World Bank Hires Senior Financial Assistant for Chennai, India

World Bank
Job # 110570
Job Title – Senior Financial Assistant
Job Family – Treasury
Location – Chennai, India
Appointment – Local Hire
Job Posted – 04-Apr-2011
Closing Date 11-Apr-2011
Language Requirements – English [Essential]
Appointment Type
Background / General description
The World Bank Treasury (“Treasury”) provides asset management, banking and debt management, and capital markets services to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“IBRD”) and its affiliates and member countries, and to other official-sector institutions. Treasury also collaborates extensively with finance officials of member countries and their agencies with the objective of building members’ capacity in public wealth and debt management. The scale of these activities is substantial: Treasury currently manages more than $100 billion in assets for over 40 clients, carries out about $30 billion per annum in debt issuance in international bond markets for IBRD and for the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), and is engaged in capacity-building partnerships in more than 40 countries. Treasury is responsible for the development and dissemination of IBRD’s menu of financial products and services, including loans, credit lines, guarantees, hedging products, and catastrophe risk financing. Treasury’s financial practitioners work directly with the Bank’s country teams to structure and deliver custom financial solutions for IBRD clients.
Treasury staff are organized into seven departments operating in the asset management, banking and debt management, and capital markets business segments. The Treasury Operations Department provides a full range of support functions for Treasury’s asset management, capital markets and banking businesses. These include transactions settlements (approximately 25,000 individual transactions per month), cash management, foreign exchange, management of custody relationships and collateral management for Treasury’s extensive activities in the derivatives markets. Treasury Operations also provides accounting and financial reporting services to Treasury and its clients. For IBRD and other World Bank Group clients, this includes internal management reporting as well as “books and records” accounting, Financial Statement disclosures, and other required reporting. Treasury Operations also collaborates extensively with IBRD members seeking to build capacity in transaction processing and accounting associated with public-sector asset management. Since Treasury’s work involves dealing with the global markets, staff may be: on call, required to work on public holidays, or required to work during London business hours.
TRO is organized in four operational divisions following Treasury’s business line operations: 1) banking; 2) capital markets; 3) fixed income asset management; and 4) pension operations. TRO staff is typically assigned to a particular business line/team and may be reassigned within TRO in response to other business priorities. This structure enables the Department to take advantage of synergies between the respective functions and provides a diversified work program for staff. It also represents a unique opportunity to be part of a dynamic team of finance and accounting professionals.
Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 3 year renewable term appointment.
Duties and Accountabilities
The TRO Chennai Operations is an integral part of TRO, and is responsible for a variety of duties providing vital support across all the four operational divisions. It works closely with the Headquarters in Washington D.C. Under the guidance and supervision of a Team Leader and / or Financial Analyst, the selected candidate will be responsible for specific individual tasks/projects as well as for working as an integral part of the team in executing TRO’s work program, including:
• Assist in performing daily cash reconciliation for cash flows (in several currencies) related to the asset management business i.e., money market transactions, repos, foreign exchange, buys and sells of fixed income, government and euro bond transactions and asset/mortgage backed securities;
• Assist in monitoring and analyzing overdrafts, fails, corporate actions in relation to the statement discrepancies;
• Assist in investigating reconciliation differences, performing analysis, posting necessary adjustments for resolution of any differences, preparing commentaries on results / findings, and recommending solutions in a pro-active manner;
• Liaising with the Settlement Operations Team to resolve queries related to the asset management cash discrepancies;
• Assist in performing daily system to system reconciliations and controls review and communicating findings promptly to ensure proper follow-up and timely resolution of any identified differences and exceptions;
• Ensuring the accuracy and appropriateness of accounting data, systems and reporting deliverables;
• Assisting TRO staff in the prompt delivery of daily, monthly, quarterly and year-end deliverables and reporting requirements for Treasury’s worldwide clients;
• Assisting in developing and implementing changes to TRO procedures, processes, and standards;
• Effectively communicating with TRO staff and Management both in Chennai and in Washington, D.C. Headquarters on the status of all assigned activities; and
• Ensuring that all business processes in the unit are properly documented and complied with.
Selection Criteria
1. A Bachelors Degree in Commerce, Accounting or Finance. Candidates with CA-Inter, ICWA – Inter, or post-graduate degree in Finance would have an advantage.
2. 2 to 3 years of post-qualification experience with fixed income products and with systems that support trading activities and the processes and controls related to banking transactions processing.
3. Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills, including excellent spreadsheet skills. Familiarity with writing macros will be a plus.
4. Demonstrated ability to learn new technology quickly and effectively for maximum productivity. Knowledge of Bloomberg will be an advantage.
5. Ability to deal with various third parties such as custodians etc. to obtain information.
6. Excellent communication and presentation skills – both verbal and written.
7. High level of initiative, self-confidence and a self-starter; ability to apply a practical matured approach to problem solving with minimum supervision.
8. Commitment to work in a respectful, team-oriented and multi-cultural environment.
9. Flexibility to overlap with U.S. hours will be required to meet reporting deadlines along with willingness to travel to Washington DC for training and team projects.
10. Highest ethical standards.
The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

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