Research - Sector and Product

Job description

Role Title: Research - Sector and Product

Business: Retail Banking and Wealth Management
New or Existing Role- Replacement
Grade: GCB4


Role Purpose
· Credit research analyst responsible of primarily covering European Insurance companies, diversified financials including Exchanges and Central Clearing Counterparties and real estate companies
· Secondary coverage / back-up for banks and ABS issuers
· Provide fundamental credit research analysis for companies in covered sectors, analyze sector trends and provide relative value recommendations across the capital structure in major currencies (EUR, GBP and USD) for our credit portfolios
· Analyze the credit/market risk and total return potential of IG/HY securities, and convince portfolio managers to implement ideas
· Participate into liquidity committee, GBP Credit, European Credit Investment committees and other relevant internal committees
· Help manage local Eligible Investment Universe list
· Support integration of ESG framework, green bond analysis and work on thematic ESG research, including climate transition impact on the covered sectors etc.
· Support ongoing development of proprietary analytical tools
· Involve in broader credit research analysis initiatives
· Regularly interact with the management of issuing companies, rating agencies, sell-side analysts and other relevant industry participants


Key Accountabilities
Impact on the Business:
· Credit research analyst responsible of primarily covering European Insurance companies, diversified financials including Exchanges and Central Clearing Counterparties and real estate companies
· Secondary coverage / back-up for banks and ABS issuers
· Provide fundamental credit research analysis for companies in covered sectors, analyze sector trends and provide relative value recommendations across the capital structure in major currencies (EUR, GBP and USD) for our credit portfolios
· Analyze the credit/market risk and total return potential of IG/HY securities, and convince portfolio managers to implement ideas
· Participate into liquidity committee, GBP Credit, European Credit Investment committees and other relevant internal committees
· Help manage local Eligible Investment Universe list
· Support integration of ESG framework, green bond analysis and work on thematic ESG research, including climate transition impact on the covered sectors etc.
· Support ongoing development of proprietary analytical tools
· Involve in broader credit research analysis initiatives
· Regularly interact with the management of issuing companies, rating agencies, sell-side analysts and other relevant industry participants

Customers / Stakeholders
· Primarily portfolio managers
· Credit Research team colleagues globally
· Provide support to Sales and Marketing teams
· Provide support to Product in the development of new Funds
· Other business lines where relevant, including product specialists, client propositions, RfP, and investment guideline monitoring
· Help with client review meetings
· Participation in FI ESG projects and tool enhancement

Leadership & Teamwork
· To be a team player and supportive of colleagues within the local small investment team and across AMG through the wider global credit platform
· To provide appropriate supports to the client servicing, sales and marketing teams
· Provide credit research backup to other sector analysts
· Cooperate with offshore credit research analysts
· To attend the required Credit and management committees

Operational Effectiveness & Control
· To continually manage and reassess the operational and compliance risks associated with the role and inherent in the business, taking account of changing economic or market conditions, legal and regulatory requirements, operating procedures and practices, management restructurings, and the impact of new technology
· Monitor the consistent application of Group policy covering all regulatory, financial and legal risks.
· Delivering efficient, accurate and timely processing of client requests and transactions
· Driving all internal review and/or external regulators' requirements to ensure they are dealt with in an accurate and timely manner
· Compliance with and management of sales suitability risks and requirements
· Ensure all issuer research is appropriately completed, approved and stored to provide up to date information on investment theses
· Effective use of in-house systems to populate research


Major Challenges

· This role requires a deep understanding of credit and relative value. The candidate must also be an effective team player working closely with the UK team and wider global credit research team and portfolio management teams
· Provide credit research to multiple portfolio managers with varying portfolio guidelines that will conflict in terms of priority and timing.
· Participate in generating Alpha in corporate bond portfolios by making recommendations on issuers and bonds to portfolio managers
· To identify fixed income/ credit investments that offer good relative value, taking into account underlying fundamentals and market pricing.
· Providing credit research to multiple portfolio managers with varying portfolio guidelines that will conflict in terms of priority, timing, and coverage universe.
· Make decisions based on incomplete information, on a best efforts basis, as and when is required
· Integrating ESG into credit research process
· The expanding credit universe on the back of increasing AUM and expending expertise, increase in workloads and complexity over time.

Role Context

· Role is based in London, in an existing team of 4 credit research analysts functionally reporting to the Head of Credit Research UK.
· The person must be able to think independently and challenge consensus views and must have the analytical skills to analyze companies which are not very well researched by sell-side analysts and where information barriers are relatively high
· The role provides portfolio managers with an independent assessment of the creditworthiness of the specific Issuers covered.
· The role requires involvement with the local investment team, and internal credit analysts and portfolio managers primarily in Europe, but also globally.
· Develop investment style and capability in a way that works for HSBC, its strategy and values. The role requires involvement with the local investment team, international analysts and portfolio managers

Role Dimensions

· HSBC Global Asset Management manages USD517.1bn globally and is a committed active fixed income manager with USD158.1bn in Fixed Income as at December 2019. Fixed Income platform is the largest segment of AMG. Its success and growth (AuMs doubled in 5 years) are the result of a neat organization, rigorous and consistent processes and sustainable performance. The FI platform operates with 12 offices and ca. 170 investment professionals entailing a high degree of complexity and management effort.
· Credit analysts cover companies for our global portfolios and it's important to maintain the analyst coverage for the companies for our Fixed Income portfolios with total AUM of c. $160bn, as committed to our clients and as required by EU directive on Internal ratings and Euro Money Market Funds Reform.
· New analyst's coverage is mostly for UK companies, being based in London, and in that regard client AUM's across GBP full duration and short duration mandates have been increasing over the last few years from $2.5bn at end-2018 to $3.6bn in December 2019 and stood at $3.8bn as of August 2020. There's a definite increase in AUM's over the last few years. We expect this AUM trend to continue, given institutional client interest in GBP mandates and more specifically, the trend towards Buy & Maintain mandates, where the analyst contribution is critical. Number of issuers in the GBP credit market is also increasing, from 343 companies in 2015 to 389 companies currently in major GBP Credit index, while the team size has remained stable over the same period.


Management Risk
· Act in accordance of the Group Operations FIM.
· The jobholder will ensure the fair treatment of our customers is at the heart of everything we do, both personally and as an organisation
· The jobholder will also continually reassess the operational risks associated with the role and inherent in the business, taking account of changing economic or market conditions, legal and regulatory requirements, operating procedures and practices, management restructurings, and the impact of new technology. Additionally, they will ensure they effectively manage sales suitability, money laundering, counter terrorist financing, fraud, and reputational risk
· This will be achieved by ensuring all actions take account of the likelihood of operational risk occurring
· Also by addressing any areas of concern in conjunction with line management and/or the appropriate department


Observation of Internal Controls

· Maintains HSBC internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators
· Understands, follows and demonstrates compliance with all relevant internal and external rules, regulations and procedures that apply to the conduct of the business in which the jobholder is involved, specifically Internal Controls and any Compliance policy including, inter alia, the Group Compliance policy
· Understand the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) principles, HSBC Global Asset Management's TCF philosophy and how this affects your role. Act in a manner that takes account of these principles to ensure fair outcomes for customers

Desired profile

Qualifications :

Knowledge & Experience / Qualifications

·  Essential:
·  be a university graduate ideally with a Master's Degree
·  have prior experience as a credit research analyst covering Financials; primarily the Insurance sector
·  strong financial modelling skills
·  have strong knowledge of fixed income securities
·  be able to clearly explain and justify risks/rewards for fundamental and relative value recommendations
·  excellent interpersonal skills and ability to build strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders and work well within a team environment and contribute to cross regional projects
·  excellent time management, planning and organisation skills
·  excellent range of communication skills, including written, verbal, and the ability to deliver compelling presentations
·  strong analytical skills and great attention to detail
·  proficient in MS Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint
·  Desirable:
·  CFA or equivalent qualification is preferred
·  knowledge of integrating ESG factors into credit research and green bonds analysis
·  prior knowledge of ABS
·  have a successful record in making bond recommendations
·  coding skills (VBA, Python etc.) would be a plus

We are a diverse workforce and it is part of our organizational culture, it reflects our belief that diversity of thought, background and perspective make HSBC a stronger organization. We strive to implement a culture that is inclusive, diverse, positive and performance-oriented. Having a diverse workforce allows us to benefit from a variety of perspectives and strengthens our local and global competitiveness. We value diversity in our workforce and encourage all qualified candidates to apply from a variety of perspectives and strengthens our local and global competitiveness. We value diversity in our workforce and encourage all qualified candidates to apply.

As a business operating in markets all around the world, we believe diversity brings benefits for our customers, our business and our people. This is why HSBC is committed to being an inclusive employer and encourages applications from all suitably qualified applicants irrespective of background, circumstances, age, disability, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or belief and sexual orientation.

We want everyone to be able to fulfil their potential which is why we provide a range of flexible working arrangements and family friendly policies.

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