Analyst, Derivatives Settlements

SMBC Group is a top-tier global financial group headquartered in Tokyo with a 400-year history, offering a diverse range of financial services including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group operates over 130 offices and employs 80,000 people worldwide across nearly 40 countries. In the Americas, SMBC Group provides commercial and investment banking services to corporate, institutional, and municipal clients, connecting them to local markets and an extensive global network.

About the role

Own the end-to-end settlement, lifecycle event processing, and reconciliation of derivative transactions, with a primary focus on OTC Interest Rate Derivatives including swaps, caps, floors, and related cash flows. You will sit at the center of the Derivatives and FX Operations team, ensuring payments, resets, maturities, rate fixings, and settlement instructions are processed accurately, on time, and in line with internal controls, regulatory expectations, and counterparty requirements.

Responsibilities

• Validate, process, and settle OTC Interest Rate Derivative transactions, including swaps, caps, floors, and related derivative cash flows.
• Manage daily settlement activities, including payment calculations, cash movements, netting, rate fixings, resets, maturities, and lifecycle event processing.
• Monitor trade confirmations, allocations, settlement queues, and exception reports; investigate discrepancies and drive timely break resolution through to closure.
• Reconcile derivative activity and cash movements across internal systems, custodians, brokers, clearing houses, and counterparties to ensure books and records remain accurate.
• Partner closely with Front Office, Middle Office, Treasury, Finance, Technology, Legal, and external counterparties to resolve failed settlements, reduce recurring breaks, and support smooth trade lifecycle management.
• Maintain accurate transaction records and support audit, regulatory, controls testing, and management reporting requirements related to derivative settlements.
• Process new and updated settlement instructions, ensuring required documentation is received, validated against procedures, and retained appropriately for audit purposes.
• Conduct call backs and other control checks to validate settlement instructions and reduce payment and operational risk.
• Track outstanding cap documentation, reconcile cap payments on hold, and support timely payment release once documentation and approvals are complete.
• Produce daily and weekly reporting for management and advisors, including clear explanations for delayed cap payments such as missing documentation, wire forms, or lender consent.
• Investigate settlement fails, including fail-to-receive and fail-to-pay claims, and provide Front Office partners with comprehensive analysis to support decision-making.
• Escalate disputed claims and unresolved settlement issues to the Front Office for further review, guidance, and appropriate next steps.
• Identify opportunities to improve derivative and FX settlement workflows, strengthen operational controls, reduce manual intervention, and enhance scalability across systems and processes.

Requirements

• Experience in derivatives operations, settlements, trade support, or middle office functions, preferably with OTC Interest Rate Derivatives.
• Strong understanding of the derivative trade lifecycle, including confirmations, settlement instructions, cash flows, resets, rate fixings, maturities, amendments, and terminations.
• Familiarity with industry utilities and platforms such as SWIFT, Bloomberg, DTCC, Alert, MarkitWire, and clearing platforms.
• Strong control mindset with the ability to identify settlement risk, escalate issues appropriately, and follow through on exception resolution.
• Detail-oriented and deadline-driven, with the ability to manage high-volume settlement activity and competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Analytical, proactive problem-solver with strong communication skills across Operations, Front Office, Middle Office, Technology, and external counterparties.
• Proficiency in Excel and comfort working across financial systems, reconciliation tools, and reporting platforms.
• Curiosity to expand your knowledge across multiple asset classes.

Schedule

SMBC’s employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that requires employees to live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles, including FINRA-registered positions requiring full-time in-office attendance.

Pay

The anticipated salary range for this role is between $67,000.00 and $80,000.00. The specific salary offered will be based on individual qualifications, experience, and market conditions at the time of hire. The role may also be eligible for an annual discretionary incentive award.

Benefits

SMBC offers a competitive portfolio of benefits to its employees.