ETC (Senior Financial Sector Specialist)

Job #: req24098

Organization: World Bank

Sector: Financial Sector

Grade: EC3

Term Duration: 1 year 0 months

Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment

Location: Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s): English

Preferred Language(s): French, Spanish

Closing Date: 9/30/2023 (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.

This advertisement pertains to an Extended Term Consultant position in the Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection (FICP) team within the Financial

Inclusion and Infrastructure unit in the Finance directorate of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice.

WBG’s Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group: The Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group (EFI) is one of the World Bank Group’s four Practice Groups. EFI’s mandate is “Growth, Finance, and Institutions for all.” Our approach is to leverage public and private sector expertise, together with International Finance Corporation (IFC), to support a data-driven reform agenda. EFI supports clients in advancing evidence-based structural reforms to build the foundations for inclusive and sustainable growth.

EFI is composed of four Global Practices (GPs):

Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment (MTI) and Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation (FCI) — consisting of country economists and trade, financial and private development specialists that support structural reforms.

Governance GP – consists of public sector, financial management and procurement specialists to support institutional and governance reforms and provide fiduciary support to all Bank operations.

Poverty and Equity GP – consists of micro, labor, and development economists to build the evidence base, provide advice and operational support to ensure country policies and WBG interventions are inclusive.

The Finance Competitiveness and Innovation GP (FCI GP) is comprised of two directorates: The Finance directorate, and the Trade, Investment and Competitiveness (TIC) directorate. The GP aims to support client countries to create an enabling environment in which financial stability, efficiency and firm-level solutions are provided in an integrated way to crowd in the private sector, support the creation of markets, and accelerate equitable growth.

The Finance Directorate provides analytical and advisory support to the international community to enact reforms that lead to deep, inclusive, efficient and resilient financial systems.. The Directorate is comprised of thematic units/teams focused on: (1) Financial Stability and Integrity,

(2) Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure,

(3) Long term finance, and

(4) Crisis and disaster risk finance.

FCI provides assistance to developing countries focusing on six areas: Financial Stability & Integrity; Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure & Access; Firms, Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Markets and Technology; Long Term Finance; and Climate & Risk Management.

Within the Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure unit, the FICP team supports national authorities in achieving their financial inclusion objectives by supporting policy, legal, regulatory, and supervisory reforms in the areas of financial inclusion, financial consumer protection, financial capability, and micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) finance, with an emphasis on digital financial services and fintech. The team also works on cutting-edge research publications and engagement with global bodies. The FICP team’s work spans the following areas: 1. Financial consumer protection: The FICP team supports the development and implementation of legal and regulatory frameworks for financial consumer protection (covering fair treatment and business conduct, positive and beneficial consumer outcomes, effective disclosure and transparency, appropriate product design and governance, data privacy, effective dispute resolution, etc.) and development and implementation of financial consumer protection/market conduct supervision institutional arrangements, frameworks, supervisory processes and tools.

2. Financial inclusion and fintech policies and regulations: The FICP team takes a holistic policy approach to achieving financial inclusion and enabling digital finance / fintech through comprehensive, ecosystem-level diagnostics and strategies. National financial inclusion strategies (or similar policies) provide a framework for addressing the complex set of issues and convening multiple stakeholders that are required for accelerating progress in access and usage of savings, credit, insurance, pensions, and investment products by the underserved.

3. Financial products and providers for underserved segments: The FICP team constantly innovates to provide leadership on cutting-edge topics in digital financial inclusion. Activities developed in this pillar evolve over time to leverage new opportunities, such as developing micro-savings products, extending digital delivery channels to reach the bottom of the pyramid customer segments, and digitizing government-to-person payments. The team also supports the development of specific regulations for products and providers to enable financial inclusion such as agents’ regulatory frameworks or fintech laws.

4. Financial capability and behavioral insights: The FICP team leverages behavioral insights and technology-driven solutions to strengthen financial capability (including digital financial literacy), target interventions and achieve greater impact at lower cost.

5. Micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) finance: The FICP team provides support for MSME finance through activities such as diagnostics and assessments to identify relevant risks, gaps, issues and opportunities in financial markets, and through support for implementing and enhancing, legal, regulatory and policy frameworks that foster increased MSME access to finance . There is also increasing focus is on ways that financial technology and digital financial services can be leveraged to facilitate access to finance for MSMEs.

Role & Responsibilities:

Potential applicants are encouraged to apply if they have experience and expertise in at least one of the broad technical areas of financial consumer protection, financial inclusion and capability and MSME finance described above.

The Extended Term Consultant’s (ETC) responsibilities in such areas will include: Technical Assistance

•  Lead technical assistance and policy dialogue engagements with policymakers and government authorities at the country level.
•  Prepare analytical, technical, policy and legal reports and other technical and training materials and advice.
•  Undertake in-depth diagnostics and assessments at the country level including to identify gaps and problematic market practices, inform legal, regulatory and institutional improvements, assessing the inclusion, digital financial services/fintech landscape and the enabling ecosystem for its development (including public and private sector commitment, relevant infrastructure, available products, and providers in a country and identifying policy considerations and priorities for responsibly harnessing them to advance financial inclusion), and identifying MSME finance gaps including having regard to credit infrastructure, existing products, type of providers as well as relevant public sector policies and private initiatives.
•  Advise on drafting of laws and regulations.
•  Advise on development of supervision strategies, manuals, risk assessment frameworks, and operational arrangements and processes.

Project Management

•  Provide leadership on project components and undertake project management of technical assistance engagements and other relevant projects, including developing workplans, timetables, budgets, and managing teams of junior staff and consultants, providing guidance and ensuring quality outputs.

Thought Leadership and Knowledge Products

•  Present technical findings and recommendations to different stakeholders in diverse contexts (including for workshops, trainings, seminars, online, and corporate briefings).
•  Lead on research and drafting of global knowledge products/publications on financial consumer protection, market conduct supervision, suptech, financial inclusion, digital financial services/fintech and financial capability/education and other cutting-edge topics.
•  Represent the team and broader unit in relevant international working groups and task forces, as well as liaise in the above areas with key external partners.

Financing Projects

•  Technical leadership for design and execution of World Bank financing projects in the areas of financial inclusion, financial consumer protection, DFS, and other related areas.

Corporate and Strategy

•  Contribute to and draft briefings for WBG senior management and other relevant stakeholders.
•  Contribute to overall FICP team operations and strategy implementation.

This post will involve extensive travel (25%-40%), including to low-income countries and fragile or conflict-affected states.

Selection Criteria

Candidates must have the following technical qualifications: This role requires a combination of technical and operational skills, in-depth expertise in relevant topic areas, and a high level of motivation. Candidates must have the following technical qualifications and experience (or equivalent):

•  Advanced degree in a relevant area (e.g. Finance, Law, Accounting/Auditing, Business Administration Economics, International Development or equivalent) with a minimum of 8 years of direct relevant experience.
•  Technical expertise and practical experience in at least two of the following topics: o Financial consumer protection policy and regulation and market conduct supervision. o MSME access to finance policy and regulation, understanding of financial markets, providers and products for MSME finance. o Financial inclusion. o Digital financial services and/or fintech.

Technical expertise and practical experience in relation to vulnerable financial consumers, gender, and data analysis for supervisory and regulatory purposes would be an advantage.

•  Excellent analytical skills and ability to analyze legal and regulatory frameworks.
•  Strong research, analytical, and writing skills are essential. Publications in the relevant technical areas are considered an asset.
•  Experience in working with and leading dialogue with public authorities for development and implementation of policy reforms in the relevant areas would be an advantage.
•  Proven ability to deliver complex analytical and advisory tasks, work flexibly and independently on a range of assignments, and work under pressure to produce high-quality output in response to tight deadlines.
•  Strong project design and management experience and strong leadership, organizational, and communications skills with proven operational skills such as managing consultants and budgets.
•  Experience in frontier topics such as open banking, sustainable finance, artificial intelligence, fintech credit, and Regtech and Suptech solutions to support financial inclusion will be considered a plus.
•  Willingness to undertake extensive global travel.
•  Excellent oral and written English language communication skills.
•  Fluency in French and/or Spanish would be an advantage for this post.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

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.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.

Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET appointment of three years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.