Vice President | Investor Services |ISG Operations|

Vice President - Investor Services (ISG Operations)
Job Number:

323+571

POSTING DATE: Jul 27, 2024
PRIMARY LOCATION: Non-Japan Asia-India-Maharashtra-Mumbai (MSA)
JOB: Fund Services
EMPLOYMENT TYPE: Full Time
JOB LEVEL: Vice President
DESCRIPTION

Morgan Stanley Fund Services

Job Description

Job Purpose

Morgan Stanley Fund Services is committed to providing the highest standard of services to the funds that we administer. Investor Services lies at the heart of this commitment.

The Investor Services team is charged with providing a best in class service to both our clients and their investors. The role of a Senior Manager is a key to meeting this goal.

The Vice President is responsible for the day-to-day supervision of investor services team. The investor services team will typically consist of Managers, IS Team Leader along with one or more Investor Services Representatives and/or Senior Investor Services Representatives who are providing services to specified clients.

Responsibilities of Vice President include:

Managing the delivery of services to clients against a pre-agreed service level agreement.
Providing oversight and guidance to their team.
Ensuring that their team delivers services in a timely, accurate and compliant manner.
Providing a point of escalation to Managers (and other team members as appropriate).
Providing a point of contact and escalation to clients.
Keeping management in Mumbai, Westchester and Dublin appraised of operational issues in a timely manner.
Keeping line management appraised of HR issues in a timely manner.

Principle Accountabilities

Service Delivery

Oversee the delivery of the ongoing service to the fund Manager as outlined in the Service Level Description. These services include;
o Providing authorised parties with copies of fund investment documentation.

o Provide investors and their nominees with statements, contract notes and other documentation in a timely manner.

o Providing fund Managers with ongoing reporting on investor activity.

Work with their Managers and Team Leaders to ensure the timely and accurate processing of all Investor activity. This should be monitored with particular reference to system work queues and system MIS. Senior Managers are responsible for such monitoring and must escalate situations where appropriate processing is not occurring.
Ensure that all activity is processed in line with the fund documentation, anti-money laundering requirements, statutory regulations and company policies and procedures.
Act as a contact point and escalation to the Fund Manager for investor services related activity.
Ensuring that the records of the fund are maintained in a complete and organised manner.
Produce and review MIS and other internal operational reports that assist in the effective operation of the team.

Leadership

A Vice President in Investor Services plays a key role in the day-to-day operation of our team.

Key responsibilities include:

Scheduling the work of the overall team.
Training and mentoring of individual team members with the assistance of Managers /Team Leaders.
Provide honest, constructive feedback to the team to aid their ongoing development.
Ensure that individual team members are aware of the policies, controls and procedures that apply to their role.
Providing an escalation point for Managers / Team Leaders (and other team members as appropriate).
Operational Issues
o Ensure that line management are made aware of any operational issues in a timely manner. This will include escalating for action as well as escalating for information.

o Play a central role in the resolution of the specific issue.

o Play a central role in the drafting of incident reports and in reporting to the line management.

o In conjunction with line management, play a role in the communication of the initial issue and ongoing status to the client.

o Play a role in ensuring that appropriate actions are taken to prevent a recurrence (e.g. employee training, procedural changes, system enhancements, etc.)

o Overall, take ownership for the effective communication and resolution of issues.

Ensuring that line management are made aware of any HR or individual performance issues in a timely manner. Note that Senior Managers are not solely responsible for the management of such issues. Their responsibility is to escalate such issues through line management and to respond as directed.
Lead the annual TDP process for the Managers and/or Senior IS Representatives and Team Leader on their team. This should be done with appropriate input from their Managers/Team Leaders. This must be done under the guidance of the IS Senior Management team.
Highlighting resource constraints to line management.
Highlighting systems issues to line management.
Observing appropriate confidentiality of information provided due to the nature of their role.
Demonstrate leadership to their team including;
Maintaining an appropriate relationship with team members and leading by example.

Maintaining an appropriate and amicable relationship with the local management team.

Communicating team objectives.

Demonstrating a sense of ownership for operational service delivery.

Demonstrating a sense of ownership for client satisfaction.

Providing motivation and direction to team members.


§ Operational coverage may be provided by resources in other geographical locations. The Senior Manager must work on a partnership basis with their peers in other locations to ensure that services are delivered in a timely, accurate and compliant manner.

§ Vice President must be capable of maintaining effective, professional operational relationships with colleagues in remote locations.

§ Vice President must be capable of maintaining effective, professional operational relationships with management and colleagues in other functional teams to ensure that we deliver a unified service to our clients.


Compliance

Investor servicing requires compliance with a range of policies. The successful candidate should have:

A detailed knowledge of the offering documentation for the funds being serviced.
A strong knowledge of the regulations that pertain to the domicile of the fund being serviced.
A strong knowledge of our internal policies and procedures. Particular emphasis is required on all matters relating to Anti-Money laundering controls.

Client Skills

The Vice President plays an important role in overseeing the delivery of service to our clients. They also play a key role in maintaining our relationship with clients. The Senior Manager should;

Have a strong understanding of the particular requirements of the client.
Have an ability to discuss operational issues with a client in a confident and professional manner.
Maintain an awareness of industry developments that impact investor servicing.
Have an ability to accurately present our services to both existing and prospective clients in a confident and professional manner.

Projects

The Vice President plays an important role in various IT and Operational Projects. These projects may include:

Identifying system enhancements that reduce operational risk create operational efficiency or improve customer service.
Participating in the key elements of the project life cycle (Specification, Testing and Operational Implementation).
Participating in the in-conversion of records from other administrators.
Participating in data remediation projects.
Participating in projects relating to fund restructurings or regulatory changes.

In many cases, the Vice President will play a leadership role and will be responsible for ensuring that such projects are completed on time, on budget and with due accuracy.


Key Systems Knowledge

MSFS has implemented a sophisticated platform to support its operational and commercial services. Many MSFS procedures and controls are affected through this platform. Knowledge of this platform is an important competency. This knowledge should include:

A detailed knowledge of the core processing and reporting functions.
A detailed knowledge of how the systems inter-connect – both within the IS platform and across the broader MSFS platform.
A detailed understanding of high-level system parameters and the impact that they have on system processing.
A detailed understanding of how the importance of various systems alerts and warnings.

Key Characteristics / Competencies

A Vice President is likely to have the following characteristics:

A number of year’s prior experience of investor servicing. Knowledge of hedge fund processing is a strong advantage.
Experience in supervising and leading others.
A strong aptitude for client service.
Good administrative and organisational skills with a particular focus on accuracy and attention to detail.
An ability to work and lead under pressure and an ability to cope with increased workloads at month-end.
An ability to work and lead as part of focused team.
An ability to work and lead as part of a global, distributed team.
An ability to use key financial systems and other IT tools.
A third level qualification – preferably in a business or numerical discipline.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunities employer. We work to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where all individuals can maximize their full potential. Our skilled and creative workforce is comprised of individuals drawn from a broad cross section of the global communities in which we operate and who reflect a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives and experiences. Our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion is evident through our constant focus on recruiting, developing and advancing individuals based on their skills and talent