Associate, Corporate Secretariat at Standard Chartered Bank Kenya

Role Responsibilities 

Strategy

• Develop an awareness and understanding of the Company’s business strategy as applicable to the role.

Business

• Maintain an awareness and understanding of the wider business, economic and market environment in which the Company operates.

Processes

• Support the Company Secretary, Kenya in delivering operational risk commitments in line with the Group’s objectives.

Board Governance

• Provide proactive and high quality support to the Company Secretary of the Company and its subsidiaries in the following areas:
• Supporting various aspects of the end to end board / board committee governance process ensuring comprehensive agendas, high quality papers, recording of balanced minutes and proactive follow up of matters arising. Working closely with the Company Secretary and Assistant Company Secretary to ensure the Directors have the right information to make the decisions/ approvals being requested. It is expected that the Associate, Company Secretariat will be principally responsible for at least one Board Committee and five non-banking subsidiaries of the Company. 
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relations with the Company’s Executive Committee members and dedicated Accountable Executives of non-banking subsidiaries to ensure that the Group’s approach to subsidiary governance is well understood and adhered to.
• Proactively manage non-banking subsidiaries, deliver high quality, efficient, effective and sustainable company secretarial practices and processes, ensuring compliance with relevant Group Policies, local legal and regulatory requirements.
• Support the Assistant Company Secretary in proactively managing and overseeing the activities of the shares registrar (including monitoring service levels) as well as all shareholder communication and the resolution of shareholder complaints.
• Support the Assistant Company Secretary to actively manage and reconcile the dividend accounts (including unclaimed dividends) and prepare the necessary regulatory returns.
• Provide support and take ownership of certain aspects end of year processes including the annual report and AGM. 
• Maintain and continuously improve the corporate governance section of the Company’s website and Bridge page.
• Work closely with the Company Secretary on Group led corporate governance projects.

Directors

• Support the Company Secretary in being a ‘trusted advisor’ to the Directors for corporate governance and board related matters.
• Support the Company Secretary in establishing and maintaining a robust relationship with independent non-executive directors.
• Support the Assistant Company Secretary in ensuring board evaluations of the relevant non-banking subsidiaries are conducted on an annual basis and follow up actions are implemented.

Policy and Regulatory Compliance

• Support the Company Secretary to ensure compliance with the Group Subsidiary Governance Policy and Standards in Kenya and that the Company and its Subsidiaries comply with all relevant statutory, legal and regulatory requirements in Kenya, including filings and regulatory disclosures. In particular, ensure statutory deadlines are met on filing of all annual and regulatory returns and the timely dispatch to relevant regulatory bodies.
• Responsible for managing all entities in Blueprint where named as the Responsible Person.
• Supporting the Company Secretary to provide guidance to all AEs in Kenya so they fully understand their responsibilities and complete their six-monthly reports to the Chief Executive Officer.
• Responsible for maintaining a log of all training completed by Directors, Directors declarations, and conflicts of interest records.
• Maintaining all statutory registers and records and the Obligations Register for corporate governance rules and obligations.
• Maintain a record of all constitutional documents and ensure these, along with any updates thereto, are filed with the relevant authorities in a timely manner.
• Support the Company Secretary to manage the corporate governance aspects of all internal and external audits, inspections and reviews.

Powers of Attorney (POA)

• Support the Assistant Company Secretary to co-ordinate Power of Attorney (POA) matters, provide POA advice and update in Blueprint and record keeping of original POAs. 

Records Management

• Oversee records management and storage facilities and ensure all databases, shared folders and the Critical Records Schedule are up-to-date.

Operations Management

• Assist the Company Secretary in operations management and budgeting for the Company Secretariat department including scheduling the Board calendar and Director and regulatory engagements, uploading Board papers onto Board Intelligence, Board events management, processing vendor invoices, tabulating Directors’ fees for payment, timely renewal of director appointments, screening and rescreening of directors, and submission of quarterly subsidiary governance updates.

Regional Coverage

• Support the Regional Head, Corporate Governance in co-ordinating GCS activities in the region.

Thought Leadership

• Responsible for continuously reviewing and looking for ways to streamline processes to ensure efficient and sustainable ways of working within the Kenya Company Secretariat.

People & Talent

• Build strong relationships with Kenya team members as well as with the wider regional legal/company secretarial teams and encourage team collaboration.
• Collaborate and engage with GCS colleagues in London and other relevant stakeholders to ensure most efficient and cost effective processes.

Risk Management

• Responsible for identifying corporate governance risks, escalating to the Company Secretary with strategies to mitigate that risk.
• Responsible for maintaining departmental operating instructions and process notes to enable efficient and robust corporate governance processes.
• Completion of risk management systems entries such as M7, OWLS and NFRR.

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.
• Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Our Ideal Candidate 

• Academic or Professional Education/Qualifications (e.g. Law degree, chartered secretary or chartered accountant) with technical knowledge, ideally gained within the financial services sector.
• Member of the Institute of Certified Secretaries of Kenya

Unposting Date: 27/Jul/2022,