Senior Financial Settlements Officer

This is a re-opening of the vacancy. Candidates who already applied do not need to re-submit their application.

*Please note that the recruitment modality for professional positions (international or local) will be determined in line with the OPEC Fund’s policies and procedures, and based on the candidate’s nationality and residency status at the time of appointment.

Nationals from the Member Countries of the OPEC Fund for International Development are strongly encouraged to apply. The Member Countries are: Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

Job Profile:

The Senior Financial Settlements Officer is responsible for coordinating the activities of the Back Office function and managing the relationship with the OPEC Fund’s custodian and house bank relationships in order to maintain excellent service and efficiency. The position is responsible for delivering a range of operational functions that support funding, investment portfolios, approving the settlement of trades, and issuing transaction confirmations executed by the Treasury Unit. Additionally, the Senior Officer manages Business Partner Master Data, in accordance with institutional business and compliance & controls framework. Then incumbent is also expected to represent the Function in various system or instrument implementation projects and working groups. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

Core Back Office Role:

• Executes day-to-day back-office clearance for all trade execution and portfolio servicing activities including trade review, settlement and documentation, trade confirmations, portfolio servicing across a range of products including bonds, debts, swaps, repos, deposits, FX transactions and exchange-traded derivatives.
• Monitors settlements of transactions, including purchase/sell, hedging and coupon payments.
• Manages relationship with OPEC Fund’s custodian(s), and is responsible for reporting, monitoring and reconciliation of OPEC Fund's accounts.
• Builds and maintains strong relationships with internal stakeholders, especially Portfolio Management and Funding within Treasury, as well as with external partners including market counterparts, and custodians, issuing and paying Agents.
• Oversees collateral management, settlement of collateral (receiving and return, interest and other related payment) based on Risk Management’s guidelines, and reconciliation of collateral accounts.
• Ensures consistency of OPEC Fund’s global payment activities across multi-currencies through the OPEC Fund’s House Bank accounts with efficient and accurate implementation of payment.
• Confirms House bank accounts are monitored efficiently to secure sufficient liquidity for the OPEC Fund’s operational and disbursement requirements.
• Works closely with the Information Technology Unit to ensure the use of up-to-date technology for financial-related database management and foster system upgrades.
• Verifies the consistent interpretation and application of controls framework requirements across the team’s processes and work program.
• Collaborate across internal and external organizational boundaries in finding solutions and delivering results.
• Provide leadership and guidance to the Back Office team. 

Coordination

• Effectively prioritizes and delegates work assignments within the team effectively, developing and implementing solutions that drive efficiency while ensuring positive experiences and interactions with the Back Office team, trade execution desk and external counterparts.
• Coordinates and communicates closely with Treasury and other counterparties as well as external service providers such as the OPEC Fund’s custodian.
• Acts as focal point for Operations, Loan Management, Procurement and House Banks in resolving issues with debit-payments and repayments.

Accounting

• Ensures the application of necessary accounting procedures corresponding to settlement activities
• Validates calculations of Member Country capital/contributions, maintenance of related databases and calculation of balances and annual share price
• Validates treasury transactions, valuations based on regular periods, calculation of accruals, realized/unrealized gains or losses, interest income on accrual basis and other tasks

Reporting

• Reviews and contributes to periodic reports for disclosure of OPEC Fund’s financial reports and for use by the OPEC Fund’s Management and Governing Board.
• Responds promptly to internal and external inquiries, underpinning OPEC Fund’s strong customer service image. 

Carries out other tasks assigned by the Director, Financial Controls, that are related to the job function.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree in Finance, Banking, Business Administration, or a closely related field
• A minimum of 10 years relevant professional experience, of which five (5) years should have been in an international development institution
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Banking, Business Administration or a closely related field combined with a minimum of 15 years of directly relevant work experience (i.e. settlement; treasury support), including at least five (5) years of progressively responsible experience, may be considered in lieu of a Master’s degree
• Deep understanding of financial instruments including loans, bonds and swaps is required
• Proficiency with commonly used treasury management systems (e.g. SAP, Bloomberg, etc.) is required
• Proven successful experience in leading and managing people and guiding and motivating teams
• Fluent in English. Good working knowledge of Arabic, French or Spanish is an added advantage.