Job Summary

Define the role’s purpose and key accountabilities for leading first-line business risk management across Branch Banking and Affluent, covering operational, conduct, regulatory, fraud, financial crime, client experience and governance risks.
•    Act as the principal first-line risk leader for Branch Banking and Affluent, enabling business heads, distribution leaders and segment teams to manage risks within appetite while delivering sustainable growth and fair client outcomes.
•    Continuously assess risks arising from branch operations, affluent client propositions, sales and service practices, client journeys, regulatory change, transformation initiatives and third-party / outsourced processes, and advise on appropriate mitigation and remediation actions.
•    Ensure timely completion of BAU risk deliverables, including risk assessments, control testing, issue management, operational loss reporting, governance submissions, audit actions, regulatory action tracking and risk acceptance processes.
•    Lead implementation of business risk management initiatives across Branch Banking and Affluent, ensuring control enhancements are practical, sustainable and aligned to client protection, regulatory expectations and business priorities.
•    Accountable for ensuring material risks, control failures and residual risk exposures are assessed, documented and submitted through appropriate risk acceptance and governance channels in consultation with process owners, risk owners and second-line teams.
•    Responsible for implementation of the Control Sample Testing process, sampling approach, testing standards, Key Control Indicators and RCSA assessments across relevant branch and affluent processes.
•    Responsible for ensuring the quality, accuracy and completeness of information recorded in risk tracking systems, and for driving timely resolution of outstanding issues, actions and remediation plans.

•    Support the business in minimising operational risks and losses, ensuring material operational losses, fraud events, conduct issues and process failures are investigated and lessons are embedded to prevent recurrence.
•    Ensure country-level risk ownership is retained by business and process owners over centrally or GBS-performed activities, including ownership of residual risk evaluations, validation outcomes and associated remediation activities.
•    Identify non-standard, manual or high-risk branch and affluent processes, and ensure appropriate control mechanisms are implemented, monitored and improved for effectiveness.
•    Proactively communicate emerging risks, control gaps and significant events to relevant business, risk, compliance and governance stakeholders.
•    Coordinate and consolidate operational risk, conduct risk, fraud risk and loss reporting for Branch Banking and Affluent for submission to CNFRC, OTCR and relevant business governance forums.
•    Design and implement control measures, monitoring plans and preventive risk indicators to strengthen compliance, operational resilience and client outcome governance.
•    Coordinate periodic business monitoring, thematic reviews and self-assessment activities across Branch Banking and Affluent, and escalate findings, breaches or adverse trends to business heads, CFCR, OTCR and other relevant stakeholders.
•    Identify capability gaps and arrange targeted training on operational risk, conduct, fraud prevention, regulatory requirements and control ownership for branch and affluent teams.
•    Carry out gap analysis between Group standards, regulatory circulars, country process notes and business practices, ensuring timely implementation of required changes.

Key Responsibilities

•    Drive effective first-line risk management, governance and compliance across Branch Banking and Affluent, ensuring that business growth, distribution performance, affluent client engagement and service delivery are supported by a robust, sustainable and client-focused control environment.
•    Understand the strategic priorities of Branch Banking and Affluent and ensure that risk and control requirements are embedded early in business planning, branch operations, sales governance, affluent client propositions, process changes and transformation initiatives.
•    Maintain a strong understanding of branch distribution models, affluent relationship management, client lifecycle processes, sales and service controls, complaints, operational touchpoints and regulatory obligations to provide risk-based advice and challenge to the business.
•    Review branch and affluent controls, including control design, control performance, exceptions, complaints, incidents, audit findings, assurance outcomes and remediation actions, to ensure risks are identified, assessed, mitigated and monitored effectively.
•    Build risk awareness across branch and affluent teams by identifying training needs, sharing lessons from issues and events, and promoting a culture of proactive risk identification, ownership, escalation, client protection and accountability.
•    Provide guidance to Branch Banking and Affluent on maintaining an effective Management Control Approach, with focus on control design, operating effectiveness, timely remediation and continuous improvement in risk outcomes.
•    Identify and assess risks arising from branch expansion, product distribution, affluent client engagement, digital-assisted journeys, client communications, regulatory developments, thematic reviews and business transformation, and support implementation of proportionate controls in country.

•    Ensure adherence to policies, standards and regulatory requirements applicable to Branch Banking and Affluent, and challenge processes, procedures or controls where improvements are required to strengthen client outcomes and risk management.
•    Speak up on emerging risks, recurring control weaknesses, adverse client experience indicators, conduct concerns, fraud themes and regulatory matters, ensuring timely escalation and clear ownership of remediation.
•    Responsible for identifying knowledge gaps and facilitating development of targeted operational risk, conduct, fraud and compliance training for branch and affluent teams.
•    Participate in periodic peer reviews and cross-business reviews to ensure consistency of risk management approach and support embedding of best practices across the distribution network.
•    Identify, record, monitor and track issues, events, control weaknesses, risk acceptances and remediation actions relating to Branch Banking and Affluent.
•    Track actions arising from internal audits, external audits, regulatory inspections, thematic reviews, client complaints, incidents, fraud events and assurance reviews through to sustainable closure.
•    Ensure governance reporting is accurate, complete, timely and insight-led, including risk dashboards, operational loss reporting, issue status, control performance, conduct indicators, fraud themes and regulatory updates.
•    Conduct periodic thematic, analytical and deep-dive reviews across branch operations, affluent client processes, sales governance, complaints, incidents and control outcomes to identify risk trends and drive preventive action.
•    Monitor and support implementation of applicable regulations, internal standards and policy changes impacting Branch Banking, Affluent, client servicing and distribution-related operational processes.

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.
•    Support India WRB, Branch Banking and Affluent teams in achieving the outcomes set out in the Bank’s Conduct Principles, including fair client outcomes, financial crime compliance, effective governance and the right conduct environment.
•    Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct, fraud, regulatory and compliance matters.
•    Ensure adherence to applicable requirements prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India, SEBI, IRDAI, NSDL, CDSL and other relevant regulators, as applicable to branch banking, affluent client servicing, investment / insurance distribution and related operational processes.

Stakeholders:
•    Head Branch Banking, Head Affluent, Segment Heads, Regional and Branch Heads, Relationship Managers, Product Heads, Operations, Technology, Compliance, Operational Risk, Conduct and Financial Crime Risk, Legal, Group Risk stakeholders, Internal Audit, external auditors and relevant regulators.

Other Responsibilities
•    Demonstrate strong cross-functional collaboration and leadership through proactive engagement with business heads, regional and branch leadership, affluent segment teams, process owners, risk owners, operations, technology and control functions.
•    Strengthen the effectiveness of control monitoring, operational risk management, fraud prevention, conduct governance, regulatory compliance and client outcome governance at the business unit and branch network level.
•    Support satisfactory outcomes from reviews undertaken by Group Internal Audit, regulators and external auditors through strong issue management, evidence quality and sustainable remediation.
•    Ensure timely communication and implementation of changes to the regulatory environment, internal policies, standards and procedures issued by Legal, Compliance and Operational Risk Management.
•    Ensure timely reporting, escalation and governance of operational risk exposures, conduct issues, fraud events, regulatory matters and control failures.
•    Act as regulatory champion, process champion and first-line risk advisor for Branch Banking and Affluent.

Skills and Experience

•    Business Risk Management
•    Branch Operations and Distribution Controls
•    Conduct, Fraud and Financial Crime Risk
•    Regulatory Risk and Governance
•    Data Analytics and Risk Insight Generation
•    People Leadership and Stakeholder Management

Qualifications

•    Graduate or postgraduate qualification with significant experience in banking, branch distribution, affluent / wealth client servicing, business risk management, operational risk, conduct risk, compliance, audit, governance or control roles. 
•    Experience in first-line risk management, regulatory engagement, senior stakeholder management and leading teams in a complex banking environment is preferred.

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.