Comerica Bank Looking for Financial Operations Accounting Specialist (TX or MI) at Frisco, TX  Full Time

Financial Operations Accounting Lead

Position serves as a team leader of the Comerica Securities Financial Operations team. The role performs robust financial accounting and reporting, risk management and audit coordination functions for this complex and regulated business unit.

Person plays a critical role within the department and daily work must be detailed and accurate. Responsible for all internal and external financial reporting and accounting for Comerica Securities, a FINRA regulated broker-dealer and a subsidiary of Comerica, Inc. Inaccurate reporting or failure to meet Net Capital requirements can result in financial sanctions from FINRA as well as result in reputational risk for the Bank as a whole.

Position Responsibilities:
Financial Accounting and Reporting

Generate and/or oversee the accurate and timely preparation and submission of the following financial reporting:

• Daily Net Capital and Aggregate Indebtedness calculations which involve complex calculations and rule adhearence (required by FINRA).
• Weekly Reserve Calculation (required by FINRA).
• Audited and Unaudited Financial Statement generation which involves coordination with corporate accounting policy, legal and tax departments, as well as internal and external audit (required by FINRA and SEC).
• Board meeting materials including Comerica Securities’ Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Assets Under Management
• Monthly FOCUS, SSOI and OBS reports (submitted to FINRA); These filings require pulling data from multiple sources and analyzing the data to determine the appropriate categorization in the filings leveraging databases and spreadsheets.
• Respond to questions from FINRA regarding FOCUS or OBS report submissions.
• Maintain the general ledger for the broker dealer, including recording entries, performing a monthly close process and reconciling balance sheet accounts.

Controls and Oversights

• Control and manage monthly reconciliation of general ledger accounts at Comerica Securities.
• Ensure maintainance of proper financial records for audits and regulatory exams in adhearance to regulatory record retention requirements.
• Review the reconcilements of customer cash clearing accounts daily and serve as escalation point for unreconciled items.
• Complete analysis of month to month variances and explain variances to Comerica Securities and Finance management.
• Design and implement process improvements to reduce manual effort.

Risk Management

• Monitor and manage the company’s daily cash balances to ensure compliance with parent company Regulation W and proper funding of assets.
• Monitor and initiate requests to transfer funds as needed to maximize effective use of company assets realizing increased interest in specific accounts.
• Monitor underwriting haircuts to determine impact on daily Net Capital Analysis and provide guidance to Investment Banking associates.
• Ensure compliance with brokerage industry regulations regarding the segregation of customer funds through the weekly and monthly analysis and monitoring of customer funds under Comerica Securities’ control and review of balances held in clearing accounts; failure to comply with strict requirements would potentially result in FINRA repremand and/or fines.
• FINRA rule requires prompt notification of early warning and Net Capital violations. Role is responsible for monitoring and alerting senior management of potential violations to ensure the firm is in compliance with this regulation.
• Perform intercompany reconcilement, requiring data from multiple sources and complex validation of amounts charged to Comerica Securities. Validate the charges posted to the books of Comerica Securities in order to meet brokerage industry books and records requirements.

Audit

• Review and respond to annual external auditor requests.
• Coordinate responses to Internal audit requests, inquiries and walkthroughs.
• Coordinate timely responses to FINRA audit requests and participate in periodic interviews.