Treasury Accountant

Who are we?

Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mind-set, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 15,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

Our people are our biggest asset as well as our largest shareholder group and are everything that makes us unique; our inclusive culture, the quality service we offer our clients, and our continued growth, all come from our people-first approach. There’s no such thing as individual success. We all need to play our part, contributing our skills and experience to make a true difference. That’s Howden.

Why work at Howden?

We have always been employee-owned and driven by entrepreneurial spirit. Right from the beginning, we've focused on employing talented individuals and empowering them to make a real difference to the company, whilst building successful and fulfilling careers at the same time. Simply put, we hire talented specialists and give them what they need to make a difference for clients. Always have, always will.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down disappointed head-hunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Role Definition

Howden Group Holdings (“HGH Group”) is the largest privately held insurance intermediary outside North America. Howden Group Holdings is the largest privately held insurance intermediary outside North America with annual revenues in excess of £2 billion. HGH has operations in 50 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas and has over 16,000 employees across the Group. HGH benefits from the support of institutional investors General Atlantic, CDPQ and Hg Capital, providing it with deep financial resources to undertake acquisitions.

HGH Group operates a partially decentralised Treasury structure with a large population of banks and accounts as a result of its global M&A strategy. Howden relies predominantly on debt markets to fund its growth plan and the cash peak following a debt raise usually reduces in line with new acquisitions. There are a number of treasury projects aimed at optimising current yields and improving overall cash management.

We are looking for a Treasury Accountant to join Group Treasury in a role that is based in the Central London office but has flexibility to work remotely. The candidate will join a current team of three working in Group Treasury supporting HGH Group cash and risk management projects and operations.

The role will include regular interaction with other departments and colleagues across the business. There are three main parts to the role 1) loan management 2) improve cash visibility 3) support other treasury projects and operations.

• Manage and develop HGH Group’s intercompany and employee share loan processes

  • Manage the end to end cycle of loans through working knowledge and experience in pricing cross currency, cross border loans, international transfer pricing principles and managing other multi-jurisdictional loan parameters and stakeholders

  • Be the single point of contact for all employee share and intercompany loans

  • Develop and manage a suitable loan repository to manage the life cycle of all the loans

  • Calibrate cost of funding model and create an intercompany lending model to ensure Group provides intercompany borrowing and lending profitably

  • Engage with HR, Equity Modelling, Finance, Legal and other business heads to ensure all stakeholder loan reporting needs are met

  • Lead creation of external debt and interest rate swaps into TMS

  • Lead WACOD calculations to support Corporate Finance activity

• Improve cash visibility by developing and managing a single list of bank accounts in the treasury management system (TMS)

  • Increase daily cash visibility across HGH Group’s entire cash portfolio

  • Engage global banking population to report by SWIFT to the TMS – focus on banks not in immediate scope for pooling and on fiduciary accounts

• Support delivery of HGH Group’s cash pooling objectives

  • Point of contact to integrate pooling arrangements with the general ledger and ERP

  • Engage with local banks to improve yield on third party and own cash

• Support existing and emerging treasury and cash management activities as the group and function grow

  • Support daily TMS cash management processes

  • Support cash flow forecast, analysis and reporting obligations

• Monitoring the intercompany interest matching between TMS and the banking pool (ie Kyriba vs Citi)

• Support other emerging HGH Group projects as required

• Remain compliant with internal and external policies, procedures and governance

Essential:

• Ideal candidate will have previous experience financial services or insurance sector experience within a group treasury or finance function

• Must have demonstrable experience of intercompany loan setup and management

• Previous exposure to transfer pricing implications of multinational loans including multicurrency exposure

• Previous experience in operating and developing a TMS (Kyriba distinct advantage)

• Demonstrable experience in loan administration and control

• Demonstrable experience of managing a group cash pool

• Candidates must have prior Treasury in-house banking exposure

• Ideal candidates will be Part qualified/ finalist through ACCA, CIMA or ACA

• Ideal candidates will be part qualified through the ACT as a minimum

• Advanced abilities in using Microsoft Excel as analysis tool (VLookups and pivot table)

• Accurate and excellent at self-review with good understanding of financial control principles

Desirable:

• Excellent communication skills across the organisational hierarchy

• Self-starter with excellent ability to prioritise continuously and effectively

• Demonstrable experience of producing accurate, time sensitive reporting

Who we’re looking for

At Howden we value diversity - there is no one Howden ‘personality type’. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other, in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference, at work and beyond

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define.

Our business succeeds by allowing our people to make a mark in the areas they care about most: personal development, volunteering, and fundraising for charity, or creating new insurance products that address society’s greatest challenges.

And we know that separate home and work lives don't really exist. If you're happy and healthy at home, you're more likely to be happy and fulfilled at work – and vice versa. That's why we do our best to support our people in every aspect of their lives.

Diversity and Inclusion

At Howden, we consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness, and respect – regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or family circumstances.

Our sustainability promise

We’re on a life-long journey to become an ever-more sustainable group. It's a commitment to taking care of our people and the world we live in, to doing good business, and to making a positive impact wherever we can. Our governance processes, company policies, and review systems are all geared towards our goal of making a positive impact in the world. You can read more about our sustainability work here.

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