Reconciliation Specialist recruitment

** PLEASE NOTE THIS ROLE IS A FIXED TERM CONTRACT **

Job Purpose:

This is a Reconciliation assistant role within the Citi UK Consumer business working in support of the Reconciliation Manager with responsibility for the preparation, oversight and review of key reconciliations in respect of UK Consumer bank and ledger accounts that support moving money activities for customers.

Specifically these responsibilities include:
· Daily preparation of bank account reconciliations from source data such as bank statements, ledger balances, system reports etc
· Assistance with month end close and reporting requirements.
· Identification of exceptions and investigation to provide quality information to support future investigation and resolution.
· Escalation to line manager of suspected transactional issues, failures or potential losses.
· Liaise with clearing bank to investigate bank statement entries, ensuring that resolution is timely
· Answer internal queries received by team in connection with transactional processes raised by other business areas.
· Undertake appropriate liaison with off-shored teams in support of ensuring that workloads are appropriately balanced and that output is optimally produced.
· Work in full compliance with established processes.
· Support recovery from moving money incidents in various ways as required by management line.
· Support RCSA processes as appropriate.
· Support audit reviews as appropriate.

The role requires an excellent understanding of transactional activities and controls around Citi and Egg systems and processes. Interactions with internal areas such as Finance, Customer Services, Collections, Fraud, Technology teams etc would be expected. External interfaces would include Chennai and Mumbai in respect of activities off-shored and UK retail banks and other financial institutions in pursuit of information.
The role requires a strong calibre of assistant with an advanced level of understanding around how moving money transactions work, general ledger accounting / book-keeping and banking controls.
This role requires 2+ years of financial control experience in a financial services company where reconciliation / transactional control activity has been performed. {i} {/i}

Skills

Key Responsibilities:

· Preparation of bank reconciliations from source information according to specified procedures.
· Preparation of other controls reports as required eg Operation Loss reconciliation, provision for debit balances reporting etc
· Post to the company general ledger a range of transactions eg month end journals, corrections to ledger balance verification reports etc
· Complete work according to all relevant policies/procedures ensuring compliance at all times (this also includes working to various quantitative and qualitative KPI targets ).
· Undertake timely investigation of exceptions issues, escalating where appropriate to management taking into consideration a range of issues such as materiality, impact on customers, likelihood of re-occurrence, recovery timescales etc
· Liaise with HSBC and Lloyds and other internal departments, in relation to the investigation and resolution of transactional exceptions appearing on bank statements, bank correspondence and reconciliations.
· Escalate to line manager breaches in service level adherence by bank helpdesks when resolving queried bank transactions.
· Provide recommendations and support to internal departments aimed at eliminating re-occurrence of avoidable transactional exceptions and errors.
· Support off-shored teams with reconciliation preparation via advice and consultation (also use this link as a means of gaining further expertise around off-shored reconciliation and transactional activity ).
· Support and contribute to ARR, RCSA and External Audit activities as required.
· Contribute to the Continuity of Business plan as required.

Development Value:

· The role provides the job-holder with an excellent understanding of the key control area of transactional reconciliation, a fundamental part of a bank's control environment. Activities with this role cover all transactional processes and hence provide the job-holder with an excellent base of knowledge on which to build. The position also provides allows for a wide business network to be established in specialised areas of the business.

Knowledge/Experience:

Essential

· The impact of monetary incidents, failures exceptions on customers and organizations.
· Proven track record of working on reconciliation / transactional controls in a retail banking environment.
· Book-keeping double entry skills.

Desirable
· Knowledge of a wide range of bank products.
· Experience of moving money incidents / failures and subsequent resolution.
· Knowledge of UK Banking transactional methodologies and clearing cycles.

Skills:

Essential
· Transactional impact on customer and company general ledger accounts.
· Highly numerate.
· Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
· Good problem solving skills.
· Risk awareness.
· Working in detail at complex transactional level challenges.
· Able to deal with rapidly changing priorities.
· Flexible investigative skills.
· Strong excel skills.

Qualifications:

Essential
· Experience in a banking control environment dealing with reconciliation and moving money processes.

Desirable

· Stage 1 CIMA qualified or equivalent.