Role Description
The Head of Operations and Delivery, ZA, has primary responsibility for these key business services:
- Asset Servicing / Investment Operations.
- Service and Support (Production Support, Client Services, Investor Services)
- Business Readiness Management
- Delivery Management
- Risk and Resilience
This comprises the key business services that FNZ delivers to its customers. It
requires a combination of:
- Delivery of services in line with contractual terms and to service excellence.
- Implementation and maintenance of operational controls and robust control frameworks across FNZ ZA to limit the risk of financial crime and mitigate fraud.
- Effective management of the ZA business continuity plan to minimise disruption and adverse impact for ZA customers, employees and ZA offices.
- Ensuring that all services are well controlled and monitored in line with
regulatory and customer requirements.
- Compliance with legislation and regulation in relation to asset servicing operations.
- Identifying and mitigating operating risk; ensuring robust control frameworks and risk aware culture is embedded.
- Managing the customer and account manager interface; and
- Managing the internal interface with shared group services, particularly technology.
The Head of Operations and Delivery ZA role is responsible for ensuring that processes, controls, operating risk framework in relation to these key business services are standardised globally. As FNZ’s scale increases it also involves extracting cross‐market synergies and other cost efficiencies. FNZ’s customers should receive the benefit of a global scale provider of industrial strength operations.
Specific Role Responsibilities
Asset servicing / Investment operations
- Responsibility for FNZ ‘s outsourced asset servicing functions that it provides to all its ZA customers, which includes asset custody, trading & settlement services.
- Delivery of services at least in line with contractual customer KPIs.
- Delivery of operations service excellence via measurable continuous improvement programme.
- Implementation and maintenance of financial and operational controls to reduce errors and mitigate potential for fraud.
- Compliance with legislation and regulation, including FCA regulations
Delivery
- Accountable exec for ensuring all projects is delivered in line with pre-agreed timeframes and milestones are met.
- Be the escalation point for FNZ exec stakeholders for resolving delivery issues and implement clear and direct interventions with project teams when required.
- Work collaboratively with senior stakeholders to enable the successful delivery of the portfolio in line with agreed budget, quality and timescale parameters.
- To ensure all projects delivered are delivered in line with the FNZ SDLC.
- Be an active member of the Leadership team and contribute to setting and executing the strategic plan for that region.
- Provide leadership, direction setting and effective management across the region.
Risk and Resilience
Ensuring that processes, controls, operating risk framework in relation to these business services are standardised and consistently applied. As FNZ’s scale increases it also involves extracting cross‐market synergies and other cost efficiencies. FNZ’s customers should receive the benefit of a global scale provider of industrial strength operations.
- Manage regional operations and regional leadership teams.
- Oversee the Service and Support team that carries out the morning health check of each platform. The health check results are distributed each morning by email to the organization. Daily failed task checks are automated, and critical tasks are alerted where necessary.
- Own the operating risk model that identify and quantifies key operating risks
- Oversight of operational monitoring. FNZ Operational teams carry out day to day tracking of their processes and escalate where appropriate for problems identified. Spearhead the creation of a more robust form of monitoring.
- Responsible for the effective management of the ZA Business Continuity Plan to minimise disruption and adverse impact for ZA customers, employees and ZA offices.
Financial Crime
- Responsibility for ensuring robust control frameworks is implemented and embedded across FNZ ZA to limit the risk of financial crime.
The Head of Operations and Delivery will also be responsible for:
- Financial Performance.
- Strategy.
- Leadership & Collaboration.
- Customer Interface; and
Financial performance
- Work with regional ZA CFO and ZA MD to define annual budget.
- Manage cost structure within budget.
- Balance service quality, risk management and control framework with the need to optimise cost structure.
- Maintain process‐driven cost model to accurately forecast cost variation with volume.
Strategy
- Define and agree (with ZA MD) a strategic plan for relevant functions through annual and semi‐annual strategic planning process; and
- Input to regional strategy.
Leadership & collaboration
- Provide strong leadership to promote and obtain collective buy‐in to service excellence, risk management and controls
- Collaborate with ZA & global leadership team to deliver group objectives.
Customer Interface
- Actively engage and build relationships with all ZA customers.
- Take ownership with customers for FNZ’s service delivery
Change Governance
- Gatekeeper responsibility for change releases to ensure they are fit for purpose and that appropriate due diligence has been carried out prior to launch. The following are considered change releases:
- New Platforms or new Propositions.
- Upgrades, amendments or enhancements to Existing Platforms or material changes to existing Propositions that involve a code release.
- Emergency Releases; and
- Addition of New Clients onto Existing platforms, e.g. multi-tenant platforms.
Operating Model
Weekly ZA Leadership Team meeting
- Weekly meeting with ZA leadership team.
- Update on key operational performance indicators, sales pipeline delivery, compliance issues, customer issues
Monthly/Quarterly business review
- Review of performance over prior month/quarter including financial performance and “road to value” objectives and plan for next quarter
- Includes feedback on ZA MD quarterly key‐customer meetings
- Attended by ZA MD and executive leadership team
Annual budget
- Budget is set annually
- Includes setting of medium-term value generation objectives encapsulated in a “road to value” plan
FNZ ZA Board
- Statutory director on the FNZ ZA board
- Regular reporting and attendance in respect of operating performance, risks, issues and actions to mitigate.
Group Board Advisory Committee
Periodic presentations at group board advisory committee in respect of ZA business performance and strategic plan
Technology shared services interface
- Software delivery and the technology platform is via the group technology shared services function, which should be managed like an outsourced software function
Performance Assessment
Performance will be assessed in line with:
- Achievement of monthly, quarterly and annual financial targets set via budget
- Achievement of non‐financial objectives (service metrics, control and risk objectives)
- On time Delivery of Programmes
- Quantitative customer KPIs
- Qualitative customer feedback provided via quarterly ZA MD customer meetings and annual board review meetings
- Quantitative customer feedback via net promoter score (NPS)
- Qualitative feedback from direct reports via 360 review process and group‐wide staff surveys
Formal feedback will be provided through:
- Quarterly business review process
- Annual performance review
- May be required to achieve Key Individual accreditation with the South Africa Regulator.
About FNZ
FNZ is committed to opening up wealth so that everyone, everywhere can invest in their future on their terms. We know the foundation to do that already exists in the wealth management industry, but complexity holds firms back.
We created wealth’s growth platform to help. We provide a global, end-to-end wealth management platform that integrates modern technology with business and investment operations. All in a regulated financial institution.
We partner with over 650 financial institutions and 12,000 wealth managers, with US$1.7 trillion in assets under administration (AUA).
Together with our customers, we help over 26 million people from all wealth segments to invest in their future.