Chief Treasury Risk Officer at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Full Time

Job Title: Chief Treasury Risk Officer

Position Number: 50078363
Location: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Position Grade: PL3

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for Finance (FIVP) oversees the financial management of the Bank Group.
• This encompasses the Bank Group’s treasury activities including borrowings from the capital markets and investment activities; controllership functions including financial reporting and loan administration; strategic resource mobilization and the strengthening of the non-statutory financial resources and instruments; the overall asset/liability management for the Bank Group.
• The Vice Presidency for Finance is also responsible for the development of and training on the financial products of the Bank Group. In addition, the Administrator of the Staff Retirement Plan (SRP) reports to the Vice-President Finance.

The Hiring Department / Divison

• The overall objective of the Financial Management Department (FIFM) is to safeguard and improve the Bank Group’s risk bearing capacity while looking to optimize efficiency to benefit clients, shareholders and staff.
• The role of the Treasury Risk Management Division (FIFM2) is the management of treasury risk and the oversight of treasury activities that enable the Bank to make informed treasury investment and borrowing decisions with adequate and manageable hedging mechanisms.

The Division’s objectives are to:

• Identify, measure, monitor and mitigate market and credit risks in the Bank’s Treasury operations.
• Ensure the timely reporting of the Treasury Department activities.
• Build an efficient control framework to ensure the adherence to the Bank’s policies, Assets and Liabilities Management (ALM) guidelines and to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
• Provide efficient information systems and analytical support tools to the Treasury Department to improve the decision-making process
• In achieving its objectives, the Division contributes to preserve the Bank’s capital, optimize its profitability and maintain a strong risk profile which benefit its credit ratings.

The Position
The Chief Treasury Risk Officer has responsibly to:

• Manage market and counterparty credit risks in Treasury Operations including the overseeing of the division activities such as producing regular risk reports, reviewing Asset and Liability Committee (ALCO) decision making support reports, advising on new treasury transactions and risk control activities.
• Coordinate proposals for reforms on policies, guidelines and procedures while providing specialist advice, input and support on treasury business initiatives, Finance complex or ALCO matters arising.
• Provide technical support on Treasury systems and ensuring that efficient information systems and analytical support tools to Treasury and Treasury Risk management activities are implemented with adequate control process.

Key Functions
The Chief Treasury Risk Officer will:

Oversee the management of market and counterparty credit risks of the Treasury Operations:

• Monitor the market and credit exposure of treasury investment and liability portfolios and produce ad-hoc reports in case of changes in market conditions or counterparty credit quality that may affect treasury operations.
• Monitor and advise on limits for credit risk exposure concentration by credit rating categories and types of counterparties.
• Supervise other ad-hoc analysis and risk reports on treasury related market and credit risk measures.
• Supervise the review, analysis and approval process of treasury transactions by ensuring that only transactions which comply with ALM guideline are executed by the treasury department.
• Lead the analysis of new products by formulating recommendations on pricing methodologies, as well as risk measurement and risk mitigation strategies.
• Lead the relationship with the Legal department (PGCL) for the negotiation and review of International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA)/Credit Support Annexes (CSA) agreements by monitoring outstanding legal issues.
• Lead the views of the Treasury Risk Division in some ALCO working groups.

Supervise the reporting of the Bank’s treasury activities:

• Ensure the timely production of reports on treasury investment, borrowing and counterparty risk management for Staff, Management, the Financial Control Department (FIFC) and the Asset and Liability Management Committee (ALCO).
• Supervise the production of specific reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) such as Borrowing Level classification and maturity structure, and CVA/DVA.
• Analyze the impact of developments on IFRS standards on the financial reporting of treasury activities.
• Ensure the accuracy of investment, liability and derivatives valuations, and keep abreast of valuation methodologies and market practice.

Serve as a focal point for Treasury Risk expertise:

• Advise and support on treasury market and counterparty credit risk issues to build risk awareness within the finance complex.
• Advise and lead the implementation of financial models for the pricing of structured Products
• Provide treasury risk inputs to documents prepared by other departments of the complex.
• Keep abreast of new methodologies on market and counterparty credit risks best practices, and conduct the implementation of needed measures and required evolutions;
• Lead Treasury Risk views in Asset and Liability Working Groups related to Interest Rate Risk, Projections, Financial Products and/or Currency Risk Management.
• Represent Treasury Risk Management Division in cross-departmental ad-hoc task forces for various studies.
• Establish contacts with major MDBs in treasury risk area to benchmark practices and/or to prepare or contribute to papers for presentation at internal working groups, committees, or external international risk forums.

Internal control framework and Guidelines for treasury risk management activities:

• Elaborate and formulate policy proposals for amendments of Asset and Liability Management guidelines when necessary;
• Supervise the design of an efficient control framework and decision support tools in order to ensure that risks related to treasury investment and borrowing activities are properly monitored and reported.
• Lead discussion with the Bank Group Operational Risk Unit during the annual review of COSO framework and ensure the compliance of treasury activities with internal guidelines and processes.
• Supervise the design and update of the procedure manuals for the division activities.
• Provide guidance on the acquisition of treasury systems and modules as well as market data providers to improve the analytical capabilities of the division.

Relationship with External Auditors and Internal Auditors:

• Lead the discussion with external and internal auditors during the year-end audit of the treasury activities.
• Ensure that required documentation are accurate and provided on time.
• Supervise the implementation of Audit recommendations.

Miscellaneous:

• Act as Business Continuity Plan (BCP) coordinator and ensure that necessary actions are taken to minimize disruption to treasury activities.
• Coordinate the Budget preparation for the division.

Competencies (Skills, Experience and Knowledge)

• At least a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance, Banking, Economics, or in a quantitative discipline.
• A minimum of seven (7) years of relevant professional experience in International Financial Institutions or Investment Banks, with a large scope of treasury or  fixed-income and Derivatives activities.
• Professional certification in Risk and/or Finance like Financial Risk Manager (FRM), Professional Risk Manager (PRM), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) will be an advantage.
• Working experience in Fixed Income and Derivatives front-office, middle-office or risk management departments.
• Finance and risk management technical acumen with effective consulting and advisory skills.
• Analytical and numerical skills with a good eye for detail.
• Ability to cope under pressure with strong planning and organization skills.
• Arbitration skills and ability to influence people.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience of financial and/or risk reporting.
• Ability to work independently with little supervision as well as part of a multicultural team.
• Strong abilities in Innovation and Creativity, teamwork and strong interpersonal and communication skills, Problem Solving, Self-organization and time management, Client and  results-oriented individuals holding “a   can-do attitude”.
• Ability to lead, plan, organize, guide, coach and delegate.
• Good knowledge of financial applications like Summit, Bloomberg, Reuters, Numerix. Programming or database languages like Excel VBA, SQL, or C++.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French with a good working knowledge of the other language.

Application Closing Date
25th May, 2022.