Listings Corporate Finance Senior Specialist - 18-month Fixed Term Contract

Salary: Edinburgh ranging from £51,200 to £72,000 and London £56,400 to £80,000 per annum – salary offered will be based on skills and experience

Are you interested in joining a team that plays a key role in the regulation of capital markets activity in the UK?

The team/ department

The Listings Department sits within the Market Oversight Directorate (MO) at the Financial Conduct Authority. The Department has a key role in the regulation of capital markets activity in the UK. We are currently recruiting a Senior Associate to join our Listings Department. The role offers an excellent opportunity to gain a sound and practical working knowledge of primary markets regulation along with in depth exposure to the transactions making the headlines in the business pages.

What you will be doing (the role)

• You will work in small case teams assigned to review draft prospectuses and circulars, assess eligibility of companies for listing on the London market and respond to written queries on the interpretation of the regime in novel and complex area

• You will act as a first reader in the case team and will be responsible for preparing comments on the documents provided by companies, managing transaction timetables, and liaising with companies’ advisors

• The work of the team is market-facing, highly time critical, and can require challenging judgments to be made in often pressured circumstances

What you will get from the role

• The role offers an excellent opportunity to gain a sound and practical working knowledge of primary markets regulation along with in depth exposure to the transactions making the headlines in the business pages, including major IPOs, equity capital raises such as rights issues, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity and non-equity issuances including structured products, sukuks, high yield bonds and medium term note programmes. You will also develop project management and influencing skills, take on significant levels of responsibility and deal with a variety of advisers on technical issues

• You will have a rare opportunity to be involved in the workings of the FCA as capital markets regulator at a time of considerable change. You will enjoy a unique insight into the full spectrum of capital markets activity, with the opportunity to have a real impact whilst working collaboratively towards a common goal alongside a range of internal and external stakeholders

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.  

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:   

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa  

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)  

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary  

• Income protection  

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in either our London or Edinburgh office.  

The skills and experience you will have

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

Minimum

• Experience of the wider capital markets and/or the corporate transactions carried out by listed companies

• Experience of managing stakeholders

Essential

• Good attention to detail and strong analytical and verbal reasoning skills

• Excellent communications skills, including written English

• A "can-do" attitude with the ability to work under pressure and manage a large workload whilst maintaining focus and high standards

• Highly effective influencing skills, including delivering difficult messages, and a positive attitude to dealing with external parties with a commitment to building effective relationships

• A team player with the ability to work independently when required

• Strong organisational skills with the proven ability to prioritise work and escalate issues

• The ability to digest a large amount of written information and identify relevant issues from such information

• Wider experience of capital markets, for example, equity capital markets (ECM) and/or debt capital markets (DCM), knowledge of closed and open-ended investment fund structures and asset management or the broader European capital markets regulatory framework

About the FCA   
The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.  

The FCA's Values & Diversity  
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.  

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Senior Associate role.   

Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.

Useful information  

Applications for this role close at 23:59 on Sunday 6th October 2024

This role is graded as Senior Associate - Regulatory

This is an 18-month Fixed Term Contract

Got a question?    

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:  

For internal applicants, please contact Louise Nash at [email protected]

For external applicants, please contact Chhavi Bartaria at [email protected]

What to expect from our interview process  

The interview process is likely to be over two stages where your technical and competency-based skills will be assessed.

Application support  

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible. 

Security Clearance/Vetting

The successful candidate will hold or will be required to obtain Security Clearance (SC) level vetting.   

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal, applications sent via email will not be accepted.