Trade Finance Operations -Senior Officer at Equity Bank Kenya

POSITION OBJECTIVE

• Processing of trade finance and working capital transactions within the established controls and standards,
• Ensure that customers’ requirements are met.
• Clear understanding of the bank’s policies and procedures to accurately execute transactions according to predetermined standards and satisfy customer needs,
• Effective application of the business tools and resources to meet job requirements.
• Responsible for the physical control and storage of documents passing through the department,
• Responsible for departmental GL accounts ensuring booking and prompt liquidation of transactions including collection of revenue.
• Ensure effective implementation of new processes and products in a controlled environment.
• Ensure compliance to both local and external regulatory requirements.
• Assisting in review of product formats and wordings where nonstandard format is requested, following up for approvals as required and notifying relationship managers where customers have issues that require urgent attention.
• Providing Management Information reports regarding customer transactions for review by other departments.
• Training of new and existing staff on various products handled by Trade Operations. Responsible for ensuring the new staff are well versed with procedures and guidelines to be able to handle customer transactions in a timely manner.
• Advise Trade & working capital product and sales teams on customer behaviours and trends.
• Management of any new Trade system implementation and upgrades.
• Monitor trade entries in GL Accounts to ensure there are no long outstanding items
• Implementation of policies, processes, new guidelines and products affecting trade.
• Protect the bank from losses emanating from errors, omissions, frauds, control lapses etc.
• Perform reconciliations of trade transactions in our accounts.
• Execution of automation of processes within the department to improve on efficiencies.
• Design/review processing steps/ procedures and standards from time to time to ensure that they address customers’ needs per changing environment and needs.
• Customer – Customers rely on trade operations officers for timely and accurate delivery of trade & working capital products.
• Branches & Relationship Managers –accuracy, efficient processing of transactions and timeliness in response to their queries will influence TAT in the execution of trade transactions which in turn directly impacts on Branch and relationship teams’ performance.
• Branches in turn serve as the trade operations Officer point of contact, for example through exception resolutions with customers.
• Credit Risk– Fast response by the Credit department directly impacts on timeliness of execution. In turn, trade operations officers have to maintain accuracy during transaction execution for credit reporting purposes.
• Finance & Monitoring & Control Functions – Accuracy in trade processing enables smooth reconciliation processes by Finance. In turn, Finance provides account support and information.
• Trade finance operations Officers rely on customers to provide clear instructions and the supporting documentation required.

 KEY CHALLENGES/ANTICIPATED CHANGES

• Complex and varied customer transactions, unique in nature, requiring great product understanding and prioritizing of the sequence of processes and steps for successful transaction execution,
• High impact in terms of operational risks and delivery responsibilities,
• Heavy study of ICC rules such as URDG, ISP98, UCP, URC, ISBP etc.
• Very high customer expectations
• System knowledge to aid in implementation and changes in internal systems for processing.
• Complex application of local, international and U.S. regulations impacting the delivery of trade finance products

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years Banking experience – Senior Officer
• 3 years’ experience in Trade or Cash Operations (an added Advantage)
• Leadership experience though management or implementation of a bank project.
• Good knowledge of the bank’s products, processes and procedures
• Proficiency in MS Office computer applications
• Good knowledge of bank policies.
• Good knowledge of URC, UCP, ISP98, URDG and Swift Messages.
• Good communication skills
• University/College degree.
• Practical knowledge of banking systems and processes