Director/Financial Strategies, Research and Membership Applications recruitment
Position Summary
The Director/Financial Strategies, Research and Membership Applications has key responsibilities related to the Bank’s credit products (advances, letters of credit, MPF, and member derivatives) and their use by members. These responsibilities include developing of financial strategies, conducting market research, new product development and product enhancements, and analyzing business opportunities and associated risks. The Director also oversees the Membership Application function.
Specific Responsibilities
Financial Strategies:
- Primary responsibility for identifying opportunities for members to use advances for liquidity, balance sheet management and loan funding purposes. Along with a staff of two strategists and the research manager, the Director develops funding strategies to be used by the relationship managers and Money Desk staff as they work with members to develop advances business. Responds to relationship manager requests for strategies as well as directly from members.
- Provides research and analysis relating to the secondary market and the Bank’s Mortgage Partnership Finance® (MPF) program in particular, to support achievement of sales goals for new participating financial institutions (PFIs) and loan purchase volume.
- Meets with members and prospective members in conjunction with the relationship managers and secondary market managers (or at their request) to present strategies for effective use of FHLBank business solutions.
Market Research:
- Conducts market research to identify opportunities or obstacles to doing more business with members. Sources for research may include internal and external member financial information, FHLB Boston policies and practices, policies and practices of other FHLBs, and laws and regulations. Works with the Bank’s relationship managers, financial strategists, Money Desk, Housing and Community Investment, MPF, Treasury, and Credit and Collateral staffs to develop strategies to take advantage of opportunities and overcome obstacles as appropriate. Stays abreast and brings “best practice” ideas from other FHLBs to the EVP/Chief Business Officer and the Director of Sales and Business Development for consideration.
- Prepares business volume projections throughout the year for various financial plans.
Product Development:
- Responsible for the effective management of research, concept formulation, business case preparation, approval, development, test, implementation and market evaluation of all new product and solutions offerings. Develops sources for new product ideas, including the Member Advisory Panel and other member feedback sources, relationship managers, secondary market managers, Treasury staff, other FHLBs, industry advisors, and other providers of wholesale funding.
Business Risk Analysis:
- Assesses business risk (the risk of losing credit-product business) associated with Bank policies, practices, or actions taken to manage other risks within the Bank. Recommends changes to policies, practices or actions if appropriate. Keeps informed of potential Credit Committee and ALCO actions that may affect business opportunities with members.
Membership Applications:
- Oversees the Member Applications Manager for processing membership applications. Works with the Relationship Managers to provide analytics and research relevant to the membership recruitment process.
Other:
- Manages staff in areas of responsibility including recruitment, training and development, performance management, retention and departmental structure to ensure personnel are in place to appropriately and successfully support the Bank’s membership.
- The incumbent works closely with the Credit Department and Director of Corporate Communications to keep the Bank’s Products and Solutions Guide current and to revise it as needed.
- Works with the Chief Business Officer and Director/Sales and Business Development on special projects. These special projects often require the ability to create ad hoc financial monitoring reports and trend analysis from several extensive financial databases.
- May serve as Member Services representative on various Bank and System committees and task forces.
- Stays informed of changes and proposed changes to the regulations and reporting requirements of the federal banking regulatory agencies, the NAIC, the SEC, other regulatory bodies (i.e. covered bond legislation, Basel III), and generally accepted accounting principal changes that impact members.
- Efficiently perform the financial analysis of member institutions and prospects for the purpose of identifying trends, opportunities, obstacles, and potential obstacles to doing business. The analysis requires effective use of credit department and regulatory agency databases, information from outside credit services, publicly released reports, laws and regulations (current and proposed), and direct contact with senior management of member institutions. Present these findings to the appropriate audience in Member Services. Assist others in the department in developing solutions to take advantage of or overcome the findings.
- Stay informed of product offerings and credit policies of other FHLBs.
- Analyze proposed changes to the Bank’s credit and other policies and practices for reasonableness and their effect on business generation.
- Serve as a key member of the Member Services team, taking initiative to develop business opportunities for targeted groups of members or individual members and prospects.
Qualifications
Knowledge/Skills
- Excellent financial analysis skills.
- Attention to detail. Must have commitment to accuracy. Demonstrated ability to develop and present precise and concise conclusions based on specific analytics required.
- Familiarity with the balance sheet and income statements of financial institutions, and with SEC reports. Must be able to apply financial knowledge to real tasks, considering pertinent financial details, regulatory issues, policy guidelines, resource constraints, and market inefficiencies. Experience with financial analysis and risk valuation of complex banking institutions and/or insurance companies is considered a plus.
- Working knowledge of the secondary mortgage market desirable.
- Demonstrated ability to produce clear and detailed credit related ad-hoc reports from an extensive database. Advanced Excel skills, and good working knowledge of Excel queries required.
- Must be able to communicate clearly and effectively with senior management of members and of the FHLB in both oral and written format. Strong presentation skill a must.
- Must have confidence and initiative to complete assignments on time and accurately.
- Sound understanding of regulations and requirements for FHLB membership and procedures for processing membership applications helpful.
Education
- Bachelor’s degree with a concentration in finance, accounting or economics.
- MBA preferred.
Experience
- Minimum of eight to ten years of financial analysis experience, preferably in a banking institution and/or insurance company. Closely related financial analysis experience in other work settings may also be acceptable.
- Must have strong Excel computer skills, especially in the area of databases and spreadsheet report preparation. Must be proficient in MS Excel and have thorough knowledge of Windows Office software.
- Minimum of three to five years managerial experience in at least one of the functional areas of responsibility.
Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston is an Equal Opportunity Employer
July 16, 2012
• Tags: Director, Financial Strategies, Research and Membership Applications recruitment, Research careers in the USA • Posted in: Financial