Fund accounting Oversight role

Fund accounting Oversight role

Main Purpose of Role

The FA Oversight Team is to be located in the Chelmsford, UK and Pune West, India offices and this role will be reporting into the AVP for Fund Accounting Oversight in India and then onto the Head of CASS and FA in Chelmsford, UK.

This roles main purpose is to oversee the external Fund Accountant for which we have delegated the funds administration to including daily NAV reporting, Financial Statements Reporting and Fund taxation.

Key Responsibilities

Fund Accounting:

• Monitoring of Fund daily prices within agreed SLAs and daily movement tolerances.
• Regularly review the external FAs price source agreement is within the firms risk appetite and covers all the funds investments.
• Compensatory pricing breaches Will include but not limited too, reviewing impact calculations, liaising with depositary for approval, liaising with the transfer agent and / or fund accountant as necessary for compensation corrections to be raised.
• Monitor units in issue and ensure they are accurate.
• Weekly monitoring of all FAs cash and stock breaks, including dividend receivables.
• Oversee the withholding tax reclaims filing in countries where double tax treaty agreements are in place.
• Ensure that our funds receive the most beneficial tax rate on dividend income.
• Review and arrange signing of various legal documentation related to withholding tax.
• Completion of consolidated annual and quarterly ONS returns for all Funds and file with the UKs Office for National Statistics.

Financial Reporting:

• Review the Financial Statements prepared by the Fund Accountants, ensuring compliance with appropriate accounting standards, relevant IA SORP and other regulations (COLL, FUND).
• Ensure the key deliverables are checked for regulatory compliance, completeness and accuracy including Distributions rate, ongoing charges (OCF), Financial Statements Fund prices and performance fees.
• Review expenses to ensure that they do not exceed allocated budget and instruct any required adjustments.
• Monitor deliverables compared to agreed reporting timetable / work planners and being active to achieve those deadlines and within regulatory timescales;
• Monitor key performance indicator data. Taking appropriate action to remediate where service levels are not at the expected level.
• Awareness of industry and regulatory initiatives or developments and impact on Department and Funds.

For both:

• Actively monitor the services received and attend monthly meetings for the fund accountants, auditors, and other third parties to ensure these are in line with SLAs and KPI’s.
• Maintain regular liaison with the investment managers, Fund Accountants, Transfer Agencies, Auditors and Client Relationship Mangers on a daily basis.
• Attend Client & FA meetings as well as oversee FA and conduct annual due diligence.
• Review and report on FAs SOC1 reports – reviewing exceptions and risks raised for potential impact to the FP funds.
• Ensure any breaches are logged with the depositary and recorded into internal breach system including root cause trending analysis.
• Ensure supporting procedures are accurate and kept up to date.
• Participate in the Audits of our products, respond audit queries on behalf of the clients, address any issues or recommendations raised by external auditors and ensure they are all closed out in a timely manner.
• Ensure the Audit Feedback findings are tracked and acted upon to ensure any risk areas are mitigated.
• Assist in developing measures to restructure and align management company services to meet future client, regulatory and business needs.
• Develop, adapt and improve appropriate risk-based control regime for each assigned service provider by analysing internal and external data – i.e. control and auditing reports.
• Keep up to date with new regulations. Support in interpretation of new regulations and how they will impact the fund and its investors.
• Act as a subject matter expert towards any relevant projects.
• Ongoing review and enhancement of the Fund Accounting Oversight framework to ensure the adherence of FundRock’s and it’s delegates to the laws, rules and regulations governing marketing and distribution activities.
• Work in collaboration with other internal teams.
• Compile management information as required for internal committee and board reporting.
• Complete other ad-hoc tasks as directed.

Competencies

• Attention to detail and accuracy for review of reporting.
• Managing the resolution of regulatory and audit issues.
• Directing and controlling third party service providers to achieve compliance with the regulatory requirements and mitigate client regulatory risk.
• Interpreting and communicating regulatory requirements within a business.
• Working with compliance to address regulatory and counterparty risk.
• Taking ownership of and resolving audit and regulatory issues and actions.
• Continuously build on existing processes to improve quality and efficiency.
• Demonstrate good communication skills, both written and oral and be able to converse with personnel at all levels.
• Meticulous attention to detail.

Experience

• Previous experience working within the UK facing Financial Services industry within an operational finance team or service provider for at least 2 years.
• Financial reporting experience or accounting qualification for UK regulations including UK GAAP and SORP, FUND.
• Understanding all types of derivatives and accounting treatments.
• Understanding of asset types the fund may hold such as REITS, Bonds, Private Equity investments and their accounting treatments.
• Reviewing and overseeing firms operational process, systems and controls.
• Responsibility for resolving regulatory and audit issues.