James Allingham Email & Phone Number

London, England, United Kingdom

Director, Head of Insurance - FI Credit

London, England, United Kingdom

Recruited to lead the counterparty credit risk function which is responsible for the management and analysis of financial institutions covering derivative (c.20), securities trading (c.300) and money market instrument (c.80) counterparties, equating to c.$6.5bn of exposure. Designated as the Subject Matter Expert across the firm for counterparty credit risk. Presented at Counterparty Credit Risk Committee and Broker Advisory Group meetings. Provided MI and expertise to UK, Luxembourg, Infrastructure fund working groups, the Treasury Advisory Group and for regulatory returns. Developed a new in-house Counterparty Credit Risk System in conjunction with IT Development, establishing improved data input, increased exposure granularity and more targeted, specific reporting.Created a global framework for securities trading counterparties alongside the Global Head of Dealing, aligning regional approved counterparty lists with a uniform on-boarding process and conducting due diligence/on-going monitoring of broker-dealer counterparties on a global basis.Designed and implemented counterparty credit risk policy with respect to Money Market Fund Regulation, incorporating a banks rating model, revised analysis framework and review template. Implemented an on-going credit monitoring process for the firm’s broker-dealer counterparty portfolio. This completed the team’s daily monitoring processes, satisfying regulatory and client expectations.

London, United Kingdom

Recruited to lead credit sanctioning for the NBFI portfolio of 400+ insurers, insurance brokers, PE funds, consumer finance firms, asset managers, FX, stock brokers and building societies. Managed two VP Risk Officers with annual team output of approximately 1500 files; 92% consistently finalised within SLA-mandated timeframes. Analysed and risk-assessed transactions including leveraged and standard lending, FX, interest rate derivatives, and cash management tools. Made key sanctioning recommendations to the Group Credit Committee as required.- Implemented several highly effective efficiency improvement initiatives, including;- Short form review templates (reduction of credit submission forms from 20+ pages to 10, generating significant time savings for the CPO team)- CPO self-sanctioning files, with built-in monitoring system to ensure defined parameters where followed (reduction of 2 days per month in real work hours for the CPO and Risk Sanctioning teams)- IRT reduction policy with the goal of reducing the number of internal reporting triggers; more than 100+ unnecessary trigger points successfully removed in less than 2 months.Raised the team’s profile within the FI Risk department by developing a comprehensive monthly stats spreadsheet and output pack, enabling proactive monitoring of output, bottlenecks, SLA versus actual processing times, in addition to effective issue prevention, early resolution, and strategic resource management.

London, United Kingdom

Managed the NBFI Client Credit Group in London. The team comprised five senior analysts, one junior analyst and a VIE. The team conducts counterpart analysis on insurance firms, asset managers, regulated and non-regulated funds, pension funds and private equity firms. The team has geographic responsibility for Europe (ex France), Africa and the Middle East. The team products c.1,650 credit files in 2013 often to very tight time scales in a dynamic trading environment.Restored morale within the team, following a series of management and personnel changes. There is now a sense of stability and unity. During 2013 the team completed a gross high of c.1,650 credit files. This was a 15% increase on the prior year and was achieved with fewer analysts. I have overseen a significant number of process efficiencies, including: bulk submissions where SG is either custodian or paying agent, analyst approval authority to pre-determined levels for contingent risk and extended use of matelas, Encouraged an environment of personal responsibility and file ownership for the analysts. Alongside this I believe that analyst development and progress is essential to further both the individual and the team.Wrote papers and advised on global credit policy for two new initiatives within SG; macro longevity transactions and secondary loan trading.Initiated an OPCVM review process within the London team with respect to the oversight of automatic credit limits against UCITS funds.Undertook selective counterpart credit analysis. In this capacity I conducted the analysis and oversaw the credit file to completion of the first collaboration between SGCIB and SG Hambros Private Bank.

London, United Kingdom

Promoted to acting Head of the team between March 2009 - October 2009 and also intermittently through 2010 and 2011.Reviewed credit application output and quality. I approved credit applications within local delegated authority. This varied between type of counterpart, internal rating and tenor of the transaction. Reported on annual review and file output reporting to Head Office and the London management team. As part of this I developed a weighted statistics model to quantify file application complexity.Assisted in defining new global credit policies for contingent risk and bulk flow FEX trading with asset managers as agent. Developed application templates for insurance and private equity counterparts. I defined and produced an NBFI checklist to accompany credit applications. I introduced a portfolio based approach to the NBFI team.Managed a team of 10 analysts as acting Team Head. In this capacity, I interviewed and recruited analysts, conducted annual appraisal and objective setting meetings. I also assisted in a review of third party data sources.

London, United Kingdom

Employed as a senior credit analyst to cover NBFI counterparts in the Client Credit Group, London. In this capacity I completed the following:Undertook client level analysis on European (ex France), African, and Middle Eastern financial institutions, both ad hoc requests and annual reviews. Counter-parties are predominantly from continental Europe and include; Life Insurers, Non-Life Insurers, Composites, Reinsurers, Fund Managers, Regulated and Non-regulated Funds. Transactions analysed are predominantly treasury based – FEX, Fixed Income, Equity and Credit Derivatives (vanilla and structured), Stock Borrowing, also loan, debt and bridge financing. Acted as a mentor and coach to the junior credit analysts within the team. In particular, with respect to credit analysis fundamentals and the structuring of credit papers.

London, United Kingdom

Employed as the Senior Credit Analyst for the Insurance team within Corporate and Institutional Banking (CIB). I worked closely with the Global Relationship Managers, Associates and HSBC Credit and Risk functions. I oversaw the European portfolio, consisting of facilities totalling c.USD30bn. I undertook the following in this capacity;Undertook sector, competitor and client level analysis to support the credit application process. Prepared structured and focused remarks for new client/country applications and specialist or non-standard applications. Counter-parties were predominantly UK focused and included; Life and Non-Life Insurers, Reinsurers, Monoline Insurers, Fund Managers, Funds, and Hedge Funds.Appraised the team of industry developments, including regulatory and accounting issues, and product development initiatives. Undertook value-added commentary in relation to credit returns.Analysed and reviewed the credit quality of the sector portfolio and other major players in the market, identifying preferred credit appetite and sector trends. Actively managed the sector’s credit exposure to minimise credit losses versus level of risk-weighted assets held. Acted as a ‘credit filter’ by reviewing credit applications prior to submission to the Credit division. Provided coaching and development on credit analysis to Associates on the team.Proposed the blueprint for splitting the relationship management and credit functions in to two separate teams across the FI portfolio.

London, United Kingdom

I was employed as an Associate in the Insurance team within the Corporate Investment Banking division. The team provided client coverage to leading insurance clients of HSBC. I worked closely with a Global Relationship Manager on a portfolio of 10-12 UK insurance clients. I undertook the following as part of the role: Oversaw audit and compliance on the portfolio - both internal control and external (FSA). Wrote and submitted all credit applications on the portfolio; both annual reviews and new money applications. Managed the day-to-day credit/control functions and returns. Managed the processing of compliance activities, regulatory due diligence, and security/ documentation. Involved in the negotiation of ISDA/CSA, loan documentation and facility letters.Developed strong relationships and coverage on the portfolio. Had responsibility for covering clients at the Treasury Manager level. Was regularly involved in meetings with senior representatives of clients, Group Finance Directors, Investment Officers. Assisted in achieving USD40m revenue target on portfolio. Marketed liquidity fund, money market, corporate cards, payments and cash management systems and global markets products. Created, monitored and managed the profile, planning documents, wallet analysis and business pipeline data for the portfolio.

London, United Kingdom

Employed as an Analyst in the Pension, Investment and Protection team (2001-2002) and in the General Insurance team (2000-2001). I worked with a team of three other analysts to complete a catalogue of market reports and consultancy projects.Researched and wrote numerous reports and consultancy projects over two years. Reports included UK Personal Insurance 2001, UK Motor Insurance 2001 and UK Savings and Investments 2002. These were based on extensive quantitative and qualitative research and analysis to strict deadlines. Developed a series of forecasting models as part of the report writing process. In addition, I was the analyst that built Datamonitor’s UK Savings and Investments macro-forecasting model.Represented the Analyst Division in client sales visits as the dedicated industry expert and assisted with the marketing and PR for the reports. As part of this, I was regularly interviewed and quoted in both the trade press (Insurance Day, Insurance Times, Post Magazine et al), and popular media including the Financial Times and the BBC. My report UK Motor Insurance 2001 made the front page of the Daily Mail.

Bsc In Financial Services, Acib Qualified, 2:1 (68% Average)

Activities and Societies: Distance Learning.

B.A. Honours In Economics And History, 2:1 (68% Average)

Activities and Societies: Social Secretary and 2nd Team Captain of St. Hild and St. Bede Pool Club.

A Levels (4) And Gcses (10), Economics (A), History (B), French (B) And Mathematics With Statistics (B).

Activities and Societies: Deputy Head Boy, 1st and 2nd XV Rugby - Colours, 1st XI Cricket - Colours, Chairman of the Debating Society.