Reconciliations Analyst
Company Profile
Founded in 1977, GMO is a private partnership committed to delivering superior investment performance and advice to our clients. We offer strategies where we believe we are positioned to add the greatest value for our investors. These include multi-asset class portfolios as well as dedicated equity, fixed income, and absolute return offerings, many of which employ the firm’s proprietary 7-year asset class forecasting framework. Our client base is comprised primarily of institutions, including corporate and public defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans, endowments, foundations, and financial intermediaries.
GMO, whose sole business is investment management, employs approximately 470 people worldwide and is headquartered in Boston with offices in San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Singapore. We manage roughly $70 billion in client assets using a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches that blend traditional fundamental insights with innovative quantitative methods to identify undervalued asset classes and securities. Our valuation-based approach embeds several key factors, including: a long-term investment horizon, discipline, conviction, and a commitment to research. Our research emphasizes not only identifying and exploiting pricing dislocations but also understanding the long-term drivers of return in the markets in which we invest. We are known for our candor in sharing our views with clients and for our willingness to take bold, differentiated positions when opportunities warrant.
Overview
The Reconciliations Analyst is responsible for ensuring the integrity of data provided by custodian banks. The Reconciliations Analyst will perform various controls, audit, analytical, accounting and reporting responsibilities for a number of GMO’s mutual funds, hedge funds and separately managed accounts. “Ownership” is the key. The analyst will take ownership of each account for which he or she is assigned. The Reconciliations Analyst supports the investment division (portfolio managers, traders, and analysts) by identifying, researching, and resolving any and all discrepancies discovered through the review and validation of all investment activity. The Reconciliations Analyst will also assist the Client Relations team by providing statements for client audits and other ad hoc reporting needs.
Responsibilities:
- Obtain a thorough understanding of GMO’s Mutual Funds, Irish Funds, QIFs, Australian Trusts, Private Funds, CITs, along with our Separately Managed Accounts
- Reconciliation of all assigned account holdings, cash and security transactions to custodian banks, proactively resolve complex accounting and custody issues and communicate effectively with all internal parties
- Perform daily/monthly NAV comparisons of GMO’s net assets to the custodian’s to ensure our client’s monthly reporting is correct
- Work with GMO Finance to provide applicable monthly, quarterly, ad hoc reporting for client billing purpose
- Collaborate with GMO’s cash desk to confirm balances, alert the team of overdrafts and other cash issues that arise during the daily reconciliation
- Work with the GMO Pricing Team to confirm any market value differences discovered during the daily reconciliation, and work with the accounting agents to resolve price breaks
- Review all income receivable balances on GMO’s accounts and work with the custodian banks to resolve any discprencies while also chasing past due income
- Work with the GMO Client Reporting Team to deliver accurate and timely reports to our clients and other interested parties
- Actively follow-up on outstanding issues with respective custodians; the analyst owns the issue until it is resolved and works directly with the custodian’s first line managers or fund accountants to resolve issues and reduce errors from occurring in the future
- Effectively communicate and escalate issues within the team along with other Operations and GMO’s Investment Teams, Client Relationship, Technology Teams
- Review GMO Trust, Australian Trust, Private Funds and Irish Funds financial statements to confirm holdings are represented correctly at each reporting period.
- Work closely with the Data Management Team to investigate and resolve data integrity issues
- Collaborate with the Derivative Support Team to confirm collateral balances, resolve cleared derivatives margin issues, along with bank loan settlements
- Assist all Investment Teams with internal portfolio moves, as well as answering portfolio related questions to assist in their trading/investment approach
- Perform other duties as assigned such as but not limited to:
- a) Custodian relationship oversight
- b) Participation in SOC1 audit
- c) Become involved with firm wide regulatory reporting requirements (AIFMD/Form PF/NFA)
Required Skills & Characteristics:
- Bachelor’s degree; major in accounting or finance preferred
- 2-5 years of experience; fund accounting preferred
- Derivatives experience a plus
- Strong analytical skills
- Experience with BlackRock Aladdin a plus
- Self-motivated with proven ability to work effectively on a team
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office required, SQL/VBA programming skills are a plus