Wholesale Brokers Supervising Lead Associate

Are you interested in joining a dynamic team supervising the UK’s wholesale brokers? We are recruiting for a Lead Associate to join the Wholesale Brokers Flexible Firm Supervision Team at the FCA, in a department that is at the forefront of the FCA’s work to supervise wholesale intermediaries. Your role will lead the delivery of the supervisory strategy for this important portfolio of firms at the FCA.

If you have experience within wholesale financial markets, and can demonstrate strong use of judgement, excellent communication skills and effective delivery of complex work, this could be the role for you

What does the role involve? What are the key responsibilities?

As lead supervisor in the team you will be responsible for developing the supervisory strategy for the portfolio and leading its delivery. This includes designing workstreams that help to advance the supervisory priorities for the portfolio, seeking senior level agreement for their execution and steering them through to completion, working closely with wider the team and other internal stakeholders. In the past, examples of work by the team have included multi-firm work to assess and to improve remuneration structures at broker firms and work to scrutinise governance and controls brokers have in place to prevent them being used to facilitate financial crime.

You will also directly supervise portfolio firms and as the lead supervisor in the team, take responsibility for the team’s more complex supervisory decisions and issues with firms. In addition, you will support other team members by providing input to their supervision strategies for their firms and guide and develop their supervision skills and technical know-how, using your skills and experience.

The supervisory issues that you will deal with cover, amongst others, allegations of serious misconduct, concerns about the business activities of firms, the potential failure of firms and whether firms are meeting the FCA’s threshold conditions. To resolve these issues, you will work closely with internal and external stakeholders, including senior individuals at wholesale broker firms and internal colleagues in Policy, Market Monitoring, Operational Risk, Prudential and Financial Crime Supervision, Enforcement and Legal. In your work, you will also commonly use supervisory tools and take supervisory action against firms, including through requirements or skilled person reviews or make referrals to Enforcement as appropriate.

The role offers a challenging, interesting and varied portfolio of work, collaborating with colleagues from across the FCA. It will suit an ambitious individual who is looking for an opportunity to take responsibility for the supervision of an important portfolio. In the role, you will gain in-depth experience and insight of wholesale brokers and the wholesale financial markets they operate within and you will have significant senior level exposure both across the FCA and with regulated firms.

The department where the role sits is a high-energy and stimulating area of the FCA, and provides a supportive environment that continually seeks to develop individuals to perform at their best.

Skills/Experience Required

Minimum
- Experience of wholesale financial markets and regulation
- Experience leading on complex pieces of work, and exercising judgement in complex situations
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Essential
- Knowledge of wholesale brokers, their business models and conduct and prudential risks facing firms involved in trading in the wholesale financial markets
- Good understanding of the UK and EU regulatory framework
- The ability to analyse and challenge complex information and form strong judgements
- The ability to communicate with impact and influence at senior levels (in both verbal and written form)
- The ability to engage confidently with a variety of internal and external stakeholders
- Demonstrable leadership skills and the ability to work collaboratively and act as a role model

Desirable
- Knowledge of trading venues (MTFs/OTFs)
- Experience of market abuse and/or financial crime issues and systems and control requirements in the wholesale markets
- Experience of managing SM&CR and governance and culture issues

About us

At the FCA, we're creating a fair and more resilient financial system. We're establishing more transparent relationships between financial services and their customers, building trust in financial markets and protecting vulnerable consumers.

Within the FCA, the Wholesale Brokers Flexible Firm Supervision team supervises around 300 small to medium-size wholesale broker firms with the objective of ensuring market integrity and protecting consumers. The current priorities for the portfolio include: dealing with ‘bad actor’ firms, assessing the governance and culture at the firms, scrutinising and improving firms’ market abuse and financial crime systems and controls and prudentially supervising fi