Sovereign Risk Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

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The WBG Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Vice Presidency is the core unit responsible for Group-wide institutional risk oversight, including establishment and monitoring adherence to risk policies and guidelines and risk assessment and reporting to the Board and executive management. Its mission is to enable and support the WBG to achieve its goals in a financially sustainable manner. The VPU assists management with identifying and managing Group-wide cross-cutting risks, enhancing risk response decisions, reducing financial and operational surprises and losses, seizing opportunities and improving deployment of capital.  The WBG CRO Vice Presidency includes the IBRD/IDA, IFC, and MIGA risk teams and covers a wide range of financial and non-financial risks.

The Credit Risk Department (CROCR) of the CRO VPU provides country risk ratings for the entire WBG (IBRD, IDA, IFC and MIGA), as well as banking sector country risk ratings and corporate sector country risk ratings for IFC. It is responsible for ensuring that the World Bank's credit risk exposure is commensurate with the risk appetite of stakeholders, consistent with IBRD and IDA's triple-A credit rating requirements and strikes the appropriate balance between development and financial sustainability objectives. The department manages the country credit risks inherent in IBRD and IDA's loan and guarantee portfolios, which are the most predominant risks on IBRD and IDA's balance sheets given the World Bank's development mission. The department is responsible for IBRD and IDA's Capital Adequacy Frameworks, as well as prudential country credit risk management policies that seek to ensure consistency of country lending plans with risk policies and capital adequacy through the country Exposure Management Framework. The department also develops and manages risk-transfer mechanisms including new innovative instruments to enable an increase in the Bank's financing headroom (such as shareholder and MDB guarantees, Enhanced Callable Capital, MDB Exposure Exchange Agreements, etc.).

The Department consists of two teams - the Sovereign Risk Team that assesses and monitors individual country risks and overall global and regional development trends that affect WBG countries, and the Portfolio Risk Team that is responsible for assessing and managing IBRD and IDA portfolio and balance sheet risks, including stress testing, loan loss provisioning, and capital adequacy, as well as risk-mitigating instruments.

Duties and Accountabilities

This Manager will be responsible for overseeing the Sovereign Risk Team and its work program and report to the Director of the Credit Risk Department. The Manager will supervise a team of professional staff with the following main responsibilities:

Lead the department's country risk rating work and ensure high-quality delivery:

o Assess country credit risks and assign internal credit ratings used by all WBG entities (including ratings that reflect Preferred Creditor Status and those that do not), as well as Banking Sector country risk ratings and Corporate Sector country risk ratings for IFC.

o Ensure rating methodologies are robust, clear and up to date, and meet all WBG entities' requirements.

o Oversee the country rating processes, ensuring high-quality robust analysis and consistent application of the rating methodologies by all country rating staff. Manage the rating group discussions of individual countries and derivation of final rating recommendations.

o Engage with external auditors to respond to any queries related to country risk ratings.

o Actively pursue measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the country risk rating process.

Monitor overall global and regional development trends that have implications for country risks, including conducting stress tests (e.g. macroeconomic, climate, natural disasters, etc.) and assess implications for country risk ratings.

Monitor countries that are vulnerable to crises, including payment arrears to the World Bank; Serve as Secretariat to the monthly meetings of the Short-Term Risk Monitoring Group and oversee the preparation of the report.

Participate in the Paris Club meetings and brief the Paris Club members on the economic situations in countries of interest based on input received from relevant country teams, in collaboration with other World Bank representatives and the IMF.

Oversee country creditworthiness assessments and ensure robust methodologies and process.

Contribute to the IBRD Country Exposure Management processes including assessing country limits reallocation requests, in close collaboration with the Portfolio Risk team and OPCS. Support country teams in managing country exposures in line with the IBRD Exposure Management Framework.

Prepare high-quality briefings to Senior Management. Develop effective dashboard, reports and tools.

Contribute to other department, VPU, corporate initiatives and goals.

People/Talent Management:

Model exemplary WBG leadership values and managerial behavior.

Drive and encourage technical excellence within the team by creating an environment of learning and innovation that attracts and develops the best talent reflective of the diversity of our clients.

Coordinate and support the management in developing and implementing appropriate staffing strategies, staff learning and development as well as career progression and talent and performance management.