Assistant Manager / Manager - Local Settlements

We are looking for a dynamic and experienced Manager / AVP to lead our Settlements Operations team with a strong focus on Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong markets. This role combines deep domain expertise in trade lifecycle management with strategic leadership responsibilities. The successful candidate will oversee daily operational activities while driving team performance, managing risk, ensuring compliance, and fostering a culture of accountability and excellence. To ensure the seamless delivery of operations support service in alignment with BNP operations support infrastructure and processes. Overall, in this role you will lead a team of associates/senior associates and will be responsible for day-to-day operations and adherence to operational service level agreement (SLA)

Key Responsibilities:

Manage day-to-day settlements of equity and fixed income trades across ASX, SGX, and HKEX.

Supervise trade matching, pre-matching, confirmation, and settlement, ensuring adherence to market cut-offs and minimizing exceptions.

Resolve trade discrepancies by collaborating with brokers, custodians, and internal teams.

Monitor and resolve trade fails, investigating root causes such as SSI issues, unmatched trades, or funding gaps.

Drive daily resolution, escalation, and tracking of aged or high value fails.

Participate in fail analysis and post-mortem reviews to enhance process control.

Act as the escalation point for trade-related issues and client queries.

Interface with clearing houses (ASX Clear, CDP, HKCC) for novation, netting, and margin settlement.

Ensure accurate margin call funding and clearing fee processing.

Reconcile bilateral vs. cleared trades for internal accuracy and external reporting.

Oversee daily cash and securities reconciliations between internal systems and custodian/CCP data.

Investigate and resolve breaks, maintaining robust audit trails.

Coordinate with Recon, Middle Office team, and IT to resolve persistent issues.

Proactively identify and mitigate settlement-related operational risks, work towards risk mitigations through control enhancements and create risk proactive team culture, following the risk framework all though

Ensure escalation of unresolved exceptions and participate in RCSA reviews and control testing.

Maintain internal control logs, audit preparedness, and compliance documentation.

Prepare and participate in internal/ external audit and ensure the discussion with auditors are maintained at the par to get the result as satisfactory.

Produce and present MIS reports for fails, reconciliations, breaks, margins, and volumes.

Provide operational dashboards and data insights to management and stakeholders.

Monitor team performance against SLAs and key KPIs.

Maintain and update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in line with internal controls and process changes.

Define and track SLA adherence, ensuring timely delivery of services and escalation of breaches.

People Leadership/Recruitment & Staff Development:

Lead, motivate, and manage a team of 1020+ settlement analysts and senior officers.

Demonstrate a good attitude toward team collaboration and support team members in daily challenges.

Conduct regular feedback and 1-on-1 check-in meetings with team members.

Lead annual performance appraisals and provide objective ratings aligned to goals and competencies.

Identify and bridge skill gaps through cross-training, learning sessions, and coaching.

Encourage team participation in in-house awards, competitions, and innovation forums.

Recognize and reward outstanding performance to foster engagement and morale.

Participate in hiring activities including interviews, assessments, and onboarding.

Plan workforce allocation across shifts and regional coverage.

Ensure sufficient resource backup and bench strength for business continuity.

Coordinate with BCP (Business Continuity Planning) and BCM (Business Continuity Management) teams.

Participate in DR drills, contingency tests, and emergency response protocols.

Ensure process continuity during unplanned events or infrastructure outages.

Maintain BIA updated with accurate ERS plan and communicated with locations to agree upon such emergency scenario to run the BAU without any hassle.

Ability to analyze, organize and report efficiently.

Strong people management and interpersonal skills

Solid understanding of operational risk and internal controls.

Proficiency in Excel, MIS reporting; VBA knowledge is an advantage.

Ability to thrive in a high-pressure, time-sensitive environment with shifting priorities.

Graduates / Postgraduates (Preferably Finance background).

Candidates should be willing and flexible to work in any shifts.

Relevant work experience in the Trade settlements / Custody activity.

Skills Referential

Behavioral Skills:

Ability to collaborate / Teamwork

Communication skills - oral & written

Client focused

Creativity & Innovation / Problem solving

Transversal Skills:

Analytical Ability

Ability to understand, explain and support change

Education Level:

Master Degree or equivalent

Experience Level

At least 10 years

Other/Specific Qualifications (if required)

Coverage aligned to APAC market hours (early shifts for Australia; staggered for SG/HK).

Willingness to work on regional holidays and critical processing days.

Certification in Capital market.