Operational Assistant, Special Liquidity Scheme (Markets)

Salary

£20k + plus, according to experience, plus excellent benefits

Introduction

The Sterling Markets Division of the Bank of England plans and conducts its operations in order to establish short-term interest rates at the level required by the MPC, contributes market intelligence and analysis in support of the Bank’s monetary and financial stability work and seeks to promote efficient structures in domestic money markets.

This is an important operational support role for the front office activities to implement the Special Liquidity Scheme. Working alongside the SMD dealing and operations team, the role provides an opportunity to gain an understanding of the Bank's sterling market operations and how they fit into central banking policy more broadly.

Background

Two Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS) Units are being established in Markets, one in Risk Management Division (RMD) and one in Sterling Markets Division (SMD).

The two SLS units have been set up to implement the SLS which the Bank of England is providing to allow banks to swap temporarily their illiquid high quality mortgage backed securities for liquid UK Treasury Bills. The units will be in place for 3.5 years.

They have three responsibilities:

(1) Oversight of the overall SLS policy framework and end to end transaction process, including support of the SLS Steering Group chaired by the Executive Director, Markets and the SLS Board chaired by Head of Division for Sterling Markets.

(2) The implementation of all front office activities (liaising with individual counterparties and the Debt Management Office (DMO), providing detailed operational market intelligence on the SLS); and

(3) The proactive management of all collateral received in SLS (in terms of both on-going eligibility and in respect of valuation/margining, and including liaising with counterparties on queries/clarifications)

The Job:

The jobholder’s responsibilities will include:

- Production and presentation of management information on the SLS.
- Recording SLS transactions in local systems.
- Contributing to the specification and trialling of systems changes.
- Liaison with the Bank’s settlement, finance, collateral management areas in respect of these tasks.
- Production of Excel charts showing general financial market data.

SMD operations are due to move to split site working in 2009, and the job-holder will need to be prepared to be a part of the rota for working at a Bank site in north-east London a few days each month.

Skills/competencies required:

The ideal candidate will have:

- Good IT skills, in particular proficiency in the use of MS office packages, especially Excel and Access databases.
- Operational experience of financial instruments, markets and systems.
- Strong numerical skills; and the ability to write clear short reports.
- Educated to A-levels or equivalent.
- Capability to produce outputs accurately and promptly.
- Pro-activity in identifying and raising issues.


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