Financial Controller

Team presentation and main goal:

Join the Data Sourcing team, within the Financial Data Integrity (FDI) division at Natixis, as part of the Finance Direction dedicated to upholding the integrity and accuracy of financial data across CIB activities (balance sheet and off-balance sheet). Our team is split between Paris and Porto, part of a department, of around 150 professionals, and is on the frontline of labelling financial data for both balance sheet and off-balance sheet activities.

The Data Sourcing team is split between Paris and Porto, and you'll be an integral part of a 10-member team.

You will be part of an integral part of a 10-member bi-localised team with a local manager and a functional manager based in Paris.

Main tasks and goals:

As a Financial Controller, for of a major French banking institution with international dimension, you will:

• Support accounting closings, ensuring monthly and quarterly financial accuracy across various products like bonds, stocks, commodities, loans, and derivatives. This involves reconciliations, identifying discrepancies, and adjusting as needed.
• Participate in data monitoring for the bank's financial activities (Equity, Commodities, Financing, Fixed Income), which includes data collection, error analysis, making corrections, and automating quality checks.
• Directly involved in handling Critical Data Elements (CDEs) to ensure data accuracy and integrity for reporting and analysis.

You will be in contact with the Operations department (middle and back offices), the other teams of FDI & the internal Finance partners, and Finance IT teams.

Perimeters:

The main tasks are organised along two axes:

• In a first step, Assistance with accounting closure work:
  • Anticipating and ensuring the reliability of monthly and quarterly closings via weekly reconciliations on all perimeters (bonds, shares, commodities, financing, rates, derivatives), analysing the discrepancies between accounting balances and inventories and adjusting accounting or inventories;
  • Ensuring a system of complementary manual entries in the event of disqualify of the closing processes such as late entries, adjustment of BO entries (basket swaps, collateral securities);
  • Ensuring and adjusting irregular accounting positions on the accrual’s accounts, leading to an abnormal RWA position, on a monthly basis,
  • Automating of manual processes of data retrieval & control, in a context of efficiency and with an expectation of digital approach;
  • writing and updating of operational procedures.

In the first phase, focusing on ensuring the accuracy of accounting closures involves:

• Conducting weekly reconciliations across various financial instruments (bonds, stocks, commodities, loans, rates, derivatives) to ensure the reliability of monthly and quarterly closings. This step is crucial for identifying discrepancies between the reported accounting balances and actual inventories, followed by necessary adjustments to either accounting records or inventories.
• Implementing additional manual entries as required to address any issues identified during the closing processes, such as late entries or adjustments of back-office entries (e.g., basket swaps, collateral securities).
• Adjusting irregular accounting positions in accrual accounts to avoid abnormal risk-weighted asset (RWA) positions, ensuring this is done on a quarterly basis.
• Enhancing the efficiency of manual data collection and control processes through automation, with an aim towards adopting a digital approach.
• Regularly updating operational procedures to reflect improvements and best practices in data management and control.

Integral to this phase is the meticulous work with Critical Data Elements (CDEs). This includes:

• Performing detailed analyses of anomalous data findings related to CDEs. By identifying key outliers, you will delve into the root causes of data discrepancies, ensuring that no detail is overlooked.
• Working in close collaboration with data owners to meticulously define and implement remediation plans for any identified issues. This process involves setting clear timelines, assigning responsibilities, and establishing success criteria to rectify discrepancies, thereby safeguarding the integrity and accuracy of critical data elements.
• Ensuring effective follow-up actions are taken to address and mitigate these discrepancies, thereby maintaining the overall quality and reliability of financial reporting and analysis.

In the second phase, the focus shifts to granular-level data monitoring to uphold the data quality necessary for all financial reporting and key indicators (such as ALM, Solvency, Liquidity, and FINREP):

• Manage the entire process of data acquisition and treatment along the financial chain, ensuring that data flows smoothly and accurately from start to finish.
• Develop and implement standardized data controls to guarantee data completeness, existence, accuracy, consistency, and timeliness, reinforcing the reliability of financial reports.
• Proactively identify and analyse any data anomalies, delving into their root causes to prevent future occurrences.
• Communicate findings and alerts promptly to management and relevant internal teams (accounting and ratio teams), ensuring that all stakeholders are informed of any issues.
• Formulate and implement corrective actions to address and resolve identified data discrepancies, working closely with affected teams to ensure timely resolution.
• Continually review and update operational procedures to incorporate the latest best practices in data management and control, ensuring ongoing improvement in data quality assurance.

Additional information:

• You will be part of a bi-localised team with a local manager and a functional manager Paris based, with regular interactions Paris team.
• The ability to develop a network within the various teams of the Natixis ecosystem, and an aptitude for collaborative and group work are key factors of success in this position.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a Finance or Accounting field, with a first professional experience in the finance department of a mid / large cap company or audit, preferably as a Financial Controller;
• Accounting or Financial Controller (1-3 years);
• Financial Products (advanced knowledge);
• Data Viz & Data Prep Tools (preferred);
• Python (preferred);
• SQL (preferred);
• Excel Power Pivot;
• Other Programming Languages (preferred);
• Fluent English (mandatory);
• Good level of French is a plus.

Soft Skills:

• Rigor and accuracy;
• Ability to analyse, summarise and report;
• Critical thinking, flexible and problem solving;
• Personal commitment and team spirit;
• Autonomy, curiosity, and willingness to move the issues forward.

We will only consider English CV's.