets reporting
• Accountable for the accounting process and internal controls over asset management fees
• Attend and provide feedback to group finance controls forums and committes
• The role is responsible for the management, oversight and development of two direct reports
• The role will interact with the wider IS team and other departments within Liberty to carry out responsibilities, including:
• Collaborating with team on period close activities during month-end and year-end reporting
• Engagements with the Actuarial, IT, Tax, Unit Pricing, Asset Liability Matching (ALM) departments as required

Additional Duties and Responsibilities

• Review and approval of invoices and payments on Banking system
• Ensuring process documents and procedure guides are up to date across the whole department
• Contribute to preparation of Board Papers for presentation and submission to Liberty Board sub-committees
• Performing Risk Assessments and taking accountability of the Investment Solution risk register and matrices
• Proactively identifying gaps in controls and operational activities. Designing and implementing solutions to address those
• Contribute to or write technical papers to guide operational implementation and requirements
• Lead strategic projects and initiatives relating to GL Reporting and the wider Investment Solutions
• Engaging with external stakeholders to provide and obtain relevant information to carry out duties, including:
• Asset Managers, e.g. NinetyOne & STANLIB, in relation to investment asset information