Divisional Chief Financial Officer — Risk And Controls Estate

The mandate

A multinational-owned bank is preparing one division for a possible strategic transaction. Its commercial promise is obscured by shared services, inconsistent allocations and control activity that cannot yet be separated cleanly from the wider group. Further capital cannot be justified, nor transaction terms defended, until the board sees independent economics and credible evidence of operational control.

The Divisional Chief Financial Officer will steward approximately £82,300 million in loans and deposits and lead around 1,225 employees and material partners. The remit covers financial control, planning, treasury interfaces, credit and impairment insight, cost allocation, tax, procurement, investment governance and the finance contribution to separation readiness. It reports to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee.

The first task is to establish a reliable stand-alone view. Revenue, funding, expected credit loss, capital, servicing, technology, premises and central functions must be attributed using rules that a buyer, regulator and auditor can challenge. Where direct evidence is unavailable, assumptions need named owners, sensitivities and an expiry date. The CFO must prevent a polished transaction model from outrunning the bank’s ability to reproduce its numbers.

Asset quality requires more than a headline arrears curve. Cohorts should expose origination period, underwriting exception, collateral, sector, geography, refinancing dependence and remediation route. Finance will work with independent risk to connect those findings to provision, pricing, capital and cash. Management action should be separated from benign market movement so the board can see which outcomes are genuinely controllable.

The risk and controls estate is itself an economic choice. Reconciliations, attestations and manual checks have accumulated across products, often without clarity on the risk prevented. The appointee will map material controls to obligations, incidents and financial exposure, then simplify duplication without weakening assurance. Evidence retained for a transaction data room must match what operators actually do at month end and under stress.

Separation planning will run through operational dependencies rather than an abstract target chart. Data feeds, licences, treasury services, models, vendors, premises and specialist people each need a provision route, cost, service level and exit path. Transitional service arrangements should be priced to encourage migration and governed through measurable acceptance criteria. Stranded cost must be visible before a perimeter decision is presented as value creation.

Capital choices will follow this fact base. New lending, remediation investment and platform expenditure require a common comparison of cash timing, impairment, capital use, operational readiness and downside. The CFO will advise whether the division should repair, narrow, sell or retain particular activities without becoming an advocate for a predetermined deal. That independence is central to the appointment.

Leadership continuity matters because the accelerated transition has concentrated knowledge in interim owners. The CFO will determine which roles belong inside the division, which can remain shared and which capabilities must be recruited before diligence intensifies. Delegations and sign-offs should work during leave, a reporting deadline and a control incident, not depend on personal access to one executive.

Why this seat is open

An accelerated leadership transition created an urgent permanent replacement need. Interim accountability is protecting reporting and daily decisions, but split ownership cannot carry the division through asset-quality action and transaction preparation. The board intends to appoint within six to eight weeks while handling the predecessor’s circumstances professionally and discreetly.

What you will own

• Produce defensible stand-alone economics for the banking division and its transaction perimeter.
• Steward £82,300 million of loans, deposits, capital, provisions and board forecasts.
• Translate asset-quality evidence into impairment, pricing, liquidity and portfolio decisions.
• Rationalise the risk and controls estate while preserving regulatory and audit assurance.
• Price shared dependencies, transitional services, stranded cost and practical exit routes.
• Lead approximately 1,225 employees and partners with resilient finance succession.
• Govern investment through comparable cash, control, capital and downside evidence.
• Present repair, retention, narrowing and transaction alternatives without predetermined bias.

The first 12 months

During the first 90 days, protect statutory, regulatory and funding deadlines while rebuilding the economic baseline. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to the transaction decision, including risk, credit, treasury, auditors, operations, technology and potential separation owners. Review material lending cohorts, assess finance leadership and agree evidence gates with the board.

Months four to nine should settle allocation rules, provision contested exposures and establish a reproducible stand-alone forecast. The CFO will prioritise control remediation, test the dependency register and negotiate material service assumptions. Leadership gaps must be filled before diligence creates a second operating rhythm around a fragile team.

By year end, the division should be capable of producing transaction-ready numbers without exceptional intervention. The first-year value case should remain within 10% of approval, while operating, cash, customer and workforce assumptions reconcile across three quarters. Serious escalations must reach their forum promptly, and priority fixes require independent proof that they remain effective.

What the board will measure

• Reproducibility of stand-alone profit, balance-sheet, capital and cash reporting.
• Asset-quality movement explained by cohort, action, provision and accountable owner.
• Shared-service and stranded-cost exposure supported by executable transition routes.
• Control effectiveness demonstrated through incidents, testing and sustainable evidence.
• At least 90% retention of pivotal talent and ready-now cover for 70% of direct reports.
• Decision-useful forecasts with no high-severity escalation unresolved beyond 30 days.

The person

You are a Divisional CFO, Business CFO or Finance Director with 22–28 years in banking or an adjacent regulated enterprise. You have signed financial statements, owned investment and liquidity consequences and made a difficult portfolio choice when the original strategic case no longer held.

Your directly accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least £47,750 million, and you have led 850 or more people. You can show how independent economics changed a transaction, separation or capital decision and how the resulting control and financial outcomes endured for two reporting periods.

You understand lending, impairment and the mechanics of operational separation. You can challenge optimistic valuations without paralysing preparation, distinguish a genuine risk reduction from additional control volume and build trust across group functions that may lose scope or resources.

Candidates may come from financial services, payments, lending, insurance or regulated fintech where scale, governance and customer consequence are comparable. Purely functional experience without divisional risk, balance-sheet and board accountability will not meet the requirement.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is £290,000–390,000 plus annual incentive and LTI. The permanent London appointment is onsite, supports international relocation and can accommodate notice of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, division, transaction options and leadership circumstances will be disclosed only to qualified candidates under mutual confidentiality. Composite facts prevent identification.