Credit Risk Senior Specialist

Business Unit:  Chief Credit Office
Salary range: £44,000 - £55,000 per annum DOE + red-hot benefits
Location:  UK Flexible
Contract type: Fixed term circa 6 months

Live to challenge the status quo. Live a life more Virgin.

Our Team

The Financial Credit Risk team is responsible for providing 2nd line assurance and insights over IFRS 9 provisions, Credit Stress Testing / ICAAP / ACS, Credit Risk Weighted Assets (RWAs) and Credit data systems and processes covering these areas. We provide regular insights and challenge to inform opinions submitted to key committees, such as the Stress testing Committee (STC), Asset and Liability Committee (ALCO), Credit Risk Committee (CRC) and the Board Audit Committee (BAC). Our team’s activities are split into ongoing Close and Continuous assurance work and Thematic Reviews which are approved as part of the Risk Assurance Plan at the Board Risk Committee (BRC). 

What you’ll be doing

• Leading the IFRS9 provisioning process with focus on insights and challenge around the methodology, movements, and any adjustments and overlays. A key deliverable is the 2nd line opinion over provision adequacy at the Credit Risk Committee (CRC) and Board Audit Committee (BAC) at every half-year and full year.
• Managing the Credit Stress Testing process with particular focus on the review and challenge of the quarterly submission of the Stress Testing Data Framework (STDF) Credit templates to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
• Involvement as a Credit Risk SME in the ICAAP (Pillar 2B and Pillar 2A components) and ACS submissions to the PRA, working closely with Financial Risk Oversight, Portfolio Credit teams and Model Risk Management (MRM) in challenging the effectiveness of the process.
• Overseeing the Credit RWA reporting and analysis of trends, insights and challenge around monthly movements.
• Steering the change agenda impacting the areas above including systems and processes, changes to meet regulatory or accounting standard requirements and change to support broader business objectives and the Bank’s Purpose
• Developing and maintaining a relationship with the Portfolio Credit Risk teams to ensure that best practice is shared, including asset quality peer benchmarking reporting using available benchmarks, such as Experian and Argus and its interpretation to drive insights for the above areas.
• Preparing regular peer benchmarking reporting for IFRS 9 provisioning using PRA benchmarks and financial reporting of industry peers.
• Preparing insightful reporting for analysis of Economic Scenarios and weightings obtained from Oxford Economics (OE) against benchmarks such as Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

We need you to have

• Strong analytical experience and Credit Risk technical knowledge of some or all these areas: IFRS 9 impairment provisioning, Credit RWAs, Credit stress testing, ICAAP and Credit data.
• Knowledge of SAS is required as you will use analytics to inform ongoing assurance insights and reporting to provide effective review and challenge.
• Extensive experience in Financial Services or banking with practical experience of performance reporting/analytics.
• Experience of delivering complex oversight and opinion to challenging timescales with agreed resources.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to condense and simplify complex information to brief and influence senior stakeholders.
• Capability to operate effectively with senior leaders and represent Virgin Money with external stakeholders and stand up to robust challenge. 

It’s a bonus if you have but not essential

• Understanding of the Legal and Regulatory framework and agenda.
• Strong understanding of the operations of Risk and the wider business.
• Comprehensive understanding of the Group’s risk policies and methodologies. 
  
  

Red Hot Rewards

• Generous holidays - 38.5 days annual leave (including bank holidays and prorated if part-time)​ plus the option to buy more.
• Up to five extra paid well-being days per year​. 
• 20 weeks paid, gender-neutral family leave (52 weeks in total) for expectant parents and those looking to adopt. 
• Market-leading pension.
• Free private medical cover, income protection and life assurance.
• Flexible benefits include Cycle to Work, wellness and health assessments, and critical illness. 

And there's no waiting around, you'll enjoy these benefits from day one.

Feeling insatiably curious about this role? If we’re lucky to receive a lot of interest, we may close the advert early and would hate you to miss out.

We're all about helping you Live a Life More Virgin, so happy to talk flexible working with you.

Say hello to Virgin Money
We’re making great strides towards achieving our ambition of becoming the UK’s best digital bank.  As a full-service digital bank with a heritage stretching back over 180 years, we’re a workforce to be reckoned with, and we're putting the full power of our experience behind disruptive ideas that reinvent the role a bank plays in people's lives. We're customer-obsessed and work tirelessly to deliver on our purpose, ‘Making You Happier About Money.’ This means we're able to do banking differently, and by innovating and working together we can make a real difference by creating memorable moments and red-hot experiences for our millions of customers. Join us and Live a Life More Virgin that empowers you with choice and flexibility in how you work. 

Be yourself at Virgin Money
Our purpose is to make people happier about money, this means seeing and feeling the world as our customers do by creating a workforce that reflects the rich diversity of our customers and communities.  We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where colleagues feel safe and inspired to contribute, speak up and be heard.  

As a Disability Confident Leader, we're committed to removing any obstacles to inclusion.  If you need any reasonable adjustments or support making your application, contact our Talent Acquisition team careers@virginmoney.com

It’s important to note that there may be occasions where it’s not possible to interview all candidates declaring a disability who meet the essential criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as receiving a high-volume of applications, we may need to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled applicants. 

Now the legal bit
Living A Life More Virgin allows our colleagues to be based anywhere in the UK (if the role allows it), but we'll need you to confirm you have the right to work in the UK.

If you're successful in securing a role with us, there are some checks you need to complete before starting. These include credit and criminal record checks and three years' worth of satisfactory references. If the role is part of the Senior Manager Regime and Certification Regime, it requires enhanced pre-employment checks – we'll ask for six years of regulatory references, and once in the role, you'll be subject to periodic employment checks.