Chief Accountant at Standard Bank Group

Job description

Job Details

Finance: Budgeting and forecasting, creating interim and annual financial statements, facilitating internal mergers and acquisitions, as well as dealing with analysts and investors.

Job Purpose

• To ensure the overall integrity and accuracy of SIAL’s General Ledger as a basis for the preparation of Financial and Management Reporting.
• Custodian of the General Ledger, Chart of Accounts, and the central repository for all Financial and Management information for SIAL.
• Preparation of statutory financial reports and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Develop relationships with business and provide value added data and input from Finance to better promote the role of finance and to minimise potential audit issues.

Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities

• Decision support
  • Provide reliable information and reports to SIAL MANCO, CIB MANCO, PBB EXCO, Wealth EXCO and Principal Officer to enable them to meaningfully direct the business.
  • To participate in setting the SIAL finance strategy and objectives.
  • Attend SIAL’s MANCO meetings and clearly articulate financial issues.
• Accounting hygiene
  • Being the custodian of the General Ledger, Chart of Accounts, and the central repository for all Financial and Management information for SIAL.
  • Liaison and financial advisory services to business.
  • Ensuring that all SIAL’s internal and external reporting requirements are timeously met, including preparation of monthly and quarterly accounts, Group Accounts and Statutory Annual Financial Statements.
  • Monthly detailed review of the SIAL’s balance sheet and income statement to ensure resilience of reported results.
  • Preparation of monthly commentaries on SIAL results, including investigation into inconsistent and/or major variances.
  • Reconciliations of all relevant accounts and where necessary ensure corrective actions are taken timeously.
  • Manage the processing, payment and reconciliation of all suppliers.
  • Manage all aspects of fixed asset accounting, ensuring that amounts ultimately recorded in the general ledger are correct.
• Business partnership
  • Understand the business information needs and align this with management information needs.
  • Co-ordinate Technical Advice and Accounting support to SIAL.
• Budgeting and forecasting
  • Participate in the development of the annual budgeting process.
  • Translating the annual budget into targets that are easily understood by the business teams.
  • Monitoring actual performance versus budget and communicating reasons for the variance.
• Governance and control
  • Maintaining financial policies and procedures.
  • Management of agreements for services outsourced to other Group entities and ensure SLA’s are in place for delivery of the support.
  • Understanding the insurance regulatory framework and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
  • Facilitate internal/external regulatory audits by coordinating provision of information required.
  • Ensure maintenance of and adherence to Group/Bank accounting policies and procedures.
  • Monitoring tax compliance and highlighting areas of risk.
• People
  • Playing a leading role in coaching and developing other finance team members.
  • Succession planning so as to ensure business continuity.

Preferred Qualification And Experience

• Undergraduate degree with bias in Finance, Insurance, Banking or a Business related field.
• CPA (K), ACCA, or any other relevant qualifications.
• Minimum of 5 years post qualification experience.

Knowledge/Technical Skills/Expertise

• Good knowledge of Accounting principles & Budget planning and reviews.
• A good background in an internal controls function within the financial sector.
• Computer literacy and knowledge of personal computers and software. packages such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Access.
• Strong communication and presentation skills at a senior level.
• Strategic planning and management experience.
• Experience in change management and has the ability to positively lead change.