Lead Branch Accountant

at  Robert Walters Outsourcing

Job Title: Lead Branch Accountant
Location: London (Hybrid Working, 3 days in office)
Contract Length: 12 month Fixed Term Contract (FTC)

REQUIREMENTS & SKILLS:

• ACCA/ACA/CA/CIMA qualified Accountant with +3 years post qualified experience in the insurance industry.
• Experience managing other team members or groups of individuals with relevant subject matter expertise
• Experience resolving complex finance or accounting queries; and significant experience of working with relevant specialist toolsets or applications
• Advanced MS Excel, intermediate MS Word, PowerPoint.
• Experience with dealing with external auditors and key stakeholder (re: C-suite level queries, regulators, etc.)
• Good communication skills.
• Coda, Coda XL, WDesk would be desirable.
• Effective time management, planning and organisational skills with the ability to manage priorities to meet strict deadlines.
• Able to work independently and autonomously with minimal supervision.
• Attention to detail and problem-solving skills.
• Strong understanding of IFRS, UK GAAP and US GAAP would be desirable
• Detailed understanding of insurance technical accounting and reporting.
• Understanding of Canadian P&C returns would be desirable, including the understanding of the solvency / BAAT ratio calculations

ABOUT US:

Since Aspen was founded in 2002, we have become a leading, diversified specialty insurance and reinsurance company. We respond thoughtfully and creatively to find the best outcomes for our clients and business partners through carefully-tailored solutions. We believe the way we work is just as important as the work we do, and we are guided by our core values of respect, honesty, trust and professionalism.
Aspen is a great place to develop your career offering an exciting and challenging environment where achievement is rewarded.
We are committed to offering an inclusive recruitment experience. If you require accommodations because of disability or health condition, please email: gscemeaedi @ robertwalters.com. This position is being sourced through our Outsourcing service line

ROLE OBJECTIVE:

This role is responsible for the preparation of statutory and regulatory returns for Aspen’s Canadian Branch entity and delivery of Aspen’s key IFRS 17 deliverables during 2025.
Our Aspen Values are expected to be reflected in the delivery and performance of every role.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Assist in the preparation of statutory and regulatory returns relating to the Canada Branch (re: P&C return, including the supplementary Notes to the Accounts), and performing the first review of the numbers before being sent to other reviewers.
• Perform “deep dive” analysis into key areas in the Financial Statements, and to understand the key inputs driving the solvency calculations.
• Further refine the UK GAAP / IFRS 4 to IFRS 17 bridge to be presented to key stakeholders, and to provide further challenge of the results from external data providers.
• Improve controls around data preparation and understand the reconciling items vs the main AIUK insurance company ledger.
• Respond to data requests from various internal and external stakeholders.
• Deal with queries from internal and external key stakeholders (re: management, auditors, etc.)
• Determine own work priorities and activities in line with agreed plans to ensure the achievement of the function’s objectives.
• All statutory and regulatory returns submitted in line with agreed internal timetables, external deadlines and no material errors.
• Process and timetable designed in line with agreed timetable and enables the IFRS 17 reporting timelines to be met.
• Data provided to internal and external stakeholders within agreed timelines.
• External audit deadlines met and responses to internal audit points provided in line with agreed timetables.

Strategy and Planning:

• Contribute to functional strategy development and prioritise operational deliverables and activities of team to support delivery of overall business targets.
• Manage tactical plan and provide support to both the Branch Manager and UK Head of Regulatory Reporting.

Technical Performance:

• As a senior and experienced finance professional, apply technical knowledge of related accounting principles (re: GAAP and IFRS), and efficiently carry out higher value/complex accounting activities.
• Effectively manage the collation of data and produce high quality analysis, which should enable the team to challenge the numbers in the return(s).
• Ensure peer review conducted and challenged appropriately.

Policy, Process and Procedures:

• Prepare detailed working papers to support the review of regulatory returns.
• Communicate results to line manager and provide visibility of details of underlying work, key assumptions and conclusions made.
• Perform detailed validation work and analytical review on the data collected and address or escalate any unexpected results or inconsistencies in data.
• Update methodology papers which support regulatory reporting.
• Identify system and process improvements and support the implementation of them.
• Maintain a strong control environment for producing the regulatory returns.
• Prepare methodology papers for all key regulatory returns and update periodically in accordance with agreed approach.
• Provide regular updates to line manager.

Environmental Awareness/Customer Focus:

• Liaise and coordinate processes with other teams within Finance including Technical Accounting, Finance Systems, Capital Modelling and Tax to support reporting processes and resolution of ad-hoc queries.
• Liaise and coordinate with teams outside of Finance including Actuarial, Ceded Ops and Risk to support reporting processes and resolution of ad-hoc queries.