Prime Risk Manager, Global Financial Markets

Role Overview
The Executive Director, Prime Risk Manager is responsible for establishing and leading the front-office risk management framework for DBS Prime Services in Singapore. The role provides independent challenge and commercially informed risk oversight across client financing, margin, leverage, liquidity and concentration risk, while enabling disciplined growth of the Prime Brokerage franchise.
The incumbent will partner closely with Prime Services Sales, Trading, Securities Finance, Client Management and COO teams, as well as Credit Risk, Market Risk, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Finance and Technology. The role will translate portfolio risk into clear client, pricing, and capacity decisions, and provide timely escalation and management information to senior stakeholders and governance forums.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Risk, Margin and Leverage

- Own the daily assessment of client and aggregate portfolio risk across cash equities, synthetic financing, securities borrowing and lending, and related collateralised exposures.

- Review changes in client strategies, asset mix, liquidity, concentration, crowding and market conditions to determine whether margin methodologies, limits or financing terms require adjustment.

- Challenge portfolio construction and leverage requests using stress testing, scenario analysis, liquidity-adjusted risk measures and wrong-way risk considerations.

- Identify material risk concentrations and major swings in client portfolios, recommend mitigating actions, and escalate concerns promptly to senior management and relevant control functions.

- Oversee exceptions, margin disputes and risk limit breaches, ensuring decisions, approvals and remediation actions are appropriately documented.

Client Onboarding, Pricing and Business Decisions

- Provide risk input into new client selection, due diligence, onboarding and periodic reviews, including assessment of strategy, transparency, liquidity profile, operational readiness and downside scenarios.

- Develop and challenge margin, pricing, haircut, limit and collateral proposals for new and existing clients, balancing risk-adjusted returns, funding costs and franchise objectives.

- Partner with Sales and Trading on proposed client structures and transactions, clearly articulating risk appetite, conditions and residual risks.

- Assess the impact of changes in cost of funding, interest rates, currency mix, portfolio composition and business mix on client economics and risk-adjusted profitability.

Risk Framework, Governance and Controls

- Design, implement and continuously enhance the Prime Services risk framework, including methodologies, risk appetite metrics, delegated authorities, limits, escalation thresholds and governance standards.

- Ensure alignment with DBS risk policies, regulatory requirements and applicable standards for counterparty credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk and collateral management.

- Prepare clear risk assessments and recommendations for credit committees, new product approvals, senior management and other governance forums.

- Lead regular portfolio reviews and stress-testing exercises, including idiosyncratic, sector, regional, liquidity and systemic market scenarios.

- Maintain strong front-office controls, complete audit and regulatory actions on time, and promote a culture of prudent risk ownership and effective challenge.

Risk Analytics, Reporting and Automation

- Produce accurate and actionable risk summaries at position, account, client, strategy, regional and portfolio levels for senior management and business stakeholders.

- Build and enhance dashboards and analytical tools to monitor exposures, margin utilisation, stress losses, concentrations, liquidity, collateral quality, return on balance sheet and other internal and external indicators.

- Champion automation of recurring risk processes and controls using appropriate data, workflow and analytics solutions, reducing manual effort and improving timeliness and data quality.

- Partner with Technology, Quantitative Analytics and Data teams to define requirements, validate models and deliver scalable risk infrastructure for the Prime Services platform.

- Ensure risk data, assumptions, methodologies and management reports are subject to appropriate controls, reconciliation and governance.

Leadership and Stakeholder Management

- Act as the senior risk subject matter expert for Prime Services in Singapore and a trusted adviser to the Head of Prime Services and Global Financial Markets leadership.

- Influence senior stakeholders across the front office and control functions, resolving complex issues through fact-based analysis and sound judgement.

- Coordinate with regional and global stakeholders to ensure consistent risk standards, effective coverage and timely escalation across time zones.

- Lead ad hoc portfolio reviews, risk remediation and strategic projects supporting the build-out and growth of the Prime Services franchise.

- Develop team capability through coaching, knowledge sharing and clear standards for analytical quality, judgement and accountability.

Requirements

- At least 12 years of relevant experience in Prime Brokerage, Prime Services, counterparty credit risk, market risk, equity financing or a closely related Global Markets risk function, with meaningful leadership exposure.

- Demonstrated experience assessing leveraged client portfolios, margin methodologies, collateral, stress testing, liquidity and concentration risk across hedge fund and institutional client strategies.

- Strong understanding of cash and synthetic prime brokerage, securities financing, equity derivatives, funding economics and the end-to-end trade and collateral lifecycle.

- Proven ability to make balanced risk decisions, provide effective challenge and communicate complex portfolio risks to senior management and governance committees.

- Strong quantitative and analytical capabilities. Advanced Excel skills are essential; proficiency in Python, SQL and risk visualisation tools is highly desirable.

- Good understanding of counterparty credit risk and capital concepts, including potential future exposure, wrong-way risk, stress loss and risk-adjusted return measures.

- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Applied Mathematics, Engineering or a related discipline. CFA, FRM or equivalent professional qualification is advantageous.

- High attention to detail, strong execution discipline and the ability to operate effectively under pressure in a fast-paced, evolving business.

- Willingness to support regional and global markets across time zones when required.

- Demonstrated commitment to DBS values, conduct standards, regulatory obligations and prudent risk management.

Location:
DBS Asia Central
Job:
Risk Management.
Schedule:
Regular
Employee Status:
Full time