Salary: National up to £60,000 and London up to £70,000 per annum – Salary offered will be based on skills and experience
Are you interested in joining a team that will help shape and deliver the future of Credit Rating Agency Supervision at the FCA?
The Role
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a key part of the regulatory structure in financial services, together with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England. We have a statutory objective to make financial markets work well for consumers of financial services.
We are looking to fill a Senior Associate role in the Capital Markets Department within the Supervision, Policy and Competition Division at the FCA. The Capital Markets Department focuses on supervision and policy relating to key aspects of wholesale financial markets, including primary markets, credit ratings and benchmark providers, trading conduct and transparency, and wholesale Cryptoasset markets. We have a key role in delivering the FCA’s 3-year strategic priority to strengthen our wholesale markets and ensure that the UK continues to be regarded as one of the leading global markets of choice for issuers, intermediaries and investors, when compared to other high-quality markets.
The Senior Associate will join the Credit Rating Agency (CRA) Supervision team. The responsibility for supervising UK CRAs moved from the European Securities & Markets Authority (ESMA) to the FCA on 1 January 2021. CRAs play a key role in providing an assessment of the creditworthiness of governments, corporates and other issuers of securities. Where they perform this role effectively, investors are well-informed on the risks of investing in these assets and hence, capital is more efficiently allocated. These outcomes contribute particularly to the FCA’s statutory objective for market integrity, and also its consumer protection objective. The CRA team is responsible for overseeing these firms to ensure this role is performed well and the potential for harm these firms can present is reduced or mitigated. The CRA team will supervise CRAs according to the UK Credit Rating Agency Regulation and in line with the FCA Approach to Supervision.
What you will be doing
As a dedicated CRA supervisor, you will help to deliver the FCA’s supervisory strategy to mitigate or reduce harm to consumers and enhance market integrity. Your particular focus will be to implement our data strategy in the supervision of this portfolio.
You will help to implement a data-led supervisory approach for credit rating agencies, making full use of firm regulatory reporting, ratings data and market intelligence to deliver assertive and forward-looking supervision
You will be accountable for the FCA’s supervisory relationship with individual CRAs, leading engagement with the view of influencing conduct behaviour
You will be required to exercise expert judgement to reduce and mitigate risks of harm emanating from the CRA business model
The role involves communicating effectively with internal stakeholders, including at a senior level
You will be asked to present and share knowledge with colleagues, including the wider Supervision Division and other Associates within the team
What will you get from the role?
Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash. Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:
25 days holiday per year
Private healthcare with Bupa
A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of your basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach the age of 35)
Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
Income protection
We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations
Joining the CRA Supervision team as we continue to expand the team, you will have the opportunity to help deliver the FCA’s supervision strategy for CRAs. This role provides exposure to a wide breadth and depth of issues, including with senior management at CRAs. You will work in a fast-paced, flexible environment which is well suited to those with strong analytical thinking and communication skills.
You will also have the opportunity to work with and learn from FCA colleagues covering wide ranging issues including technology and resilience, competition, markets policy, authorisations and enforcement. You will engage with a wide variety of stakeholders, including other regulatory authorities. You will enjoy a unique perspective on the financial services industry, with the opportunity to do meaningful work that makes a real difference.
The skills and experience you’ll have
We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.
Minimum
Experience using various data analysis and visualisation tools and information systems
Experience working in a regulatory and/or financial services sector, with professional experience in relation to credit ratings or credit rating agencies
Experience of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis
Essential
Understanding of the CRA business model, ratings process and potential risks posed by CRAs
Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
Strong credit analysis and risk experience, gained within a financial service setting such as a credit rating agency, commercial or investment bank or asset manager
Ability to manage a broad range of stakeholders to ensure the activities of the department are shared with internal stakeholders, and to flex your style to build consensus and influence a range of diverse stakeholders
An analytical mind-set and a risk-based approach to decision making and judgements
About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found
here.
The FCA's Values & Diversity
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation. We particularly welcome applications from women, disabled, and minority ethnic candidates, as under-represented groups.
Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.
Multilocation & hybrid working
As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.
Useful information
Applications for this role close at midnight on 23rd July
This role is graded as Senior Associate - Regulatory
Got a question?
If you are an external candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Deimante Paliuliene on
deimante.paliuliene@fca.org.uk
If you are an internal candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Lucy Matthews on
lucy.matthews@fca.org.uk
Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal before the closing date, applications sent via email will not be accepted.