Head of Trade Finance Operations

Job Description

Morgan McKinley is working in partnership with a regional Corporate Bank with strong footprints and relationship in the Asia region.

The Singapore team is looking for a VP hire to head the Trade Finance operations team. Reporting to the Regional COO, you will be leading a team to manage the BAU operations which spans across Trade Finance, Loan & Deposit and Payment, as well as overseeing Risk & Controls and ongoing Projects.

Role and responsibiltiies

• Provide oversight and authorise all transactions within Operations team (inclusive of Trade Finance, Loan & Deposit, and Payment)
• Ensure proper booking of transactions in the system and timely settlement of transactions.
• Work closely with Loan middle office on loan maintenance
• Appropriate handling of customer's queries and those escalated by the team members.
• Managing and reporting of MIS (volume, capacity utilization, error reporting etc.)
• Implementing effective processes and standards
• Maintain and implement effective controls over the processes in Operations (inclusive of Trade Finance, Loan & Deposit, and Payment), highlighting areas of concerns for remediation and ensuring strict compliance to regulations, policies, and guidelines.
• Be the owner and reviewer of Operating Procedures and workflows in the team, ensuring processes and documents are reviewed regularly and changes to processes are updated and documented.
• Support the team in all audit engagements, ensuring that audit's requests are clear and supported effectively, issues highlighted are investigated and responded to swiftly and where necessary are escalated for effective management.
• Participate in and plan for the team's Business Continuity Planning.
• Act as trusted advisor to lead the investigation of operations incidents and to recommend improvement plan to mitigate risk in the future
• Be the key liaison point for the Business (Product Heads, RMs, HQ, etc.) to manage Business and Client requirements and translating these to support capabilities.
• Communicate constantly with relevant business units and be updated of market trends and individual customer's needs.
• Perform managerial responsibilities that include managing the career of each team members, plan and provide opportunities and support for development of team members.
• Contribute to the creation of a high-performance culture and engaged team through effective collaboration.
• Leading Operations related projects, transformation plan and system upgrade/implementation
• Contribute to the creation of a high-performance culture and engaged team through effective collaboration.

Key requirements

• Minimum 15 years of relevant working experience in Operations (inclusive of Trade Finance, Loan & Deposit, and Payment) in a senior role, preferably with reputable financial institutions.
• Possesses strong operational experience including processing of LCs, Bank Guarantees, Checking of import and export documents, loans/deposits and payment documentation etc.
• Strong knowledge in the latest international trade finance rules/guidelines such as UCP, ISBP, ISP, URDG, URC, URR, etc.
• Prior experience in establishing new controls and set up would be an added advantage.
• University degree holder
• Strong knowledge of Trade Finance, Trade Commodity, Loan ( Corporate Finance, Project finance, Fund finance ) & Deposit and GTS related products (Cash/ remittances / Escrow account / etc.)
• Strong understanding of regulatory guidelines/requirements and best practices.
• An influential change leader with strong communication skills who can lead the teams through uncertainty under the high work pressure and agile environment. Strong in coaching and mentoring.
• A good team player. This role is expected to be hands-on and heavily involved in daily processing BAU.
• Self starter, strong supervision, and interpersonal skills.
• Regional exposure and working experience would be a plus.

Only shortlisted candidates will be responded to, therefore if you do not receive a response within 14 days please accept this as notification that you have not been shortlisted.

Morgan McKinley Pte Ltd, EA License No: 11C5502

Lee Boon Hou (Hagen), Registration No: R1870932

hlee@morganmckinley.com