ALM Risk Manager

Vida Bank provides competitive savings products through Vida Savings and specialist mortgage solutions through Vida Homeloans.

Our mortgage business supports Buy to Let (BTL) and residential borrowers (ROO) who find themselves underserved elsewhere. Our mortgage customers range from Buy to Let investors, to the self-employed and customers with multiple jobs.

Our savings proposition is delivered online via our website, and is focussed on providing savers with fair, transparent and competitive rates. Our typical customers are active savers, who tend to look beyond their current account provider for savings accounts.

Our business model and strategy are underpinned by our core purpose to ‘Help More People Find a Place to call Home’.

We are here to help the under-served, especially those with more nuanced personal circumstances or borrowing needs who are not able to access a mortgage from a mainstream mortgage lender. Working exclusively with intermediary partners, we combine cutting-edge technology with skilled and caring underwriting expertise to solve complex customer problems.

As a fully regulated UK based bank with ambitious growth aspirations, we recognise the importance of having a clearly articulated culture strategy and the need to actively manage how it embeds in the business together with the behaviours which exemplify it.

As a recognised Best Companies Top 100 mid-sized company to work for in the UK and a finalist at the Financial Reporter Women’s Recognition Awards, we take pride in our diverse workforce, championing both ethic and gender diversity through our EDI commitments.

Having met the target set by being a member of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter we have 50% of senior management roles filled by women.

With offices in London, Newcastle and Skipton, we bring our teams together regularly to collaborate and empower our colleagues to have more choice around when and where they work on the days they are not in the office, with colleagues working remotely in various locations across the UK.

We are proud to have built a culture founded on an ethos of caring, and that sits at the heart of our Vida Values, driving the way we run our business, support our customers and other stakeholders on a daily basis.

We genuinely care about delivering the right outcomes for all our stakeholders who we consider through the cultural framework as our customers, colleagues, company and communities that we operate in.

By Joining Vida you will have a sense of belonging in what is a diverse and collaborative environment, where you will be empowered to take responsibility for driving delivery.

We embrace a diversity of backgrounds and experiences in our people, in the deeply held belief that better outcomes are achieved for customers when our colleagues are better placed to empathise with and understand their unique circumstances. From application to interview, we place inclusion at the heart of all we do. 

Role Overview:

This position would be responsible for assessments in relation to Vida’s Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book and Liquidity Stress Testing. The ALM team is responsible for the monitoring and assessment of liquidity & market risks for the business.

The team’s activities are grouped into four categories of (1) Liquidity and Funding risk, (2) Market risk, (3) Optimisation and (4) Balance sheet strategy.

The individual will be working with the rest of the ALM team, and business lines to fully assess the group’s exposure to market risk. This includes assessment of new products, existing product behaviours, review of exposures and managing the ALM system, reporting and development. There is an extensive amount of modelling required for this role, incl. assessment EVE and NII scenarios.

Major Activities:

• Play a key role in the development of the bank’s ALM system and perform regression testing as part of each model release.
• Model and monitor key behavioural features within the ALM system and for wider business monitoring.
• Reporting and development of interest rate risk metrics, incl. NII and EVE
• Contribute to the update of policies and frameworks as and when required
• Present regular MI and insight on ALM to senior management, including Treasurer
• Work with Front Office on hedging strategies and how best to optimise the bank’s IRR position
• Review and assess new products on behalf of ALM
• Interface with senior business managers across CFO function and other parts of the business
• Develop Vida’s liquidity stress testing model and maintain it in line with new regulation.
• Provide input into Vida’s ILAAP/ICAAP/Recovery Plan process
• Develop the quality of the ALCO pack to deliver a commercial lens on risk management

Key areas of accountability:

• Ensure that ALM policies and procedures are adhered to and breaches are escalated via the appropriate channels.
• Manage and develop ALM processes, procedures, models and reports.
• Ensure both Liquidity and IRR stress testing is undertaken accurately and regularly.
• Ensure Vida’s market risk appetite is adhered to constantly.
• Ensure that Vida’s hedging process is managed according to the hedging agreements.
• Assist in the development of balance sheet models and perform model validation where needed
• Assist in other activities within ALM, representing the function with ability to communicate to across organisation
• Ensure sufficient level of support from IT & other accountable Business Units to ensure reporting delivered on time with no errors, fully automated where feasible.

Knowledge & Experience:

• In depth knowledge of Bank ALM concepts and processes.
• In depth knowledge of liquidity and / or IRRBB stress testing.
• In depth knowledge of banking products – interest rate swaps, HQLA, mortgages and savings.
• Ability to work to deadlines, prioritise accuracy and maintain a high-level attention to detail.
• Ability to work in pressurised situations, prioritising and delegating workload.
• Management skills including effective communication and team building.
• Ability to develop and improve controls and processes.
• Ability to adapt to changing regulatory environment.
• Previous work experience in a fast growing “Challenger Bank” preferable, but not essential.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in ALM function

Personal qualities:

• A team player that can work in a small team in a fast paced rapidly evolving business.
• Ability to adapt and take on new processes as the business evolves using initiative and problem-solving skills.
• Integrity, transparency, patience and a good communicator, both written and verbal
• Numerate and analytical in approach with an excellent attention to detail.
• Confident in challenging others, whilst at the same time maintaining and building professional relationships.
• Willingness to be proactive and “pick up the ball” when problems are encountered.

Our values are well established and recognised throughout our organisation. They provide a frame of reference for the behaviours expected from our colleagues every day.

We find ways to break old conventions, especially those which cause exclusion or customer harm. We look for these qualities when hiring new talent into the organisation, and they underpin our approach to personal development and performance management for all our people. At the heart of this is the fact we care about our Customers, Our Colleagues and our Communities. We are:

Visionary - We innovate and break old habits, thinking big and pushing boundaries together as one team

Inclusive - We value each other’s differences and work to see people for who they really are

Dynamic - We are flexible and fast, cutting through complexity and never accepting second best

Authentic - We are honest and genuine, what you see is what you get

We offer a comprehensive benefits package to support our employees’ professional and personal needs. Further details can be provided upon application.

To apply for this role please email your CV to careers@vidabank.co.uk.