Financial Accountant – Capital Markets

The position is within Financial Accounting – Capital Markets department for EMEA located in Madrid, under the supervision of the department management.

He/she will perform tasks allocated mainly to the Capital Markets activities, where MSFC provides services for the Corporate and Institutional Banking and BP2S entities.

Financial Accountants will be involved in the day-to-day maintenance and control of the general ledgers for the entities under their responsibility generated by generated by the Capital Markets Activities associated to the following products: Derivatives, Securities, ALM Treasury, Equity, Clearing and Custody. When applicable, they coordinate review and potential adjustments with other teams. Additionally, they will have to ensure quality of data for all Reporting streams and be in charge of performing adjustments when needed in the General ledger.

Accounting & Control Functions

• He/she will be in charge of the following finance functions:

• Perform daily and month-end financial closing for their entities and prepare the Financial reporting to the Group

• Prepare and book daily/monthly entries as necessary

• Review ledgers and perform account and transaction analysis

• Analyze, reconcile, and review all accounts under their responsibility by performing variance analysis, highlighting trends, and following up on questions/ concerns

• Analyze all the transit accounts of the entities under their scope in order to identify overdue pending items and calculate the transitory provision according to Group procedure

• Provide assistance in responding to questions from the external auditors, Operations, and other support groups by:

  • Ensuring prompt resolution and follow-up of questions / requests for information

  • Escalating problems / issues to the head

  • Providing quality service to other teams

• Prepare budget and Forecast process related to the capital market activities

• Transform the accounting data into management accounting (profitability and cost allocation by Business Line) following the MARP (Management Accounting Rules and Principles)

• Perform the P&L and cost of funding reconciliation processes in compliance with Group and CIB Finance standards

• Act as the first level of review to ensure accuracy, completeness, and validity by reviewing and approving all related to capital market activities:

• The operational processing of revenues and Cost of Risk (CVI and CVA)

• Reconciliations of account balances (e.g. transit and suspensory accounts related to capital market activities)

• Reconciliations between systems / with Head Office (e.g. MO P&L with accounting, liquidity data reconciliation…)

• The reports generated by the management accounting activity (e.g. Flash reports, reporting of customer-level profitability)

• Justification of the balance and off-balance accounts allocated to the department (e.g.: liquidity, securities, equities accounts, suspensory accounts, etc.)

• Reconciliation between Atlas2 /Midas and OFS in all related to capital market and equity activities

• Reconciliation between Middle office P&L and Accounting P&L, assuring that all the significant gaps are properly identified, explained and followed up

• Reconciliation FX between Middle office positions and accounting. Additionally, assure the execution of the sell down process

• Assure the correct implementation of the custodian accounts reconciliation process performed by BP2S’s operations departments

• Assure the daily control over the BP2S capital market settlement activities 

Projects, Systems Support, Operational Process Improvements

• Participate in the upgrades/version releases of respective reporting tools, as well as system amendments/enhancements required to facilitate new/modified reporting requirements. In connection with this effort, assist in user acceptance testing and trouble-shooting after deployment

• Assist in identifying operational process improvements in production, control procedures, and workflow organization to increase the team’s efficiency and effectiveness. Also assist in integrating and streamlining the reports under the team’s responsibility

Other functions

• Observe the bank’s policies and procedures

• Provide reporting coverage by:

  • Learning the reports, tasks and requirements of the person they are backing up.

  • Training his/her back-up on the preparation of the reports and tasks under his responsibility

• Participate in staff development and evaluation, as well as staffing operational process (recruiting, hiring, and training). Help ensure that staff’s skills and competencies can support reporting requirements

• Assist in any special project or request as directed by management

Training and occupational experience

• Accounting degree or equivalent

• Minimum 1-2 years of financial and/or management accounting experience, preferably within Financial Services Industries

• Basic Corporate Banking product focus on securities, derivatives, treasury and clearing and custody desirable

• English speaking is mandatory

Essential specific requirements

• Working knowledge and understanding of generally accepted accounting principles, both in IFRS and French GAAP (an asset)

• Speaking French and other local languages a plus

• Excellent Excel skills (including pivot tables, VLOOKUP, SUMIF)
• Ability to learn new systems and products quickly

Skills and behaviours

• Effective analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills

• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal

• Self-starter and team player, able to work independently and collaboratively with various teams in a deadline-focused environment