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A well-established (re)insurance group writing over $1bn in premium is looking to add a technically minded accountant to their team. The position will take charge of managing, motivating and developing two experienced accounting teams: one leading the monthly, quarterly and annual underwriting results for the Syndicate and company; and the other leading strategic delivery of finance transformation.
This person will be a key senior liaison point in Finance, working with other Finance functions, Actuarial, Reinsurance and IT senior stakeholders to forge relationships which will form the foundation of collaborative working practices. Their drive and energy will lead to significant enhancements in financial controls, all aspects of financial close, and efficient delivery and prioritisation of system changes.
This role will be able to perform meaningful analysis of the technical underwriting result from an income statement and balance sheet perspective, identifying any anomalies and opportunities to improve accounting practices, and championing their two teams to put initiatives into practice.
- Part of the Finance leadership team, proactively seeking opportunities with other CFO functions to leverage close process improvements impacting Tax, Treasury, FP&A and Credit Control.
- Risk and control owner collaborating with Financial Control team to design and implement financial controls, and urgently identifying and remediating control exceptions
- Leads the team in developing, enhancing and automating required financial systems, processes and controls.
- Ownership and development of all financial controls, reconciliations and schedules related to technical account balances including premiums, losses and acquisition costs.
- Responsible for the timely and accurate production of the monthly, quarterly and annual underwriting results for the Syndicate and Company financial close.
- Conducts analytical review and commentary for financial results following initial review by close team, developing checkouts for each line, branch and legal entity.
- Ownership and development of all financial controls, reconciliations and schedules related to technical account balances including premiums, losses and acquisition costs.
- Drive continuous improvement of the financial close process activities with the aim of improving efficiency, review and controls related to the underwriting results production.
- Oversight of team managing finance transformation and automation projects, enabling the team to continue the enhancement of financial systems and processes.
Skills & Knowledge required:
- Experienced qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or qualified by experience with several years working in an insurance finance function
- Strong knowledge of insurance technical accounting (company market and Lloyd's), reserving, reinsurance and related accounting principles
- Ability to analyse financial results against expectations in order to identify anomalies and, where necessary, areas for correction
- Ability to identify opportunities for process and control improvements, and to lead the charge with boldly driving and delivering change
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including at a senior level, to persuade and challenge management in order to improve finance processes
