La Fayette Microfinance Bank Limited will join Cameroon, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Cambodia and Ivory Coast as member of Advans group network. Advans SA SICAR was created in 2005 by Horus Development Finance together with several development financial institutions: IFC, FMO, KFW, CDC, EIB, AFD Group.

POSITION : Deputy Risk & Compliance Manager

Job Summary

• The deputy risk and compliance manager plays a contributive role in the formulation and implementation of policies, processes and procedures that play key role in the prevention, detection and correction of risks related to lending and deposit taking activities within the Bank.
• He also supports the Unit Head – Compliance & Risk (RCM) and specifically the Training Unit in the training of commercial staff whether at inception training level for new staff or upon refreshment sessions and/or introduction of new services or products.

Main Responsibilities and Task
Compliance:

• In collaboration with RCM, Management and Internal Audit, identify key risk operational areas and related procedures where there is a strong need to perform ex-post independent controls; this will first focus on lending activities and will then expand to deposit and cash management related activities;
• Develop a framework for the conduct of ex post independent controls within the branches and Head Office Operations Department (i.e. mostly Back Office Unit);
• Supervises a team of risk and compliance officers, in order to conducts compliance checks (ex post independent controls) in the branches and in head office operations department on all risk areas previously identified; this shall mostly focus first on:

Desk review in the branches

• Verification of the proper functioning of the application desk and loan officer on duty
• Inspection of loan and contract files: must be complete and properly filed
• Checking that the credit decisions are made in accordance with Policies & Procedures
• Verification of the compliance with the disbursement procedures: at the loan operator level and at the branch manager level: loans can only be disbursed if all requirements are met and all relevant documents with appropriate signatures are present
• Crosschecking that the information in the loan files match the information in the MIS
• Verify that RCOs are adequately executing their tasks
• Verify compliance with the recovery procedures on all levels
  • Field reviews: Verify the situation in the field towards the situation presented by the client officers in their loan-proposals:
• Existence, location and ownership of the business
• Assets & Liabilities of the business
• Sales of the business
• Gross Margin and expenses of the business
• Existence, location, composition and expenses of the household
• Existence and value of the collateral
• Existence and surplus of the guarantor
• Identify links between clients, guarantors, loan officers and supervisors
  • Follows the proper implementation of the internal control system implemented in the branches through the consolidation and analysis of « operational » internal control reporting.
  • Assists the branches and operations department in head office in dealing with internal audit recommendations (takes part in the internal audit mission closing meeting; helps branch managers and other responsible at the operations head office level develop appropriate responses to audit recommendations.

Credit Risk Management:

• Supports in Designing and developing according to needs the framework for the work of the credit risk unit, and supervises in an on-going manner its implementation (i.e. providing independent opinion on the level of risks incurred to the loan committee members)
• Performs (by self or by assignments to Credit Risk analyst(s)) analysis and monitoring of credit risk and exposure (analysis of the quality of the loan portfolio, ad hoc business sector analysis to monitor compliance with limits set by RCM on exposures and concentration); handles prospective studies on market trends in order to anticipate on possible sectors’ trends and their possible impacts on the organization.
• Regular market studies involving clientele interviews and competition review should also be considered in relation with the Marketing Unit. Proposes corrective actions or new initiative that may support the achievement of the objectives in terms of volume and quality of loan portfolio (as well as the deposit collection).

Formulation and Dissemination of Processes And Procedures:

• Formulation of up to date processes and procedures that ensure that the lending/savings activities of the company are undertaken in line with regulations of the country and company;
• Writing and updating of processes, procedures and other operational guidelines related to lending, deposits collection and cash management activities of the company, for existing and new services, taking into account internal and/or external audit recommendations;
• Updating of the standard documentation (policies, procedures, work instructions…) on the file servers in all the branches and head office;
• Interacts with the Training Unit in order to have any such updates in the processes and procedures well disseminated within the Operations Department and other departments as per needs (e.g. OIS).

Reporting:

• To ensure that Credit Risk Analyst(s) provide him/her as well as Operations management with regular synthetic analysis on risk assessment of Client Officers;
• To develop and regularly update a range of reports that actually describe the progress made by the branches and Operations as a whole in terms of compliance and risk control;
• To develop and regularly update a range of reports on the activities of the unit;

Person Specification

• Qualification/Education: Minimum of first degree in Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts and relevant professional qualification in e.g. ACCA, CIM, CIB. Familiarity with operational, financial and quality assurance procedures is required. A Masters degree in Management will be an advantage.
• Work Experience: Minimum Six years (6) relevant experience in microfinance of which three should be in a managerial capacity.  Good understanding of the compliance function in a micro finance establishment is also required.
• Skills: Good interpersonal and communication skills. Good analytical and mentoring skills.
• Personal Traits: Meticulous, open-minded, autonomous and self learner