Commercial Accountant

Background

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership is one of the largest pension pools in the UK and was established in 2018. One of eight national Local Government pools, Border to Coast oversees the investment of pensions assets, bringing together £55 billion investments of 11 like-minded Local Government Pension Scheme funds (Partner Funds) to facilitate the `improving value for money through scale, increased access to investment opportunities and strengthened governance.

Border to Coast is an FCA regulated investment company (“Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd”) set up to manage the assets of its Partner Funds through both internal and external management within a number of investment vehicles, including an Authorised Contractual Scheme and a range of partnership vehicles to facilitate private market investments.

Role

We are looking for a qualified financial accountant with a strong financial services background to help us understand, improve and communicate against one of our core strategic objectives i.e. are we delivering value for money through asset pooling at scale.

As our business starts to transition into BAU from its initial build phase, this new role is required to challenge existing understanding and develop and embed a sustainable approach to capture evidence and support the communication of how we are adding value.

Ideally, the candidate will also have experience of preparing and submitting corporate tax computations and submissions to HMRC (although this is not an essential requirement).

You will be a member of Finance Team and report directly into the Head of Finance.

Specifically, we are looking for someone who can:

• support/challenge other business functions and external parties to deliver best value
• work with the COO and Head of Finance to support the communication of value add to senior stakeholders (including Executive, Board, Partner Funds and Government)
• work across our business to understand our costs, activities and allocation of costs
• develop a sustainable cost/benefit methodology for project expenditure
• own the methodology of our cost allocation per sub-fund/client, building a sustainable and repeatable model to ensure it can be reported periodically and which will reflect any changes to our business model
• develop and implement a new sustainable charging structure for our clients – this is a key deliverable over the next 12 months
• work with our Partner Funds to understand their ongoing investment costs and, in collaboration with our internal CRM team, ensure we have an accurate view of their future investment strategy
• manage our external cost benchmarking - ensuring accurate data submission, the results are challenged/understood and key messages and learnings are shared with key stakeholders
• produce an annual Assessment of Value statement in line with FCA requirements
• lead on the production of the annual governmental pooling savings return and work with the Ministry and other Pools to improve the effectiveness of this report
• actively participate with the wider LGPS and asset management industry to drive continuous improvement
• collaborate with the other seven Pension Pools to understand best practice and drive forward the Pooling agenda
• provide support for the Head of Finance and the wider finance team as and when required

Experience/skills

• CCAB accounting qualification, with demonstrable CPD post qualification experience
• financial services essential
• investment management/tax experience is desirable
• cost accounting / financial and sensitivity modelling
• ability to challenge
• ability to work independently
• communicate results to senior level
• ability to build strong relationships with senior management and stakeholders

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. We have an open and supportive culture with a commitment to learning and valuing everyone’s skills and contribution