Regulatory Capital Reporting Recovery Leader — Wholesale Banking

The mandate

A supervisory review found that risk-weighted assets, capital deductions and legal-entity adjustments could not be traced consistently from approved finance and risk sources into statutory returns. Reconciliations explain totals but not population movement, overrides lack durable rationale, and reporting teams rely on individuals to interpret rule changes. The former head left after remediation milestones were missed, creating an urgent accountable vacancy.

The twelve-month assignment starts within two weeks and covers containment, resubmission decisions, year end, four quarterly cycles and successor certification. The governing event is any source, rule, model, hierarchy or adjustment change affecting a capital return; it must be inventoried and approved before submission. Eight weeks are reserved for handover, and the engagement cannot roll into ordinary transformation.

Exit requires an approved return inventory, source-to-cell lineage, reconciled finance-risk populations, controlled adjustments, rule interpretations, change governance, review evidence, issue ageing and four on-time cycles within tolerance. The successor must direct an unseen model-output revision and late legal-entity correction, then defend the resulting capital movement to an internal supervisory panel before authority transfers.

The interim may reject incomplete return packs, freeze unauthorised transformations, require risk and finance attestations, reprioritise remediation, appoint temporary control owners and authorise HK$110 million within the approved recovery envelope. Regulatory interpretations, capital strategy, model approval, public disclosure and expenditure beyond delegation remain with accountable executives and committees; supervisors and assurance providers retain independent authority.

Credit underwriting, market-risk model redevelopment, capital issuance, tax structuring and replacement of the reporting platform sit outside scope. The leader may correct interfaces and calculations needed for reliable returns but cannot redesign every upstream process. Historic differences must remain visible until disposition; reconciliation plugs and undocumented overlays will not be accepted as sustainable closure.

Why this seat is open

The review demonstrated that repeated on-time submission had concealed fragile lineage and person-dependent interpretation, then the remediation leader departed. Regulatory deadlines prevent a normal recruitment sequence. Temporary executive authority must restore traceability, evidential review and credible challenge across live cycles before a permanent head assumes the accountable process.

What you will own

• Establish a consequence-ranked inventory of capital returns, cells, rules, sources, transformations, adjustments and accountable owners.
• Reconcile exposure populations, provisions, collateral, models, deductions and consolidation adjustments between Finance and Risk.
• Replace unexplained overlays with authorised methodology, calculation, approval, effective date, reversal and retained evidence.
• Govern rule, source, model, hierarchy and product changes through impact assessment before reporting cut-off.
• Direct rehearsals involving a model revision, late default, collateral defect, entity transfer, threshold breach and source outage.
• Report accuracy, breaks, adjustments, recurrence, review quality, remediation ageing and submission risk to executives and board.
• Transfer authority after four controlled cycles and successor defence of an unseen capital movement before an internal panel.

Candidate qualifications

• Held accountable regulatory-capital reporting leadership in a complex wholesale, universal or internationally active bank.
• Reconciled finance, credit-risk, market-risk and treasury populations into granular prudential return cells and disclosures.
• Controlled risk-weighted assets, capital deductions, model changes, adjustments and regulatory interpretations under supervisory remediation.
• Removed reconciliation plugs and undocumented transformations while maintaining live submission deadlines and capital transparency.
• Worked credibly with supervisors, internal audit and assurance teams without compromising their independent assessment roles.
• Handed a recovered capital-reporting process to permanent leadership through multiple quarters and adversarial change scenarios.

Non-negotiables

• Available within two weeks for exclusive Hong Kong service across year end and four quarterly return cycles.
• Has personally owned bank capital submissions under supervisory scrutiny; adjacent planning or model expertise is insufficient.
• No undisclosed relationship may involve the supervisor-facing assurance provider, major reporting vendor or model adviser.
• Will escalate unexplained capital movements even where transparent treatment constrains distributions or business growth.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a capital-return difference that reconciliation totals concealed but population lineage exposed.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you govern a late model change without missing the statutory submission deadline?
3. 49 words maximum. Which unseen legal-entity adjustment would you use to test the permanent reporting head?