Country Treasurer at Absa Bank Limited

Job Summary

• To lead and manage the Treasury function of Absa Bank Kenya, ensuring balance sheet resilience, and regulatory and shareholder compliance with financial resource management requirements.
• The Country Treasurer is accountable for all in-country and regulatory responsibilities which includes effectively controlling and allocating capital and funding financial resources in a manner that complies with local and shareholder regulatory requirements, Board requirements and local ALCO requirements.
• They need to fully understand and remain up to date on all legislation and regulatory changes guiding the treasury business and maintain an excellent working relationship with regulators and bankers’ association.

The Country Treasurer ensures the following:

• Attendance as required at: Board, CMC, ALCO, Treasury Investment Committee (as chairperson) and ad-hoc committees and forums as required by the Finance Director or in accordance with regulations.
• Active contribution to bank strategy initiatives.
• Ensuring an effective working relationship with members of the country management team, and especially with the heads of Business

Job Description

Main accountabilities:

Capital Management (20%)

• To focus on driving the Treasury agenda and ensuring successful delivery of treasury objectives whilst guiding the balance sheet and execution teams to meet their objectives. This includes overall responsibility and accountability for funding and liquidity, asset and liability management, funds transfer pricing, capital management and treasury execution services. Taking responsibility for supporting the heads of balance sheet management and execution in achieving their objectives as per respective job profiles.

Key actions to include:

• Accountability for ensuring the entity is optimally capitalized in line with the Board approved targets.
• Ensuring adherence to capital policies and execute capital optimization strategies.
• Ensuring adherence to capital management policies and in-country regulatory and board approved capital targets
• In conjunction with finance, implement all capital applications (including SBL dispensation and guarantee applications)
• Compiling and implementing capital plans to include forecasting regulatory and economic capital demand & supply across business units over 3-year planning horizon by utilizing STP, RAF and MTP.
• Ensuring the capital position as estimated on the capital plan always meets the board approved and regulatory targets.
• Supporting/ leading the BAU Basel regulatory environment and other local and SARB related capital regulations and reporting.
• Ensuring shareholders returns are met by setting RoRC (SARB) and RoE metrices together with other shareholder related financial resource performance requirements for each business including regular reviews of internal pricing and returns. Ensuring effective capital stress testing and contingency plans are in place, approved by ALCO and the Board

Funds transfer pricing (FTP); Interest rate risk on the Banking book (IRRBB) and Alco management (20%)

Key actions to include:

• Ensuring implementation and adherence to FTP and IRRBB policies.
• Achieving an appropriate risk profile in line with group standards and risk tolerances by centralizing, netting and hedging all manageable risk via the Treasury Execution Services (TES) desk
• Ensuring all behavioural assumptions (including pre-payment assumptions) are in line with Absa treasury guidelines.
• Leading and driving the in-country Alco within the Alco governance framework, ensuring effective engagement, guidance and leadership of financial resources and related risks with this committee.
• Developing Liquidity Transfer Pricing (LTP) methodologies for all currency balances and incorporating Absa liquidity premiums in all foreign currency pricing, as appropriate
• Ensuring FTP rates are aligned to interest rate and liquidity risk behaviour profiles.
• Owning the Alco process, Alco committee meetings and Alco reporting

Liquidity & Funding Management (20 %)

Key actions to include:

• Accountable for ensuring the entity is adequately funded and liquid at all times in line with board approved buffers and metrics.
• Ensuring adherence to funding and liquidity policies, including contingent funding plans, whilst holding the responsibility of ensuring that the entity remains liquid.
• Being responsible for the compilation, implementation and monitoring of the funding plans
• Ensuring regulatory compliance in respect of funding, liquidity, and capital
• Implementing balance sheet behavioralization according to the Absa Africa treasury model
• Ensuring compliance with liquidity risk appetite
• Being responsible for effective liquidity stress testing and contingency plans are in place, approved by ALCO and the Board

Treasury Execution Services (TES) - (20%)

In respect of the bank’s liquidity management, being responsible and accountable for the following:

• Funding curve/book ownership and structure
• TES risk management
• TES reporting
• Financing for the firm

Key actions to include:

• Investment of liquid assets to meet regulatory requirements and liquidity objectives.
• Enhancing revenue and optimizing funding costs by managing surplus liquidity buffers in order to optimize risk/return.
• Optimizing daily intraday clearing by ensuring that shortages/ surpluses are funded/invested as optimally as possible.
• Hedging all manageable interest rate risk and FX risk in the banking book through investment in qualifying liquid assets or, where applicable, executing interest rate derivatives
• Ensure all treasury’s funding related market facing activities including interbank / wholesale funding and intra-day liquidity management are performed within group policy (i.e., Libor setting rules)
• Establish local currency funding curves within any regulatory or market driven constraints.
• Develop and implement liquidity term premiums in local currency and ensure that these premiums are embedded in the FTP process.
• Coordinating with local teams the issuance, where possible and where appropriate, of:
  • Unsecured funding (senior and subordinated capital)
  • Secured funding(securitization)
  • Management of the bond maturity (refinance) profile
  • Identify new funding sources and diversification opportunities.
  • Investor relations & debt related investor enquiries

• Ensuring detailed MI on portfolio composition and performance, in line with capital and sovereign risk appetite
• Building credibility with clients and local regulators and maintaining strong relationships with these key external stakeholders
• Managing the institutional market client relationships.

Risk management - (10%)

Key actions to include:

• Ensuring a strong compliance culture within the team
• Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Absa Operational Risk Framework and internal Absa Policies and Standards
• Ensuring that all deals are dealt within dealer limits (market risk limits, counterparty limits, dealer’s mandate)
• Evaluating the status of Operational and Principal Risks and complete the required attestations.
• Ensuring high quality of service to all clients (reputational risk)
• Adhering to Absa’s policies and procedures applicable to own role, demonstrating sound judgment and responsible risk management.
• Reporting all risk events / incidents / issues using the defined process for your business area and help to understand why these happened and how to prevent them in future.
• Taking ownership of the Principal Risks – Capital, Liquidity, and Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book.
• Proactively looking for ways to improve the control environment by considering what could go wrong in the processes you operate and how errors could be prevented.
• Continuous and proactive engagement with regulatory bodies, unions where applicable
• All mandatory training completed to deadline.

Control Environment - (5%)

Key actions to include:

• Ensuring operational controls are in place and ensuring a robust Key Risk Assessment (KRA) Framework. Ensuring satisfactory internal audit reports

Personal Development - (5%)

Key actions to include:

• Actively managing technical and soft skills development
• Research, identifying and proposing training solutions to senior management for the treasury team and for one’s own development.

Role Specifications

Technical Skills:

Essential:  University Degree

Preferred: ACI Dealers Certification, Master’s Program

Knowledge, Expertise and Experience

Essential:

• Understanding of political and economic activity worldwide
• Understanding of interest rate, foreign exchange, credit risk
• Understanding of the math involved in FX and money markets.
• Understanding of the policies, ethical issues of treasury
• Knowledge of treasury products and back-office operations
• Knowledge of liquidity and funding risk management
• Knowledge of capital risk management
• Knowledge of financial markets and economic fundamentals
• Knowledge of treasury, retail, corporate and capital markets products
• Expert in excel competency preferred.
• Communication skills
• Senior management leadership and engagement

Preferred:

• An experienced Treasurer with detailed knowledge and experience in managing the bank’s capital, funding, and financial resource risks; Treasury Governance and oversight process.
• Understanding of banking across segments
• Ability to influence decisions with ability to lead strategy and teams on future initiatives.

Application Deadline – 26th January 2024