Middle Office Derivatives Trade Support - Analyst

Overview of the Department/Section:
MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) is one of the world's leading financial groups. Headquartered in Tokyo and with approximately 350 years of history, MUFG is a global network with around 2,300 offices in over 50 countries including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia and Oceania, and East Asia.. The group has over 150,000 employees, offering services including commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing.

As one of the top financial groups globally with a vison to be the world's most trusted, we want to attract, nurture and retain the most talented individuals in the market. The size and range of MUFG's global business creates opportunities for our employees to stretch themselves and reap the rewards, whilst our common values, to behave with integrity and responsibility, and to build a culture which is fair, transparent, and honest, underpin everything that we do.We aim to be the financial partner of choice for our clients, whatever their requirements, building long-term relationships, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.

MUFG's shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE: MTU) stock exchanges. The group's operating companies include, but are not limited to, MUFG Bank Ltd, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking (Japan's leading trust bank), MUFG Securities Holdings (one of Japan's largest securities firms), and MUFG Americas Holdings.

Please visit our website for more information - mufgemea.com.

The Operations division is core to all of MUFG's business activities. With employees based in London, New York and Hong Kong, the function consists of five pillars Middle Office, Business Management, Transaction Processing, Clearing and Settlement, and Operational Control. A diverse product range is covered including Equities, FX, Fixed Income, and Derivatives.

The division has a wide range of responsibilities including oversight of the business and our ability to achieve strategic goals via our change program; interface to the business, customer, branch and agent network; managing the processing lifecycle for trades and transactions from the single touch, single entry items through to the complex, multi-entry trades; providing a shared service/utility function by receiving the output of Transaction Processing and executing the cash and/or clearing of processed transactions; independent control function ensuring Transaction Processing and Clearing & Settlement Services execute appropriate controls to mitigate regulatory and operational risks. Operations also plays an instrumental role in business development and the introduction of new products and markets.

Main Purpose of the Role :
The opportunity is for an enthusiastic and intelligent individual to join the Middle Office Derivatives Trade Support team within Operations, responsible for providing control and support for multiple trading desks. The desks are engaged in pricing and trading of vanilla and structured derivative products across multiple assets including rates, equity, commodity, credit and FX.

The team provide trader support to facilitate the accurate and timely booking and post execution care of all trades executed. Acting as a vital intermediary between Trading, Sales, Structuring and various back office areas, the Derivatives Trade Support team has a pivotal role in BAU whilst contributing to the planning and development of new product offerings on a regular basis.

The successful candidate will spend time learning the day-to-day processes, interactions and many relationships managed by the team, helping to provide continuous development ideas and driving through required improvements. It also involves daily face off to the business, monitoring live trading queues and running reconciliations to identify discrepancies and ensuring they are fully understood, explained and communicated to relevant stakeholders.

A good understanding of the pricing inputs and lifecycle management mechanics of these products is required, with knowledge of the front to back process being important since daily interaction with internal and external stakeholders is required to ensure relevant updates are processed in a timely manner.

This is a demanding role which requires the candidate to undertake a multitude of disciplines. It would suit an individual with either existing multi-asset derivatives experience, or one looking for an unprecedented opportunity to transcend a given asset specialism to gain insights into the mechanics of other asset classes

Key Responsibilities:
In this role, you will be responsible for Derivatives Trade Support across MUFG's banking arm and securities business under a dual-hat arrangement. Under this arrangement, you will act and make decisions on behalf of both the bank and the securities business,

Responsibilities will include:
• Day to day accurate execution of processes, being a direct contributor to re-engineering or building of controls
• Liaising closely with Trading, Sales and Structuring to ensure accurate and timely bookings of trades
• Act as a key liaison between trading, other support functions and the counterparty
• Trade lifecycle management including corporate action processing, fixings, coupon calculations, trigger monitoring, break clause and expiry monitoring
• Ensure accuracy of all components of new and existing trade bookings across multiple systems
• Fully understand the controls required to support the business through inter-system reconciliations
• Strict adherence to internal control and escalation protocol
• Maintain a consistent and robust control environment
• Contribute to continuous process improvements
• Development and testing of in-house systems
• Participate in strategic projects across multiple infrastructures
• Compose and maintain process manuals to ensure accurate and efficient trade support

Skills and Experience:
Functional / Technical Competencies:
• A strong understanding of different asset classes including rates, credit, equity and FX derivatives
• Good understanding of the various lifecycle events and associated risks on these products
• Understand the key elements of the front to back process flow including other infrastructure groups i.e. Market Risk, Credit Risk, Finance, Product Control, Legal, Compliance, etc.
• Rudimentary Financial Math
• Fundamentals of P&L substantiation
• Basic understanding of the term structure of projection/discount curves and swap pricing
• Basic appreciation of the Greeks
• Basic understanding of the ISDA swap definitions
• Good understanding of the regulatory reporting requirements in various jurisdictions
• Good understanding of Confirmations and ISDA documentation
• Familiar with running robust reconciliations and controls
• Understanding of the lifecycle event management on both vanilla and structured products
• Understand the cash flows and dynamics of a banking business such as funding requirements and their importance
• Awareness of collateral processes, Initial Margin, Variation Margin, general CSA familiarity would be beneficial
• Accounting knowledge, ability to identify impacts to P&L and Balance Sheet from trade bookings

Work Experience:
• Middle Office, Trading Assistant or Product Control experience in derivatives

Education / Qualifications:
• Bachelor or Masters degree in a technical or appropriate field of study (Economics, Mathematics, Finance, Engineering, etc.)

Personal Requirements:
• Strong technical ability - marrying exemplary product knowledge with meticulous attention to detail and analytical skills
• Creates a culture of creativity and innovation - identify ways to improve processes and develop creative solutions
• Excellent communication skills - ability to communicate complex issues in clear and concise terms to a broad audience
• Responsible - highly motivated self-starter who takes ownership of a given process, executes it with due diligence and efficiency
• Problem solving and judgement - proactive, thinks ahead, plans for contingencies, anticipates questions from different perspectives, seeks alternative solutions and delineates clear objectives
• Excellent interpersonal skills - team focus, gives evidence of a strong collaborative working ethic
• Results driven, with a strong sense of accountability
• A proactive, motivated approach.
• The ability to operate with urgency and prioritise work accordingly
• Strong decision making skills, the ability to demonstrate sound judgement
• A creative and innovative approach to work together with structured and logical reasoning
• The ability to manage large workloads and tight deadlines
• A calm approach, with the ability to perform well in a pressurised environment
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills (Excel, VBA, Access)
• A confident approach, with the ability to provide clear direction to the team
• A strategic approach, with the ability to lead and motivate a team