Head of Custody Operations, New Zealand

The Apex Group was established in Bermuda in 2003 and is now one of the world’s largest fund administration and middle office solutions providers.

Our business is unique in its ability to reach globally, service locally and provide cross-jurisdictional services. With our clients at the heart of everything we do, our hard-working team has successfully delivered on an unprecedented growth and transformation journey, and we are now represented by over circa 13,000 employees across 112 offices worldwide.Your career with us should reflect your energy and passion.

That’s why, at Apex Group, we will do more than simply ‘empower’ you. We will work to supercharge your unique skills and experience.

Take the lead and we’ll give you the support you need to be at the top of your game. And we offer you the freedom to be a positive disrupter and turn big ideas into bold, industry-changing realities.

For our business, for clients, and for you

The Head of Custody leads the custodial function, product and teams for Apex New Zealand to meet the expectations of custody clients both now and in the future. Custody provides financial asset safekeeping, trade settlement and income collections services to the New Zealand financial services industry. The client base is predominantly the New Zealand funds management industry (Unit Trusts and KiwiSaver), companies, and charitable entities. Clients are Wholesale in nature. The role also includes responsibility for the middle office function which involves post-trade matching to counterparties, delivery of matched trades to custodians and subsequent reconciliations.

As a senior leader and member of the Apex Investment Administration’s (Apex IA) executive team you are responsible for the strategy, growth, experience of custody clients and relationships with other relevant stakeholders, Apex group stakeholders and the wider market. You will be responsible for the overall service delivery to clients and lead the custody teams. The position will look strike a balance between continued efficiency and scalability gains while maintaining a regulatory compliant service to clients.

As the Head Custody, New Zealand, and a senior leader you will be a culture champion to actively and purposefully lead and influence the culture of the business to be one of success, accountability, delivery inline with Apex values; we care, we promote respect, we are exceptional, and we drive growth.

Job Responsibilities:

The roles duties and responsibilities will include but not limited to the following: 

• Responsible for leading the strategy, growth, client experience and outcomes for custody within Apex Investment Administration.
• Manage the Custody team(s) to ensure all client deliverables (Contractual and SLA’s) are met.
• Ensure a risk aware culture within the team, fostering awareness and adherence to the risk and compliance frameworks and strong engagement amongst the team for improving the risk environment
• Meet all compliance requirements related to Apex policies and relevant legislation and regulatory guidelines, for example, AML/CFT.  Ensure the function is performing all Line 1 obligations with timely notification and escalation where deviations are identified.
• Implement and maintain appropriate monitoring of key metrics to identify trends and themes relating to service delivery, performance of the team and client behaviour to inform decision making and relevant business cases.
• Ensure the business is always maintaining best practice processes and methodologies.
• Drive efficiency and effectiveness within the custody team and processes.
• Drive and co-ordinate custody objectives and key results (outcomes), projects and service enhancements
• Ensure the business is compliant with Apex policies and guidelines.
• Extract the best use from Apex technologies for the purpose of risk management and efficiencies of service for the Custody teams.
• Maintain and build effective client relationships with clients, leading by example to uplift team members client awareness and relationships with their respective contact points at clients and with the broader market.
• Pro-actively develop relationships with offshore stakeholders, building their knowledge of the NZ custody business and market and ensuring the NZ custody business is included in and aligned with the global strategy.
• Drive and lead by example the Apex values and be a culture champion
• Promote the services of the team and wider Apex group products to prospective clients including proposals, presentations, pricing for new business and other marketing activities where required.
• Contribute to the development of new products and services and the continual evolution of existing services.
• Support the Client Relationship Managers in client meetings, leading where required, and in any follow up interactions or communications.
• Oversee and co-ordinate the training, development and coaching of the custody team, introducing work smart initiatives and improvements.
• Ensure that Apex IA’s custody service offering remains competitive in the market by keeping well-informed of competitor developments and offerings and driving improvements in our custody offer and technology.
• Support any responses to request for proposals for new custody business.
• Participate in other projects and initiatives as required by the business from time to time.

Required Skills:

• 10+ years’ experience in the Financial Services Industry, custody experience preferred.
• Experience at a senior leadership level in a relevant role within the financial services industry
• Strong stakeholder management and capability to influence at a senior level.
• Problem-solving, risk aware and growth mindset with proven ability to drive continuous improvement initiatives and project management.
• Extensive industry knowledge and contacts, staying abreast of industry and market trends. 
• Business acumen to quickly grasp new learning’s and to apply these to the role.  The ability to interpret client requirements and to balance these against Apex capability.
• Ability to manage change including guiding staff, teams, and clients through change activities.
• Outcome focused, be able to quickly identity the best Client and Apex outcomes, and drive change to achieve these.
• Ability and experience with ‘managing and measuring’ processes.  Much of the role is about process control and reliability.  It involves replicating the same tasks over and over with absolute accuracy and timeliness, measuring performance and seeking continual improvement.
• Organisational ability, the role involves meeting competing client priorities in a time pressured environment.  Managing the team and all available resources effectively to achieve deadlines consistently.
• Building effective teams, teams need to be motivated, collaborative, appropriately skilled, and share collective goals to deliver better client and Apex outcomes.
• Above all, the ability to champion quality and service excellence in a technical, high value financial services environment focusing the team on meeting and exceeding client expectations whilst ensuring the profitability of the business on an ongoing basis.

Disclaimer: Unsolicited CVs sent to Apex (Talent Acquisition Team or Hiring Managers) by recruitment agencies will not be accepted for this position. Apex operates a direct souring model and where agency assistance is required, the Talent Acquisition team will engage directly with our exclusive recruitment partners.