Author: GoingConcern

Job of the Day: BlackRock Needs an IT Internal Audit Manager

BlackRock is looking for an experienced auditor who has is familiar with testing of SAS 70 and Sarbanes-Oxley technology controls.

The position requires 9 years experience with Big 4 firm and professional certifications (e.g. CPA, CISA). The position also requires approximately 20% travel.

Check out the details for this position, based in New York, after the jump.


Company: BlackRock

Title: IT Internal Audit Manager

Location: New York, NY

Experience Required: 9 years

Description: The candidate will supervise one to two staff and will work closely with other internal auditors in executing the global integrated internal audit plan. The candidate will report to the Director of Internal Audit IT, who reports to the Global Head of Internal Audit. BlackRock’s internal audit group is comprised of approximately 40 professionals based principally in New York, San Francisco and London, with additional personnel in Edinburgh, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Responsibilities: More than 9 years experience in the fields of information technology audit, information security and technology risk management; Strong experience auditing operating systems, databases, networks, and technology operations; Experience working within a risk based internal audit function executing audit planning, fieldwork and report writing; A good understanding of information technology, technology risks and emerging technologies; A good understanding of information technology best practice disciplines and frameworks such as CoBIT, ITIL and COSO; Experience managing small teams of skilled professionals and building strong trusted relationships with senior IT and business management.

Qualifications: Experience of auditing Unix, Linux, Sybase, Oracle, MSSQL and Windows; Experience working in a global financial services firm, and a good understanding of the asset management industry and regulatory environment; A “Big 4” background and experience of SAS70 and SOX technology controls testing; Experience working in a non-audit role such as information security or technology operations; Professional certifications such as: CPA, CISA, CISM, CISSP, GSNA, CGEIT, CRISC; Additional technical knowledge, e.g. attack and penetration techniques, security configuration audit tools and techniques, development tools and languages, data modeling and data management techniques.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Are Direct Loans from the Small Business Administration a Bad Idea?

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

With all the news about President Obama’s proposals to increase bank lending to small business, there’s one obvious question that needs to be addressed: Why not have the Small Business Administration take a more aggressive role? Why not allow the agency to lend directly to small businesses?

The issue came up at a recent hearing held by the House Financial Services and Small Business Committees.

Turns out, the Small Business Act creating the SBA allows the agency to do direct financing of companies, as the You’re the Boss blog recently pointed out. And through at least the 1980’s, they did so, lending to companies rejected by banks.


Plus, in the past year, the Senate has introduced legislation to help the SBA make direct loans. And the House has passed two bills creating programs aimed at direct lending. That legislation would create a program which would exist only in a recession, through which the SBA would help small businesses fill out loan applications. Then, if no bank were willing to lend, the agency would step in.

But the Obama administration is against any and all such proposals. The reasons: 1) The agency doesn’t have the staff or the resources; 2) It would take as long as a year to get such a program up and running; 3) Administrative costs would be in the billions of dollars; and 4) Historically, SBA direct loans have had higher cumulative loss rates than other SBA-backed loans.

Those, in fact, are pretty convincing arguments.

It might just be that, while it sounds good on paper to give the SBA the power to lend directly, the reality is very different. Sure, drastic action is needed to increase bank lending. But this one might be thoroughly impractical.

The bottom line: Ultimately, it’s bankers who probably are more qualified than anyone at the SBA to make these decisions. In a time of scarce government resources and a need for fast action, the most efficient approach is for the SBA to do whatever it can to encourage banks to lend.

Of course, whether the steps proposed by the Obama administration are likely to do that is the $64,000 question.

Job of the Day: Global Partnership Schools Needs a Controller

Global Partnership Schools is looking for a controller to oversee the the financial reporting system and supervise the accounting staff.

This position requires 5 to 7 years experience and CPA or CMA license.

Check out the details for this position, located in New York, after the jump.


Company: Global Partnership Schools

Title: Controller

Location: New York, NY

Experience Required: 5 – 7 years

Description: To develop, maintain and oversee Global Partnership Schools and its associated entities’ financial systems while assisting CFO in all areas of financial management and company operations.

Responsibilities: Design and develop financial accounting systems; prepare budgets; supervise accounting processes; review and analyze financial reports. Coordinate with external auditors and tax consultants; Design, monitor and implement financial systems, policies and procedures; Meet finance operational standards by contributing information to strategic financial plans and reviews; implement production, productivity, quality, and customer-service standards; resolve problems and identify system improvements; Supervise accounting staff and carry out responsibilities in accordance with Global Partnership School’s policies and procedures and applicable state and federal laws; Accomplish accounting requirements by designing and maintaining accounting processes: including journal entries and general ledger, billing, collections, accounts payable, accounts receivable and purchase orders; supervise bank reconciliations and closing processes; Support annual budget processes; develop and maintain forecasts and models; ensure compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practices and cash management; Perform budget vs. actual analysis for Global Partnership Schools on a monthly basis; Prepare monthly financial accounts vs. profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flows for management reporting; Manage payroll process by analyzing, preparing and inputting payroll data using automated system; ensure compliance with all applicable state and federal wage and hour laws; Coordinate with external auditors and tax consultants; prepare and file basic tax returns; Oversee projects as assigned by CFO.

Qualifications: 5-7 years of experience in Financial Management, preferably in an educational setting; CPA/CMA strongly desired; Accounting, cost accounting, financial planning and strategy, financial skills, financial software, analyzing information, implementation of Microsoft Dynamics and exceptional written and oral communication skills. Educational experience strongly desired.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Job of the Day: Fannie Mae Needs a Senior Accountant

Fannie Mae needs an experienced accountant that will perform day-to-day accounting operations for Fannie Mae’s investments in Low Income Housing Tax Credit & CI partnerships, including the impacts of consolidating those assets.

The position requires a four to six years experience and a CPA license.

Get more details on the position, located in Washington, DC after the jump.


Company: Fannie Mae

Title: General Accountant, Partnership Accounting

Location: Washington, D.C.

Experience Required: 4 – 6 years

Description: Apply comprehensive knowledge of accounting principles, concepts, practices, and standards in performing complex duties related to preparing and analyzing financial information to record transactions, prepare reports, and review and verify accuracy. Work with consultants, auditors, and others to analyze and provide information on operational, reporting, or system impact related to policy changes and new products. Contribute to special projects. May train staff.

Responsibilities: Compile, review, analyze, and record financial information to the general ledger. Complete monthly closings; Prepare balance sheet and profit and loss statements, consolidated financial statements, and other accounting schedules and reports; Prepare daily, weekly, and monthly reconciliations to ensure general ledger account information is accurate, consistent, traceable, and auditable; Execute and manage timely, accurate transactions; Identify control weaknesses, communicate to management, and participate in making remedial changes to tighten and enhance controls; Provide requested information to auditors, consultants, and others on significant matters requiring coordination; May design, modify, install, and/or maintain accounting systems to ensure adequate recognition of financial transactions; May perform moderately complex accounting projects or participate as a team member on highly complex projects; Understand and analyze partnership financial statements and Schedule K-1s.

Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent; CPA; 4-6 years or equivalent experience.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Job of the Day: VP, Finance Activities Credit Review & Audit at BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas is looking for someone to join their North America Audit Group as a VP for Finance Activities Credit Review & Audit.

An ideal candidate will have a blend of both credit review and audit experience.

The position requires a minimum of five years experience, MBA, CPA or CFA is required and French language skills are a plus. Some travel is required to offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and Dallas/Houston.

Get more details on the position, located in New York, after the jump.


Company: BNP Paribas

Title: VP, Finance Activities Credit Review & Audit

Location: New York

Experience Required: 5 – 10 years

Description: BNP Paribas is seeking a candidate for a VP position in its North America Audit Group as a member of the credit review team to perform credit reviews and traditional audit aspects of these reviews.

Responsibilities: responsible for the audit and credit review coverage of all banking groups and related support areas including: Corporate Banking, Energy & Commodities, Media & Telecom, Merchant Banking, Asset Securitization, Security Industry, Portfolio Management and Risk Management.

Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance; MBA, CPA (or equivalent), or CFA required; 5 – 10 years financial services work experience; Credit analysis skills with a solid understanding of the credit process and controls; French language skills a plus but not required

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

GMAC CFO Bolts Two Weeks After TARP Testimony

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

Private equity firm Providence Equity Partners announced on Tuesday that it had hired Robert S. Hull, GMAC Financial Services’ chief financial officer.

Hull will join the firm, which specializes in media, entertainment, communications and information companies, as its CFO in early April. He succeeds Raymond Mathieu, who will become a managing director focused on special projects for the firm.


The 46-year-old Hull was CFO at GMAC since 2007. He was a member of the beleaguered lender’s executive committee and served briefly on its board of directors.

Previously, he held a series of finance positions at Bank of America from 2001 to 2007, most recently as chief financial officer of the company’s global wealth and investment management business.

GMAC has received $17 billion in government bailout funds and hasn’t recorded a quarterly profit since the fourth quarter of 2008. Indeed, it has lost money in nine of the last 10 quarters and lost over $10 billion in 2009.

Hull was paid $4.9 million last year.

The departure comes just two weeks after Hull had to testify before a Congressional Oversight Panel regarding the U.S. government’s assistance to GMAC under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In a report regarding Hull’s departure, Standard & Poor’s laid out GMAC’s many troubles, which include “resolving strategic considerations for several business lines, most notably the mortgage operation; executing its plans to diversify beyond providing auto-finance products and services to GM and Chrysler dealers and retail customers; and coping with a still-fragile economy.”

Given all those challenges, the rating agency concluded, “it is not surprising to see turnover at all levels of the institution.”

Perhaps that lack of surprise is why GMAC, for its part, didn’t even bother putting out a press release over the departure, opting to make only a two-sentence filing with the SEC:

“GMAC Financial Services today announced that Chief Financial Officer Robert S. Hull has elected to depart the company at the end of March to pursue another career opportunity. The company will conduct an internal and external search for potential CFO candidates in the interim.”

Job of the Day: Global Wealth Manager Needs a Head of Financial Control

Ashton Lane Group has a global wealth manager client in need of a Head of Financial Control who can implement and maintain existing and new control frameworks.

Candidates should have a minimum of seven years experience and a CPA license. Knowledge of SAP is a plus.

Get more details on the position, located in New York, after the jump.


Recruiter: Ashton Lane Group

Title: VP Head of Financial Control

Location: New York

Minimum Experience: 7 years

Description: Build and lead the financial control team within a global wealth manager.

Responsibilities: Lead a team of up to five entity controllers; Responsible for the monthly general ledger control and account reconciliation processes, ensuring that a robust control framework is embedded and maintained; Represent team at monthly Letter of Representation meetings and escalate any material issues; Review existing end to end revenue processes and implement new controls as the business expands; Support the launch of a new Trust entity and set up the control framework and associated regulatory and statutory reporting;

Qualifications: 7+ years financial control experience within financial services; Understanding of Capital Management principles; Experience of finance process design and implementation; Knowledge and experience of SAP an advantage; Bachelors’ degree or equivalent. CPA/CA preferred.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Prudential Plc’s CFO Turned CEO Makes the Big Deal

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

CFOs around the world are looking on in a mixture of admiration and jealousy at the success of a former member of the ranks. Tidjane Thiam, CEO of the U.K.’s Prudential PLC is in the process of trying to pull together what must be the biggest deal of his life. The potential $35 billion takeover of AIA will, at a stroke, convert the company from a rather staid UK life insurer into a fast growing Asian financial services behemoth.


This is not the way that text books say it should happen. Generally when a CFO is elevated to the CEO position – as happened to Thiam in the middle of last year – it is usually because there is some dreadful financial crisis looming that only an experienced CFO can really manage. Indeed the promotion of the CFO to the CEO position is likely an admission that there will not be any major strategic moves, rather a relentless of pursuit of cash, debt repayments and risk hedging.

What makes Thiam’s move even more remarkable is that it was reported that he tried to scupper the plans of his predecessor Mark Tucker when he was thinking of making a bid for AIA a year ago. Cynics might say that he wanted to do the deal himself.

Other ex-CFOs of banks, who now find themselves in the top seat, could be forgiven for feeling pangs of jealousy at what Thiam is trying to do. For instance, Stephen Hester, the CEO of RBS is the ex-CFO of Credit Suisse. His job is now all about finding ways to offload toxic assets, keep bankers from leaving and trying to explain to a furious public why bankers need to be paid even if the bank suffers a loss. How much more fun to throw the whole institution at a deal that will not only define a decade but transform the geographic and growth profile of the business.

The trend of promoting CFOs to CEOs is only around 15 years old and can be partly attributed to the private equity business. Once companies are bought out by PE firms, the first priority is to manage the financials as tightly as possible, paying down the acquisition debt and serving interest before arranging an exit. This placed great emphasis on financial skills as opposed to strategic vision. Just such a situation happened last week when Carlyle led a group of investors in a $550 million deal buying into Bank of Butterfield in Bermuda. In the process, the existing CEO Alan Thompson left the bank. His successor? Bradford Kopp, the CFO.

The promotion of the CFO to the top spot can be seen as an admission that all the focus will be on the balance sheet and not the income statement. That could explain why CFOs at Goldman Sachs and HSBC – David Viniar and Douglas Flint respectively – tend not to be mentioned as the next CEOs of the banks; these institutions have very strong internal strategic cultures matched by fortress balance sheets. An admission that either is needed in the top spot would be a sign both of a weak culture and balance sheet. But with Thiam now pioneering the way, it can be shown that CFO’s can make great strategic CEOs. Who will be next?

Job of the Day: Citi Needs a Planning & Analysis Manager

Citi needs an experienced accounting professional to join its Citi Capital Advisors Financial Control unit. This position will be responsible for maintaining and improving financial reporting processes for the unit’s management team.

Candidates should have a minimum of six years experience and a CPA license.

Get more details on the position, located in New York, after the jump.


Company: Citi

Title: P&A Manager

Location: New York

Description: Financial Control is responsible for a variety of activities related to the firm’s financial reporting and controls. The team is divided into different areas of specialization where each member is responsible for a unique set of responsibilities that include both analytical and accounting roles. This position will assist in the management reporting and legal vehicle reporting within the Citi Capital Advisors (CCA) Financial Control unit.

Responsibilities: The primary responsibility will be to drive the core processes and assist the CCA Finance management team to have a robust and controlled financial reporting process for both management and legal books. This will include the estimate process, regulatory reporting for corporate and external purposes and monthly deliverables to both the CCA business and Citigroup Corporate Reporting. Additionally, this role will be responsible for leading the entire CCA finance division (controller and planning and analysis departments) in the 2010 rated audit, as well as the ongoing quarterly monitoring performed by internal and external audit teams.

Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Accounting degree required; CPA a requirement; 6 to 10 years of experience in financial control or related function required;

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Job of the Day: J.P. Morgan Needs a CFO/Vice President

J.P. Morgan is looking for a CFO to lead its Commercial Credit Card business. This is a product with the Company’s Treasury Services Card Products business unit.

The position is located in the Chicago with an alternate location in New York.

Get more details, after the jump.


Company: J.P. Morgan

Title: CFO Commercial Credit Card – TS Card Products – Vice President

Location: Chicago with an alternate location in New York

Description: Commercial Credit Card is a $300 million revenue product organization within the Treasury Services (TS) Card Products business unit ($700 million revenue). The CFO of Commercial Card reports directly to the CFO of TS Card Products.

Responsibilities: Work closely with the TS Card Products CFO as a critical member of the finance lead team; Partner with the Commercial Card Product management team to manage the product P&L and create transparency into business performanceEvaluate financial results and ensure they are communicated and understood and that the appropriate actions are identified and prioritized; develop and maintain key performance measures for revenue and expense; Development of annual business plan (revenue, expense, capital and project profile); Forecast, Analysis and Reporting of ongoing monthly results including Revenue, Headcount, Direct Expense and Indirect Expense (allocations); Work closely with Controllers team to manage month end close process; Lead meetings with product and operations partners to discuss product revenues, expense plans, and current issuesHelp maintain product pricing model; Develop, evolve, and automate processes to create reporting efficiencies

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.