Legal Counsel, Financial Markets

Job Summary

This role could be based in Singapore and Hong Kong. When you start the application process you will be presented with a drop down menu showing all countries, please ensure that you select a country where the role is based.

Join a dynamic, highly collaborative and well-regarded legal team supporting a leading global financial institution's Markets business across Asia.

This role provides legal advisory, structuring, transactional and regulatory support across the Bank's Markets businesses and functions in Asia, with a primary focus on ASEAN and South Asia (ASA).

The successful candidate will work closely with Sales, Structuring, Trading, COO teams and other key stakeholders on a broad range of financial markets products, transactions, regulatory developments and strategic business initiatives.

The role offers exposure to complex and cross-border transactions across multiple asset classes, providing an excellent opportunity to develop deep technical expertise while working at the forefront of evolving financial markets in Asia.

Key responsibilities include:

• Providing legal advice on product development, transaction structuring and regulatory matters.

• Supporting the negotiation, execution and implementation of transaction documentation.

• Developing, maintaining and enhancing legal templates, documentation standards and legal playbooks.

• Delivering training and legal guidance to business stakeholders on products, documentation, legal risks and regulatory developments.

• Providing legal review and approvals, and supporting escalations to Legal, under applicable governance frameworks, policies and procedures.

• Managing relationships with external counsel and collaborating with Legal, Compliance and business colleagues across regions.

• Advising on disputes, restructuring scenarios, defaults and other legal risk events affecting Markets activities.

Experience supporting financial markets products, documentation and regulatory matters is essential. Experience working on regional or cross-border transactions in Asia will be a significant advantage.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy

• Contribute to the execution of Legal's strategy by delivering high-quality legal support that enables sustainable business growth while maintaining effective risk management.

• Provide general structuring, product, regulatory and transactional legal advice

• Negotiate, complete and facilitate execution of transaction documentation

• Review, maintain and manage product and transactional templates

• Provide training on legal/documentation product and regulatory matters and legal policies and procedures

• Provide legal review and sign-off required under relevant policies and procedures

• Liaise with external counsel and with regional and client segment legal and compliance colleagues.

• Provide advice on disputes and potential defaults

Business

• Act as a trusted legal adviser to the Markets business by helping identify opportunities, navigate legal risks and support strategic priorities.

• Assist in the identification of material legal and jurisdictional risks for the relevant businesses

• Anticipate and assesses key legal developments in the business for management consideration and help drive the development and implementation of appropriate legal framework

• Undertake continual assessment of legal and documentation risks

• Participate in the overall governance of a business

• Control, monitor and report external legal spending

Processes

• Support efficient and effective legal processes that enhance risk management, governance and business delivery.

• Manage documentation templates automation

• Legal knowledge management

• Assist with review of and compliance with policies and procedures

• Assist in process governance committees and operational risks committees

• Assist in management of client dispute resolution, if any

• Review and provide legal signoffs for product and country governance documents

• Consider and analyse cross border legal and regulatory risks

• Monitor and advise on regulatory reform developments in Asia

People and Talent

• Build strong and effective working relationships across the organisation while contributing to an inclusive and collaborative team culture.

• Develop trusted partnerships with business stakeholders and functional partners.

• Collaborate closely with colleagues across Legal, Compliance, Risk, Operations and other support functions.

• Share knowledge, contributing to team development and supporting the growth of junior colleagues where appropriate.

Risk Management

• Support the effective management of legal and regulatory risks across the Markets business in Asia.

• Assist in the identification of material legal and jurisdictional risks for the relevant businesses

• Anticipate and assesses key legal developments in the business for management consideration and help drive the development and implementation of appropriate legal framework

• Undertake continual assessment of legal and documentation risks

• Support the development and implementation of risk mitigation strategies.

• Determine adequacy, validity, and enforceability of contractual documentation

Governance

• Support robust governance frameworks that enable responsible business growth and compliance with internal standards.

• Review and provide legal signoffs for product and country governance documents

• Design, develop and approve new product documentation and country specific documentation

• Consider and analyse cross border legal and regulatory risks

Regulatory and Business Conduct

• Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct

• Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, integrity and professional conduct.

• Understand and comply with all applicable laws, regulations, internal policies and the Group Code of Conduct.

• Deliver outcomes aligned with the Bank's Conduct Principles, including Fair Outcomes for Clients, Effective Financial Markets, Financial Crime Compliance and The Right Environment.

• Proactively identify, escalate, manage and resolve legal, regulatory, conduct and compliance risks.

• Promote a culture of accountability, transparency and responsible decision-making.

Key stakeholders

• Markets Business Heads

• Sales, Structuring and Trading teams across Asia

• Markets COO and associated control functions

• Legal colleagues across Financial Markets, Corporate & Investment Banking and Group Legal

• Compliance, Risk, Operations and Finance partners

• External counsel and industry associations, including ISDA and ASIFMA

• Regional and country governance forums supporting Markets activities

Other Responsibilities

• Embed Here for good and Group’s brand and values in Legal; Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Country, Business or Functional policies and procedures

Our Ideal Candidate

• 7 + years post-qualifying experience as a lawyer in Singapore, Hong Kong or other commonwealth jurisdictions.

• Experience in Markets and derivatives work a key requisite.

Role Specific Technical Competencies

• Degree in Law

• Experience of financial markets and products, documentation, and regulations, in respect of credit derivatives, structured credit, structured products and financing

• Relevant regional experience in Greater China and North Asia

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do

• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well

• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.

• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.

• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.

• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits

• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.

• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.

Recruitment Assessments

Some of our roles use assessments to help us understand how suitable you are for the role you've applied to. If you are invited to take an assessment, this is great news. It means your application has progressed to an important stage of our recruitment process.

Visit our careers website www.sc.com/careers