Job Summary

•    This role could be based in  Malaysia and India. When you start the application process you will be presented with a drop down menu showing all countries, Please ensure that you select a country where the role is based.
•    The Head, Settlement Controls & Balance Sheet is responsible for leading the control framework for settlement-related balances, reconciliations, breaks, suspense items, claims and substantiation across Post Trade Operations in GBS India and Malaysia.
•    This role exists to ensure that settlement activity is properly controlled after trade execution and that financial exposures are identified, explained and resolved on time. The role holder will be accountable for making sure that aged breaks, open balances, unreconciled items and control gaps are clearly owned, escalated and remediated.
•    The successful candidate will work closely with Settlements, Finance, Product Control, Treasury, Middle Office, Technology, Risk and Audit teams to strengthen the link between operational activity and financial control. They will be expected to improve the quality of reconciliations, reduce aged items, challenge weak ownership, and ensure that issues are fixed at root cause rather than repeatedly managed through manual effort.
•    This is a senior control leadership role requiring strong discipline, precision and judgement. The candidate must be able to lead specialist teams, explain complex control issues in a clear way, and drive a culture where accuracy, evidence and timely escalation are non-negotiable.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy
•    Define and execute a global strategy for settlement controls, balance sheet substantiation and preventative post-trade risk management.
•    Build a consistent control framework across GBS India and Malaysia covering breaks, reconciliations, suspense, claims, compensation and aged exposures.
•    Drive the shift from detective to preventative controls using data, workflow and automation.
•    Represent Settlement Controls in senior governance, remediation and strategic risk reduction forums.

Business
•    Provide strong control oversight to support Markets growth, settlement resilience and accurate financial reporting.
•    Partner with business, operations and finance stakeholders to resolve material breaks, aged balances and control weaknesses.
•    Provide insight into balance sheet exposure themes, operational leakage and root causes.
•    Ensure front-to-back accountability for issues that originate upstream but crystallise in settlement / balance sheet control.

Processes
•    Own processes for reconciliations, substantiation, aged break management, suspense account control, claims oversight and financial adjustments.
•    Standardise control procedures, account ownership, escalation thresholds and evidence standards.
•    Drive timely remediation of aged balances, unmatched items and unresolved exceptions.
•    Ensure control processes are well documented, measurable and auditable.

People & Talent
•    Lead a specialist control organisation with strong accounting, settlements, reconciliation and risk management capability.
•    Build analytical, investigative and automation skills across teams.
•    Promote a culture of precision, curiosity, challenge and sustainable remediation.
•    Develop future leaders who can operate across operations, finance and risk disciplines.

Risk Management
•    Own the risk profile for settlement controls and balance sheet exposures.
•    Strengthen controls over financial misstatement, operational losses, unresolved breaks, suspense ageing and manual adjustments.
•    Ensure timely issue escalation, root cause analysis and remediation discipline.
•    Embed KRIs, tolerance thresholds and control effectiveness metrics.

Governance
•    Establish governance over aged items, account ownership, substantiation quality, control exceptions and remediation plans.
•    Provide clear reporting to Post Trade Operations, Finance, Product Control and risk committees.
•    Ensure alignment with Operational Risk, Finance control standards and Group policy requirements.
•    Maintain evidence-ready controls for audit, assurance and regulatory reviews

Transformation
•    Lead automation of reconciliations, balance sheet analytics, exception workflow and AI-enabled root cause identification.
•    Partner with Technology and Finance Change to reduce manual controls and improve data lineage.
•    Drive simplification of accounts, processes and reporting packs.

Regulatory & Business 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.
•    Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct.
•    Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate, and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.
•    Provide leadership within the Middle Office organisation to comply with the highest standards of regulatory and business conduct and practices as defined by internal and external requirements.
•    Takes a proactive approach to implementing Just Culture and emphasising the importance of the groups’ valued behaviours regularly through retrospective sessions with the team and Channels townhall sessions.
•    Embed the Group’s Values and Group Code of Conduct to ensure adherence with the highest standards of ethics.  Comply with relevant policies, processes, and regulations, as part of the culture.

Key stakeholders
•    Trading, Sales, Middle Office and Product Operations
•    Settlements, Confirmations and Middle Office
•    Finance, Product Control, Treasury and Financial Control
•    Reconciliations, Nostro, Depot and Balance Sheet teams
•    Technology, Data and Transformation teams
•    Operational Risk, Compliance, Audit and Assurance
•    Country Operations and GBS India / Malaysia leadership

Other Responsibilities
•    Leverage the opportunity provided by Corporate Social Responsibility to enhance the Group’s internal and external reputation and indirectly influence the bottom line.
•    Promote the Group’s brand and Here for good with employees, clients and regulators.
•    Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Country, Business or Functional policies and procedures.
•    Maintain effective communication with key stakeholders, including regulators and staff.

Skills and Experience

•    Reconciliations and Balance Sheet Control 
•    Process Design & Re-engineering 
•    Data Analysis 
•    Client Service & Experience  
•    Risk & Controls
•    Global Markets Post Trade Operations
•    People Management Skill  

Qualifications

•    University degree preferred, ideally in Finance, Economics, Business, Accounting, Operations, Technology, Data, Engineering or a related discipline.
•    Strong experience in Global Markets Operations, Post Trade Operations, Middle Office, Confirmations, Confirmations, Reconciliations, Client Data, Fees, Controls, Risk Management, Change or Transformation.
•    Proven experience leading large teams across multiple locations, preferably including GBS, offshore or regional hub environments.
•    Strong understanding of Global Markets products, trade lifecycle, post-trade processes, legal entity requirements and operational risk.
•    Demonstrated track record in strengthening controls, improving service delivery, resolving complex issues and leading sustainable change.
•    Experience engaging senior stakeholders across Front Office, COO, Finance, Product Control, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Audit and country teams.
•    Ability to operate in a high-volume, time-sensitive and risk-sensitive environment with strong judgement and clear escalation discipline.
•    Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex issues clearly to senior stakeholders.
•    Proven senior leadership experience managing large or complex global functions with direct accountability for risk, people, performance and transformation.

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.