Group Operations
“ Innovation and Cost Efficiency in Processing”
Group Operations (GO) directly supports the trading areas of WestLB and is responsible for the processing, settlement, documentation and control of a wide variety of transactions executed by the Bank. To put it simply, the trading areas (Front Office) undertake various ‘trades’ or ‘deals’ – these can be exchanging two different currencies (FX deals), lending or borrowing money to banks or companies (Money Market), buying and selling securities (Bonds or shares) and other more complex products called Derivatives. Once these deals have been agreed by the Front Office, the Back Office (GO) handles all the processing and payment of the trades and then reconciliation to make sure this has happened properly. If you like, GO is the backbone of the Bank – while traders make money on their trades, GO ensures this revenue isn’t lost through errors or costly processes and that all trades and payments are properly executed and accounted for in-line with Internal and Regulatory rules and best practice. GO comprises around 200 staff across London and Düsseldorf, 90 of whom are based in London.
GO’s core services are:
- The processing, confirmation and settlement of FX/Money Market, Derivatives and Securities.
- Management of the Bank’s funding (cash in and cash out).
- Collateral management for trades secured by collateral and checking that the value of collateral held is sufficient to protect the Bank.
- Control and reconciliation of the Bank’s accounts and holdings (cash and securities).
- Maintaining and updating client and product static data.
- Setting up new customers and carrying out all document checks needed.
- Client anti-money laundering due diligence.
In London, the Group is broken into the following areas:
Derivatives Processing
The Derivatives Operations team manages the transaction processing and settlement for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. OTC Derivatives derivatives are complex instruments with components of fixed and floating interest rates and complex payment schedules, and the trades often have maturity dates greater than five years. The team processes OTC Derivatives for WestLB’s offices in Düsseldorf, New York, Europe and APAC.
Collateral Management
The Collateral Management team provides collateral management services for the Bank, worldwide. The team works in shifts and is responsible for checking that the security or collateral that WestLB receives or gives to limit exposure is properly managed. Most of the products that WestLB trades can be collateralised in some form.
Securities Processing
The Securities Processing team is responsible for the processing, confirmation, matching and settlement of Securities products. The term ‘Securities’ covers two main trade types which are Debt (Bonds) and Equities (shares). The team supports the business of WestLB London and also our European and Asian branches.
Funding
The Funding area monitors and predicts in advance the incoming and outgoing cash from the Bank’s accounts, based on the trades that the Front Office has done. This ensures the Front Office know their cash positions and are able to fund (borrow or lend) to square their positions. After value date the positions are re-checked against WestLB’s external bank accounts (post funding analysis).
Strategic Planning Group
This team is responsible for the planning and implementation of any strategic projects within GO. The team carries out reviews of GO structures, processes and systems, makes suggestions for improvement and then acts as project manager to make the improvement happen (implementation).