Equity Prime Brokerage Middle Office Associate

Job title:             Equity Prime Brokerage Middle Office Associate

Corporate Title:  Associate

Department:     Finance

Location:           London

Company overview

Nomura is a global financial services group with an integrated network spanning approximately 30 countries and regions. By connecting markets East & West, Nomura services the needs of individuals, institutions, corporates and governments through its three business divisions: Wealth Management, Investment Management, and Wholesale (Global Markets and Investment Banking). Founded in 1925, the firm is built on a tradition of disciplined entrepreneurship, serving clients with creative solutions and considered thought leadership. For further information about Nomura, visit www.nomura.com.

Department overview:

The Transaction Control team, previously known as Middle Office, is part of the wider Global Middle Office team within Finance. The Transaction Control function’s primary responsibility is as a control function at the trade and portfolio level, ensuring the accuracy and completeness of trading P&L and the smooth running of the daily trading environment. The team is central to all activity relating to trading desks and as such is widely involved in new regulatory, legal entity and innovation activities. Additionally, Transaction Control provides a value-add service and mitigates risk further by providing timely and relevent insight to management on trading activity. The Transaction Control function is responsible for trade control and support for Front Office activities across Global Markets and the Investment Banking division, and is responsible for processing transactions and fulfilment of control aspects of trade lifecycle. 

Role description:

The Equity Transaction Control team consists of multiple Equity product groups:

• Prime Finance: The team provide direct, client aligned services to Hedge Fund clients, Prime Finance trading teams and offer operational and analytical support to other Global Market teams including Sales and Client service.
• Delta-1: Where middle office supports desk offering single stock and basket swaps to clients & broker dealers seeking long or short exposure using Total Return Swaps (TRS) to equity underlying assets.
• Equity Solutions: Providing middle office support to desk helping clients build new equity positions. Equity Financing, including Equity-linked instruments and Margin Loans providing funding against clients’ new/existing equity stakes. Supporting clients to exit equity investments & delivering strategic solutions to clients
• Convertible Bonds: Providing middle office support to desk offering Convertible bond in secondary market & build client positions
• Equity Syndicate: Where middle office team supports desk by facilitating and ensuring smooth settlement of high-value Japanese IPOs and follow-on offerings.

The team are supported by a team in Mumbai where other middle office support activities are performed.

With a growing business diversifying all the time, a cash and OTC product scope and synergies of the same HF clients and Delta-1 business contacts the role will be challenging and varied.  It will offer exposure to all areas of the business including Operations divisions, Finance, Risk and Front Office sales and trading.  It is a client facing role and the successful candidate will have direct exposure to clients. Over time the successful applicant will develop an excellent understanding of how the Delta-1 division operates.  Good analytical, risk awareness and communication skills, together with an aptitude to learn, are equally if not more important than direct experience or background.    

Primarily responsibilities of the role include: 

• Daily support to the trading & sales desk, answering queries and liaising with Client Service to ensure client trades and economics are correctly reported through the system architecture.  
• Provide regional and global coverage, managing the client's transactional portfolio and taking calculated steps to ensure that the client and Nomura are not exposed to financial or reputational risk 
• Monitoring of clients reports on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Meeting with Client Service and drive forward change to improve efficiency, cost and control 
• On-boarding of new clients and ensuring that SSI's and all data integrity is accurately loaded 
• Facilitating high-value deals, through trade confirmation and settlement 
• Resolution of breaks in a timely and accurate manner; liaising with trading, sales, Technology, Middle office and Core Operations team 
• Processing and support of lifecycle events
• Oversight of trade operations managed by offshore middle office team in Mumbai
• Assisting with business growth & mitigation of operational risk through process improvements, testing and implementation of new products
• Work closely with Product Control for accurate daily P&L capture
• Key conduit between Business, Technology and Operations to be first point of delivering premium client service to clients

Skills, experience, qualifications and knowledge required:

• Experience of working in Equity products required, preferably Prime Brokerage
• Experience within Middle Office
• Good understanding of operational risk and an ability to pro-actively manage risk 
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft office needed. PowerPoint and Word would be helpful
• Attention to detail, excellent administration, organisational and prioritisation skills 
• Highly motivated team player able to demonstrate an ability to prioritise daily work effectively 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, ability to present complex subjects in an accessible manner 
• Ability to build relationships and work with others through influence (rather than authority) 
• Ability to interact confidently with senior management and clients 

Nomura competencies

Explore Insights & Vision

• Identify the underlying causes of problems faced by you or your team and define a clear vision and direction for the future.

Making Strategic Decisions

• Evaluate all the options for resolving the problems and effectively prioritize actions or recommendations.

Inspire Entrepreneurship in People

• Inspire team members through effective communication of ideas and motivate them to actively enhance productivity.

Elevate Organizational Capability

• Engage proactively in professional development and enhance team productivity through the promotion of knowledge sharing. 

Inclusion 

• Respect DEI, foster a culture of psychological safety in the workplace and cultivate a "Risk Culture" (Challenge, Escalate and Respect).

Right to Work

The UK Government have taken steps to reduce net migration to the UK by limiting the number of overseas workers coming to the UK for employment. Please note that whilst we are able to consider applications from overseas workers from outside the UK (who require a Tier 2 Skilled Worker visa) we can only employ them if we can provide evidence that this is a genuine vacancy for a qualified role.

Diversity & Inclusion 

Nomura is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to ensuring we best reflect the diversity of the communities we serve creating an inclusive environment for all our employees. We welcome all applications and do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender identity and gender expression, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. 

If you require any assistance or reasonable adjustments due to a disability or long-term health condition, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Nomura is an Equal Opportunity Employer