Head, Lending Operations and Risk Operations at Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria

Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria – We are a leading international bank focused on helping people and companies prosper across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. To us, good performance is about much more than turning a profit. It’s about showing how you embody our valued behaviours – do the right thing, better together and never settle – as well as our brand promise, Here for good.

We’re committed to promoting equality in the workplace and creating an inclusive and flexible culture – one where everyone can realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to our organisation. This in turn helps us to provide better support to our broad client base.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head, Lending Operations and Risk Operations

Job ID: 2100033986
Location: Lagos
Job: Operations
Schedule: Full-time
Employee Status: Permanent

The Role Responsibilities
Strategy:

Appraise and contribute to the development of the Bank’s strategic plans.
E2E ownership of the client onboarding journey to drive credit quality, client experience and operational efficiency.
Align the Credit risk and lending operations strategy of the function with business strategy and risk appetite and oversee its execution. For positions overseeing fraud – embed all principles of fraud operations to have an effective onboarding strategy. For positions not overseeing Fraud Ops to – work closely with the Fraud Operations team in embedding the strategy
Effectively deliver the strategic initiatives on digital onboarding and embedding new technologies for auto credit decision and faster TAT. Embed principles of Right Shoring.
Build a Centre of Excellence to support the shifting of risk management to the frontline.
Support to strengthen the Organisation’ s risk culture and accountability and help reinforce the defence line up.
Represent the underwriting and lending operations function in relevant country committees and management forums.
Supervise the teams to achieve sound management of all aspects of Credit and Lending Operations in relevant country/GBS Cluster
Support to enhance Priority, Affluent and Private business as best in class CVP and Support to deliver Signature Client Journeys
Support Personal Banking agenda with Digital led model.
Embed innovation, digitisation and New ways of working by defining and actioning future state operating model.

Business:

Define the strategic intent and agenda for the Credit risk operations and Lending operations function.
Provide Group information, guidance, best practice and expertise to ensure that the Function applies the same business strategy and operate the risk management system;
Communicate to the Business the strategic intent and collective agenda for the Function;
Maintain and develop underwriting and operations capabilities and skills to meet ongoing business needs and plans – awareness and understanding of the wider business, economic and market environment in which the Group operates.
Ensure the Fraud Risk Management framework is effectively embedded and communicated across the business segments and lending products.
Develop effective fraud risk management strategies and timely deploy these strategies across products and channels

Processes:

Lead the efforts to develop, deploy and optimize country credit initiation strategy and processes.
Adhere to Global Cap Plan and MIS + Policy governance framework
Good understanding of Credit Policy and Fraud Process Standards. Understanding of implementation of Credit Decision Engines, Scorecards and tools for credit underwriting
Run day-to-day underwriting and operations and lead its team by example. This requires keeping track of performance metrics, taking corrective actions, analysing bottlenecks and implementing solutions that bring process performance to the next level. Examples of critical success metrics would be improving TAT, reducing the % of portfolio in late repayment, etc.
Identify and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) to support the Approval quality and daily operations. Awareness of TTD Quality, score band shifts and linking evolving trends to credit operations approach and training.
Cross functional experience in Risk – Collections / Fraud / Credit Policy preferred
Cross product underwriting experience – Business Banking,Mortgage, Credit Cards,Personal Loans etc.
Ensure effective management of operational risks within the Function and compliance with applicable internal policies, and external laws and regulations. Identify and report all weaknesses inherent in the standard controls .
Leads the development of the design, management and adherence of key operating controls and levers that improve end to end decisioning efficiency and customer experience.eg:Workflows ,EUC
To ensure Approval of Applications as per policies in DOI and Bulletins and supporting in achieving a superior End to End TAT.
Ensure capacity is adequate to support the processing, and the linkage between capacity planning, volumes and expenses remains robust at all times.
Work with Business Partners, Product Partners and Risk team members to optimize Strategy and Processes
Manage and improve unit costs.
Establish initiatives and plans to improve performance.
Improve Approval quality and productivity
Operational Excellence Rework reduction / TAT reduction
Early Deliqnuency Reviews and feedback to policy teams.
Cross functional training to develop risk awareness and culture.
Service Reviews embedded with KPIs , KRIs and KCIs .
SLA adherence
Ability to review and work with CCH and stakeholders to eliminate pain points in relevant processes
Monthly meeting With Country Credit Head , Policy and process control unit to discuss deliquent cases , Risk Decision Framework and Approval Rate Reviews .
Effectively manage and handle escalations/process breaches
Help team improve their efficiency in assessment of applications – not sure what this means as there is already text on optimisation etc .
Responsible for managing vendors supporting the onboardign activites including those that are outsorced.
Develop and maintain fraud management capabilities, skills and infrastructure in the region that are in compliance with both internal policies and external regulations and are responsive to fraud attacks
For positions also overseeing Fraud Risk Operations – Application Fraud Risk And Surveillance fraud
Effectively manage E2E process archival and document management guidelines for Lending operations
Controls on Independence / principles of dual control etc. for loan disbursement
Oversee plastic ordering and fulfilment responsibilities
Oversee Outsourcing arrangements as applicable

People and Talent:

Lead through example and build a risk culture within the Function and across frontline.
Establish a plan and timeline to develop a Beginner to Advanced understanding of Credit Risk Management within the function. Is this country specific? Should this not be Group led with country in execution mode?
Embed with in the team Agile and New Ways of Working.
Ensure the provision of ongoing training and development of people and ensure that holders of all critical functions are suitably skilled and qualified for their roles.
Employ, engage and retain high quality people, with succession planning for critical roles.
Responsibility to review team structure/capacity plans.
Set and monitor job descriptions and objectives for direct reports and provide feedback and rewards in line with their performance against those responsibilities and objectives.
Appropriately certified and ensure a culture of Risk learning
Drive a self-improvement culture with focus on Credit Quality, OKRs and A3s

Risk Management:

Support Country Credit Head to uphold the integrity of risk/return decisions, by challenging business and control function heads to demonstrate that risk origination and control decisions are properly informed and consistent with strategy and risk appetite.
Support the CCH and CRO to shift the risk management to the frontline which in turn strengthening the organisation’s risk culture and accountability and reinforce the defence line up.
Ensure risk identification, measurement and mitigating capabilities are built in the function which are objective, consistent and compliant with applicable regulations
Assign Lending authorities only to suitable named individuals in line with their skills and judgment – is this allowed? I thought lending delegation is by Credit Risk team with no sub-delegation.
Document all tests, strategies and outcomes implemented in Credit Initiation.
Obtain assurance regarding the effectiveness of all process and controls. Compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
Capability to analyse and accept employment, Income, scorecard, application/behaviour scores, valuation risk ratings outside of policy (within CAD guidelines)
To comply with the bank’s requirements of AML, CDD and all policies related to the group reputation risk.
Relevant DOI/Bulletins/CCPMs are checked before processing and/or approving a request, in case of any exception the same is pended/rejected and reported.
Develop a collaborative relationship with regulators, peer banks and fraud risk industry forums to help detect and mitigate fraud
Ensure various fraud risks are being actively prevented and detected in a timely manner on an end-to-end basis

Governance:

Maintain a good understanding of the requirements relevant to the role and ensure that these are well understood reflected in internal procedures.
Maintain and open and cooperative relationship in dealings with Second Lind and third Line.
Support the Risk owners to ensure business heads and all risk control owners understand and accept their risk management responsibilities.
In the event of regulatory breaches, policy breaches or where credit appetite have been breached, ensure senior management are informed and that actions are taken quickly to remediate.
Identifying and reporting all exceptions on non-compliance with standard controls
Service level are to be checked and monitored and ensure there is no breach.
Participate and contribute in relevant Country governance forums and committees
Ensure outsourcing arrangements related policies and procedures are fully complied in-country

Regulatory & Business Conduct:

Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and 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 Credit Risk Operations and Lending Operations function to achieve the outcomes set out in the Bank’s Conduct Principles
Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Key Stakeholders
Internal:

Country Head of CPBB
Members of Country CPBBMT
Global Head Risk Operations and Lending
Head Fraud Operations
Head Credit Risk Operations and Lending (global)
Country COO / Regional COO
Country Head Onboarding
Country Credit Head
Country Head of Policy
Country Head Fraud Operations and FRM second line
GBS /Country teams depending whether role is in country or GBS.
GIA and BRM
Group Stakeholders as relevant for initiatives
Outsourcing arrangements

External:

Regulators and Central Banks
External auditors

Other Responsibilities:

Embed ‘Here for Good’ and the Group’s brand and values in Country and Region.
Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Region, Country Business or Functional policies and procedures.

Our Ideal Candidate

CA or a Master’s Degree in Business Administration in either of Finance, Business, Economics, Mathematics / Statistics is preferred.
At least 15 years of banking experience, with bulk of it being in the Credit Risk Management domain. Minimum 10 years of underwriting / Risk policy experience for Big Markets
Team Management Experience
Experience in holding Delegated Lending Authorities and Approving High ticket Loans.
Qualified in Certifications, CLSB (Omega Learning) , CSA (Omega/Moody’s) or equivalent
Understanding of the full credit lifecycle including acquisition, fraud, account management, collections and recoveries
Good understanding of the key drivers of Asset products financials and the underlying consumer behaviours that drive those financials
Numerically savvy, able to work with data, perform analysis and communicate results.
Strong analytical skills and problem-solving abilities
Able to manage incidents, including liaising with IT and stakeholders to ensure smooth resolution, design and implement system changes
Experienced in performance management. Capable of understanding process shortcomings and set up key performance indicators to measure improvements
Strong interpersonal skills, ability to connect with customers, direct reports and Management teams.
Familiar with regulations and must possess sound market and industry knowledge.