Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Job #:

req23801

Organization:

World Bank

Sector:

Financial Sector

Grade:

GG

Term Duration:

3 years 0 months

Recruitment Type:

International Recruitment

Location:

Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s):

English

Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date:

8/23/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. Visit www.worldbank.org.

CGAP is a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organizations dedicated to advancing the lives of people living in poverty, especially women, through financial inclusion.

CGAP works at the frontier of inclusive finance to test solutions, spark innovation, generate evidence, and share insights. CGAP's knowledge enables public and private stakeholders to scale solutions that make financial ecosystems meet the needs of poor, vulnerable, and underserved people and of micro and small enterprises (MSEs), including through advancing women's economic empowerment. As a global public good, CGAP's independent research and analysis is available to all.

CGAP envisages responsible and inclusive financial ecosystems that enable a green, resilient, and equitable world for all. CGAP is guided by a five-year strategy and annual workplans - the new strategy covering FY24-28 (CGAP VII Strategy) will contribute to strengthening responsible and inclusive financial ecosystems by elevating the focus of financial inclusion to broader development outcomes.

To achieve this, CGAP will focus on contributing to seven outcome areas through its work program: (i) mobilizing financial services for climate adaptation, mitigation, and a just transition; (ii) mobilizing financial services for building resilience to shocks and managing risk; (ii) mobilizing financial services for women and MSEs to capture economic opportunities; (iv) increasing the breadth and depth of financial inclusion; (v) promoting responsibility in financial ecosystems and enabling financial sector policies and regulations; (vi) enhancing the effectiveness of impact investing in inclusive finance and the inclusiveness of carbon markets; and (vii) generating and promoting evidence of what works, where, and for whom.

Through its work, CGAP is committed to accelerating progress toward women's financial inclusion, and we take a gender-intentional approach to our research and advocacy efforts.

CGAP is housed in the World Bank. For more information, please visit https://www.cgap.org.

This position will primarily contribute to the outcome area that focused on promoting responsibility in financial ecosystems and enabling financial sector policies and regulations (FREE Pillar).

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

CGAP is seeking a reputable expert with vast knowledge and expertise in financial sector policy, regulation, and supervision, who can lead and contribute to CGAP's agenda towards supporting effective policy and regulatory frameworks that are conducive to stable, competitive, responsible, and inclusive financial sectors.

Roles and Responsibilities:

The position requires an expert senior financial sector professional able to provide thought leadership on frontier financial sector policy and regulatory issues susceptible to influence financial inclusion. As such, the candidate should have vast experience in financial sector policies and regulations, and clear strategic forward-looking abilities.

In particular, the candidate should have strong technical knowledge and proven experience in identifying, conceptualizing, and developing effective proportionate policy frameworks that can help foster greater financial inclusion (including, but not limited to, in EMDEs and FCVs).

The candidate should bring broader financial sector and global development perspective that understands how global policy agendas, emerging risks, and opportunities (e.g. climate change risks and the greening of the financial sector, modularization of the financial services value chain, new fintech solutions, crypto developments, impact over EMDEs of the monetary policy tightening in advanced economies, high debt levels, unwinding of pandemic support measures, increasing commodity prices, etc.) relate to and have implications for financial inclusion. In addition, the candidate should understand potential trades off between various policy objectives, including financial inclusion, but also stability and climate objectives.

Strong expertise and knowledge of the global financial architecture and policy options to support financial inclusion is required. Understanding how the different international institutions and standard setters work and coordinate to guide appropriate policy responses and how the different countries adapt those to their countries is essential to support CGAPs effective participation in these global efforts towards stable, responsible, and inclusive financial sectors.

Finally, the ability to write and communicate effectively to different audiences on complex technical issues is essential given CGAP's role to influence others to adopt best practices with regards to financial sector policies and regulations.

The position will be mapped to CGAP's FREE Pillar, focused on promoting responsibility in financial ecosystems and enabling financial sector policies and regulations.

Specific responsibilities will include:

Thought Leadership: Remain abreast of important policy and regulatory developments affecting financial inclusion; provide thought leadership at CGAP on forward-looking policy and regulatory issues affecting inclusive finance; help identify relevant knowledge questions and work programs for CGAP to influence relevant forward-looking financial sector policies and regulations; contribute to policy papers, blogs, Leadership Essays and other thought leadership pieces on cutting-edge financial inclusion and development issues.

Work Program Development: Actively contribute to CGAP's work program on financial inclusion, including through identifying and developing CGAP's work on relevant financial policy and regulatory aspects; identifying priority areas for CGAP's engagement with the international financial policy community, including the standard setters; and identifying and contributing to relevant policy issues in other areas of CGAP's work program.

Lead the execution of technical projects related to inclusive finance policy issues: Work with a team of staff and consultants to execute project plans within the time frame and budget assigned, including documenting lessons learned and produce high quality knowledge products and reports as needed.

• Knowledge generation and dissemination: Lead or contribute to implementing parts of CGAP's work program related to policy or regulatory issues relevant to financial inclusion, including analyzing policy and regulatory options, generating relevant evidence, contributing to relevant CGAP knowledge products, participating or leading internal and external dissemination events, participating in trainings, etc.

• Strategic outreach: Participation in seminars, conferences, working groups and other events, with public and private stakeholders, to support CGAP's efforts to increase financial inclusion through sound policy and regulatory frameworks. This entails inter alia engaging, under the leadership of the FREE pillar lead, with international fora and organizations that produce global data collection frameworks and lead policy initiatives related to financial inclusion, such as those of the World Bank (Global Findex Initiative, FCI Global Teams), the OECD (International Network on Financial Education), the IMF (Financial Access Survey, MCM), the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), and the financial sector standard setting bodies.

• Collaboration across CGAP: Contribute policy and regulatory advice and inputs to teams across CGAP as and where relevant.

• Collaboration across the World Bank Group: in collaboration with the FREE pillar lead, engage in active collaboration and knowledge sharing with other WB units and EFI VPU's Global Practices, working on financial policy matters, as needed, to bring CGAP's applied research and experience in relevant WBG work and country dialogue and to leverage existing WB knowledge.

• Engaging with CGAP's members: As a member organization, CGAP regularly interacts with members to learn of member priorities (and changes) so that CGAP's work remains relevant, and to share knowledge generated by CGAP for greater influence. The Senior Financial Sector Specialist will be expected to engage CGAP members on financial sector policy knowledge generated by CGAP as well as on other activities related to effectively engaging with members, as relevant.

Selection Criteria

In addition to meeting the World Bank-wide and FCI-specific criteria for this level position, it is expected that the selected candidate would meet the following criteria (in order of importance):• A Master's degree or Ph.D. in Finance, Economics, Policy, Business Administration, or another relevant field.• At least ten (10) years of relevant professional experience in financial sector policy and regulation, acquired while working in financial sector regulatory and supervisory agencies, international financial institutions, and/or financial institutions, with a focus on financial inclusion. Experience in both public and private sectors preferred.• Proven experience in the conceptualization, design, and implementation of financial sector policies, including with a focus on financial inclusion, as well as a strong knowledge of the international financial architecture, the G20 agenda and its bearing on the work plans of policymakers around the world, including the Financial Stability Board, other relevant International Standard Setting Bodies (Basel Committee, CPMI, FATF, IOSCO, IAIS, IADI, etc.), and relevant global partnerships (GPFI, AFI). • Strong knowledge of strategic priorities and knowledge agendas related to financial inclusion by key international financial organizations, agencies, and think tanks such as the World Bank, the OECD, the IMF, regional development banks, and the financial standard setting bodies• Deep sense of strategy, including ability to conceptualize, prioritize, and be selective. Integrative capacity including the ability to situate sectoral issues within a broader development framework. Ability to deliver high quality outputs with a strong outcome orientation. Experience in applying practical know-how and effective policy dialogue to achieve development results. • Demonstrated, excellent writing and oral communication skills, including the ability to present complex policy analyses to various external audiences, including central banks, policy makers and supervisors, donners, academics and practitioners, international organizations, private sector entities, and other development actors. Proven track record with internal and external publications, from applied research papers and institutional reports to shorter policy notes, briefs to senior management, short articles, and blog entries.• Demonstrated ability to function as a team player in a multicultural environment, in complex teams across different time zones and cultures. • Demonstrated diplomacy and influencing skills; proven experience in dealing, both at a technical level and at a more senior strategic level, with external constituencies, including central banks, supervisors, and ministries, donners, academics and practitioners; ability to work with teams with varied priorities and agendas, evaluating what is in the best interests of CGAP and corralling parties toward a collective outcome. • Ability to function independently with limited work direction and occasional oversight. Capacity to work simultaneously on a variety of issues and tasks independently, adjusting to priorities and achieving results within agreed objectives and deadlines.• Familiarity with climate and gender issues relevant to financial inclusion.

The successful candidate(s) will demonstrate the following FCI GP-specific Core Competencies:

Integrative Skills:• Demonstrates ability to think and work across WBG, practices and sectors.• Integrating divergent viewpoints of multiple external and internal stakeholders into a coherent project/program/strategy.• Considers corporate commitments (e.g., climate, gender) in project approach.

Policy Dialogue Skills:• Possesses political judgment, diplomatic acumen, and negotiating skills. • Builds and sustains key stakeholder relationships with government and other key stakeholders. • Guides clients and/or development partners in identifying key operational issues and optional solutions with a demonstrated ability to bring together different perspectives. • Leads task teams, participates in formal negotiations, and assists government in establishing priorities.

Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena:• Demonstrates sound knowledge of World Bank Group's Goals and the complementarities among different World Bank Group member institutions. • Demonstrates deep understanding of policy making process and the role of own sector of expertise in that process. • Fully understands Bank's development initiatives and policies and practices related to l ending and non-lending operations. • Guides research efforts and translates technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies and for discussions with clients and development partners. • Anticipates client needs and requests and guides the development/ offering of relevant tools to clients.

Specialized Knowledge and Technical Skills:• Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure and Access- (Required) Demonstrates strong technical expertise in more than one core Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure and Access areas (e.g., approaches to extend access to financial services for the poor, MSME finance products and institutional arrangements, consumer protection and financial literacy, credit information systems and infrastructure, secured transactions, insolvency, payments systems, digital finance, policy and regulatory reforms). Has been a key team member in analytical work on financial inclusion, infrastructure, and access.• Financial Stability and Integrity- (Required) Demonstrates strong experience in public policy regarding regulation, supervision and enforcement related to financial system stability, integrity, crisis management and/or development in area of expertise. Drafts or interprets financial sector-related laws and regulations.• Climate and Risk Management - (Preferred) Demonstrates strong technical expertise to contribute to the design of, and then execute projects relevant to Climate and Risk Management; and provide solid policy and regulatory guidance on the same.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

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