Client Account Services, Vice President – Morgan Stanley Investment Management

Location: Mumbai

Company Profile

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 43 countries.

As a market leader, the talent and passion of our people is critical to our success. Together, we share a common set of values rooted in integrity, excellence and strong team ethic. Morgan Stanley can provide a superior foundation for building a professional career - a place for people to learn, to achieve and grow. A philosophy that balances personal lifestyles, perspectives, and needs is an important part of our culture.


Background on the Team

Client Account Services (“CAS”) is a newly formed global team within the Investment Management Division (“IM”), its objective is to enhance client experience and to standardize processes and technology and improve partnership and synergies with other client facing functions.

CAS supports the equity, fixed income, multi-asset, liquidity and alternative businesses for IM, playing an integral role in servicing clients and coordinating client and pooled vehicle events including, on-boarding of new business, account transitions and terminations. The team also facilitates the onboarding of derivative products where applicable. The team works closely with IM business stakeholders, outsourced vendors including the Investment Manager Solutions (IMS) team, counterparties and other external parties to ensure completion on all deliverables.

Morgan Stanley's Investment Management's product range is continually evolving into new product and strategy areas, demanding ever changing infrastructure and solutions. The CAS Team facilitates discussions with all impacted parties to ensure that the appropriate support models are in place.

Primary Responsibilities

• Client and Pool Vehicle Event Coordination
  • Responsible for the facilitation of client and pooled vehicle events including onboarding, termination, custody transfer, in-specie transfer and other related transition activities.
  • Coordinate regional events including management of the event pipeline, agreeing event prioritization with stakeholders and the supervision of activities performed by junior team members.
  • Ensure the appropriate sign off from internal and external parties is received prior to funding, transition and termination of assigned accounts.
  • Oversee the set-up of accounts and sleeves on trading systems and other internal/external platforms and the global workflow tools are updated in a timely manner.
  • Manage the transition of activities from core locations/other teams and ensure adequate training, embedding and coverage of these tasks within the Mumbai team
• Market Registration
  • Responsible for the management of all market opening activities.
  • Oversee the coordination with client relationship managers, investment team and internal signatories to ensure timely completion of market opening along with relevant legalization requirements per jurisdiction as advised by custodians.
  • Ensure that market renewals are processed prior to market expiry for jurisdictions in scope such as India, Indonesia, Egypt, Slovenia. Initiate market fee payments requests with internal teams where applicable
  • Oversee in-flight activities and ensure the appropriate documentation, set-up and communication are in place to ensure no impact to trading.
  • Liaising with global custodians to ensure that critical market opening requests are prioritsed and delivered in a timely manner.

• Stakeholder and Risk Management
  • Ensure that client expectations are understood and accomplished and there is a timely response to client queries and requests.
  • Ensure stakeholders are aware of progress with regular status updates and prompt responses to queries including facilitating regular event meetings.
  • Liaise with CAS managers in other regions to ensure activities outsourced to India are managed in accordance with the relevant global and regional outsourcing policies.
  • Prepare management information and metrics.
  • Ensure issues and incidents are escalated in a timely manner and tracked to conclusion.
  • Support cyclical risk management activities including BCP, audits, control assessments, entitlement reviews etc.

• Other Duties
  • Participate in CAS team initiatives and projects and support the design and implementation of new technology, workflows and processes.
  • Support the training and development of junior team members and assist in the maintenance of procedures and team documentation.
  • Other duties related to the support of the global CAS Team as required.

Skills Required

• A sound understanding of investment management including mutual funds, preferably with a focus on client service and onboarding.
• Excellent client service including strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and risk awareness.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills.
• Ability to interact with multiple internal and external parties including clients, client relationship managers, legal, compliance, investment teams, sales, and other functional operations teams.
• Ability to manage various tasks at once and work with several members of the team simultaneously.
• Ability to work effectively with minimal supervision.

Skills Desired

• Good knowledge of the custody environment
• Knowledge of SEBI regulations and requirements relating to Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs)
• Experience in managing a team or developing junior team members would be useful.
• Knowledge of automation tools like Alteryx, UI Path and Power BI and/or BlackRock Aladdin or Salesforce would be an added benefit.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree (Business degree preferred) and a minimum of 10 years of experience in financial services or a related client service or onboarding function.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

We are committed to maintaining the first-class service and high standard of excellence that have defined Morgan Stanley for over 89 years. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices​ into your browser.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunities employer. We work to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where all individuals can maximize their full potential. Our skilled and creative workforce is comprised of individuals drawn from a broad cross section of the global communities in which we operate and who reflect a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences. Our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion is evident through our constant focus on recruiting, developing, and advancing individuals based on their skills and talents.