Listing Transactions Corporate Finance Senior Specialist

at  Financial Conduct Authority

Listing Transactions Corporate Finance Senior Specialist
Salary: Edinburgh ranging from £51,200 to £72,000 and London £56,400 to £80,000 per annum
Are you a professional with corporate finance experience looking for your next challenge?
The team/department
The Listing Transactions Department sits within the Market Oversight Directorate (MO) at the Financial Conduct Authority. The Department has a key role in the regulation of capital markets activity in the UK. As well as approving prospectuses for Equity Capital Markets (ECM) and Debt Capital Markets Transactions (DCM), we are the gatekeeper for admissions to the Official List and we review the circulars required for major transactions by listed issuers under the Listing Rules.
We are currently recruiting a Senior Associate to join our Listing Transactions Department. The role offers an excellent opportunity to gain a sound and practical working knowledge of primary markets regulation along with in depth exposure to the transactions making the headlines in the business pages.

What you will be doing (the role)

• You will be responsible for ensuring that prospectuses and circulars meet the investor protection disclosure standards under the Prospectus Regulation Rules and the Listing Rules. You will also assess whether new applicants meet the criteria for eligibility for listing, for example on major Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). The role involves making decisions on the interpretation of the regime in novel and complex areas, including responding to written requests for guidance
• You will have primary responsibility for managing transaction timetables. You will be liaising daily with the investment banks and legal firms that advise issuers and will need to be robust in delivering sometimes difficult messages
• You will be responsible for preparing papers and making presentations to senior level decision makers within the FCA
• You will be expected to develop into a senior team member with the knowledge and skills necessary to undertake responsibility for approving significant transactions and fundraisings in the London market
• The work of the team is market-facing, highly time critical, and can require challenging judgments to be made in often pressured circumstances

What you will get from the role?

• The role offers an excellent opportunity to gain a sound and practical working knowledge of primary markets regulation along with in depth exposure to the transactions making the headlines in the business pages, including major IPOs, equity capital raises such as rights issues, Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity and bond issues. But at the same time, you will enjoy a better work/life balance than many of those in the professional advisory firms you will be dealing with. You will also develop project management and influencing skills, take on high levels of responsibility and deal with a variety of advisers on technical issues at a senior level
• You will have a rare opportunity to be involved in the workings of the FCA as capital markets regulator at a time of considerable change. You will enjoy a unique insight into the full spectrum of capital markets activity, with the opportunity to have a real impact whilst working collaboratively towards a common goal alongside a range of internal and external stakeholders

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:

• 25 days holiday per year
• Private healthcare with Bupa
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
• Income protection

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in either our London or Edinburgh office.
The skills and experience you will have
Minimum

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Demonstrable experience of applying the Listing Rules and the Prospectus Regulation Rules within a corporate finance environment
• Experience of managing relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels

Essential

• Good attention to detail and strong analytical and verbal reasoning skills
• Excellent communications skills, including written English
• Highly effective influencing skills, including delivering difficult messages
• A team player with the ability to work independently when required
• Strong organisational skills with the proven ability to prioritise work and escalate issues. Have a “can-do” attitude with the ability to work under pressure and manage a large workload whilst maintaining focus and high standards
• A positive attitude to dealing with external parties with a commitment to building effective relationships
• The ability to digest a large amount of written information and identify relevant issues from such information
• Knowledge and experience of the broader European capital markets regulatory framework and knowledge of closed and open-ended investment fund structures and asset management and wider experience of equity capital markets (ECM) and/or debt capital markets (DCM)

About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found
here.
The FCA’s Values & Diversity
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Senior Associate role.
Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.
Multi-location
As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. However, this vacancy is being advertised for Edinburgh and London only. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.
Useful information
Applications for this role close at 23.59 on Monday 22nd April 2024
This role is graded as Senior Associate - Regulatory - Level 7
The role can be based in London or Edinburgh
Got a question?
If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:
For internal applicants, please contact Louise Nash at
Louise.Nash@fca.org.uk
For external applicants, please contact Beth Haydon at
Beth.Haydon@fca.org.uk
What to expect from our interview process
The interview process is likely to be over two stage where your technical and competency based skills will be assessed.
Application support
We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.
If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.
Security Clearance/Vetting
The successful candidate will hold or will be required to obtain Security Clearance (SC) level vetting.
Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal, applications sent via email will not be accepted

What you will be doing (the role)

• You will be responsible for ensuring that prospectuses and circulars meet the investor protection disclosure standards under the Prospectus Regulation Rules and the Listing Rules. You will also assess whether new applicants meet the criteria for eligibility for listing, for example on major Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). The role involves making decisions on the interpretation of the regime in novel and complex areas, including responding to written requests for guidance
• You will have primary responsibility for managing transaction timetables. You will be liaising daily with the investment banks and legal firms that advise issuers and will need to be robust in delivering sometimes difficult messages
• You will be responsible for preparing papers and making presentations to senior level decision makers within the FCA
• You will be expected to develop into a senior team member with the knowledge and skills necessary to undertake responsibility for approving significant transactions and fundraisings in the London market
• The work of the team is market-facing, highly time critical, and can require challenging judgments to be made in often pressured circumstance

What you will get from the role?

• The role offers an excellent opportunity to gain a sound and practical working knowledge of primary markets regulation along with in depth exposure to the transactions making the headlines in the business pages, including major IPOs, equity capital raises such as rights issues, Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity and bond issues. But at the same time, you will enjoy a better work/life balance than many of those in the professional advisory firms you will be dealing with. You will also develop project management and influencing skills, take on high levels of responsibility and deal with a variety of advisers on technical issues at a senior level
• You will have a rare opportunity to be involved in the workings of the FCA as capital markets regulator at a time of considerable change. You will enjoy a unique insight into the full spectrum of capital markets activity, with the opportunity to have a real impact whilst working collaboratively towards a common goal alongside a range of internal and external stakeholder

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Demonstrable experience of applying the Listing Rules and the Prospectus Regulation Rules within a corporate finance environment
• Experience of managing relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all level