Financial Accountant – Head of UK Compensation Accounting Team recruitment

Morgan Stanley has earned a worldwide reputation for the excellence of its advice and execution in financial markets. With over 1,300 offices in 42 countries, the firm is truly global- and a market leader in the U.S, Europe and Asia as well as in Emerging Markets.  We provide institutions and individuals with almost every kind of financial product and service across all the world’s major markets.

In 2000 the Institutional Securities division established an operations team in Glasgow with just 6 employees.  Since then our office has grown to over 1000 employees across 6 divisions: Operations, PWM, Finance, Fund Services, Information Technology and Risk Management.  Our offices are located in Glasgow’s city centre in the heart of the International Financial Services District.

We have built a world class reputation for quality and service and the talent and passion of our people has been critical to our success.  We can provide a superior foundation for building a professional career – a place for people to learn, to achieve and to grow.  Together we share a common set of values rooted in integrity, excellence and a strong team ethic.

Due to our growing business, we have a demand for career minded people to join our teams.   Our opportunities offer unrivalled scope for progression and training within a fast paced, meritocratic and constantly changing environment.

The Glasgow Finance Division helps senior management and its individual business units manage the firm’s risk by implementing financial controls over our business activities. The division is crucial to safeguarding the firm’s franchise, reporting on current performance, and evaluating business opportunities.

Payroll Controller Team

A decision was made recently to transfer the compensation accounting controller and administration teams from London to Glasgow.  Therefore, the Glasgow office is looking to build a new team of approximately 19 people who will be responsible for the processing and booking of compensation related expenses for all UK employees and for employees in certain other EMEA locations.  Due to the nature of the firm’s compensation arrangements, the group is involved in processing and accounting for a range of complex compensation arrangements.  The team works closely with its counterparts in other global locations, in particular in New York and Europe, and with other departments in Morgan Stanley including Human Resources, IT and across the finance division.  The set up of this new department in Glasgow creates an exciting opportunity for someone to help create and develop this team.
The successful candidate will perform a key leadership role within the Payroll Controller team, reporting to the Head of the Payroll team, who in turn is responsible for overseeing both the Controller and Administration teams.  The successful candidate will initially play a significant part in recruiting and developing the new team in Glasgow and for helping to manage the successful transition of responsibilities from the London team to the new Glasgow team.

The group is split into 2 main teams, which have significant interaction between them, as follows:

Payroll Administration Team:
The Payroll Administration team consists of approximately 10 people with its core function being to manage the processing of the payroll for all UK employees and for certain payrolls in EMEA.  This entails the processing of all monthly net salary and bonus payments to approximately 8,000 employees plus the payment of associated taxes and contributions to benefit plans related to these employees.

Compensation Controller Team:
The Compensation Controller team consists of approximately 8 people with its core functions being to manage the accounting for the UK payroll and certain EMEA payrolls including managing the booking of salaries and related benefits and taxes, cash bonuses, hypotaxes, severance accruals and recharges, managing currency exposure on the UK payroll entity and working with Treasury and senior management to hedge the currency exposure related to the compensation expense and providing compensation related information to legal entity controllers for disclosure in the annual statutory accounts and to the tax department for use in their tax computations.  The team is involved in providing input on technical accounting issues and liaison with different groups and individuals within the organisation.

In addition, both groups are involved in managing a number of key initiatives and projects in order to ensure that processes and procedures are kept up to date in line with best practice and in line with new legislation changes.

The successful candidate will perform a key leadership role within the Payroll Controller team, reporting to the Head of the Payroll team, who in turn is responsible for overseeing both the Controller and Administration teams.  The successful candidate will initially play a significant part in recruiting and developing the new team in Glasgow and for helping to manage the successful transition of responsibilities from the London team to the new Glasgow team.

Ongoing responsibilities will incorporate a combination of project work, ownership of key monthly processes, people management, statutory accounting, input on technical accounting issues and liaison with different groups in the firm.
 

Role:
Supporting two direct reports, specific responsibilities will include:
• Ownership of the UK EMEA payroll, bonus and other key compensation accrual processes, with responsibility for ensuring that the accounting for these processes is complete, accurate and prepared on a timely basis.
• Maintaining and enhancing the Accounting control framework for compensation expense.
• Overseeing the reconciliation and reporting of awards granted under a number of different deferred compensation plans within London and EMEA and reviewing the monthly fair value adjustments and accurate accounting for these compensation plans.
• Maintaining a detailed understanding of current accounting policies according to US, UK GAAP and International Accounting Standards concerning deferred compensation, legal entity reporting and pension accounting.
• Responsibility for the preparation of statutory accounts and key disclosures for Morgan Stanley UK Limited (the main UK payroll entity) and other UK and European entities, and liaising with accounting policy and legal entity controller groups to ensure accounts and disclosures are accurate and prepared in accordance with UK GAAP and International Accounting Standards.
• Reviewer responsibility for certain 3R’s balance sheet and PL accounts related to the above mentioned processes, reporting variances and issues to management on a monthly basis and resolving issues and queries that arise
• Key involvement in a variety of projects undertaken by the department including roll out of the global compensation-splitting project, automation projects and managing acquisition, new EMEA offices or disposal activities.
• Overall responsibility for payroll accounting systems, including maintenance, upgrades and any necessary changes to system requirements (working with payroll IT where necessary).
• Leading the team in the preparation of monthly compensation flash reporting for the UK and EMEA regions with focus on drivers behind monthly variances. These reports satisfy internal management reporting requirements and are distributed to relevant groups in the US for inclusion in monthly and quarterly global compensation reporting.
• Interaction with management reporting and legal entity controller groups across both infrastructure and business unit areas, responding to queries and providing support for and analysis of compensation movements for monthly infrastructure and BU PL reporting.
• Liaison with a variety of groups and individuals (including payroll controllers in the US, Far East and within all European regions, HR, legal entity controllers, accounting policy and tax groups) in agreeing payroll policy, changes in processes, discussing payroll related issues and roll out of changes to payroll systems.
• Input on technical accounting questions and issues related to compensation areas with particular focus on UK v US GAAP reporting requirements (for example differing treatments for National Insurance accruals on equity compensation and differing treatments for defined benefit pension accounting between UK and US GAAP).
• Pivotal role in the year-end process, including responsibility for the year-end bonus accruals, analysis of dual contract splits, currency hedging, year-end planning with HR in Europe and NY, and completion of the year-end bonus reconciliation.
• Liaison with external auditors to assist with understanding the key processes, giving access to systems for sample testing and providing evidence of key controls.

Role specific competencies and key responsibilities:

• The candidate should be a qualified accountant
• Strong accounting knowledge with experience of compensation based accounting and disclosures would be a strong advantage (UK, IFRS and US GAAP knowledge).
• Prior experience of managing teams is required as this candidate will oversee and manage the work of approximately six/seven people.
• Good track record of managing processes and of continuously reviewing and improving processes is required.

The successful candidate will perform a key leadership role within the Payroll Controller team, reporting to the Head of the Payroll team, who in turn is responsible for overseeing both the Controller and Administration teams.  The successful candidate will initially play a significant part in recruiting and developing the new team in Glasgow and for helping to manage the successful transition of responsibilities from the London team to the new Glasgow team.

Ongoing responsibilities will incorporate a combination of project work, ownership of key monthly processes, people management, statutory accounting, input on technical accounting issues and liaison with different groups in the firm.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to fair treatment, regardless of background