About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.
Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
Role/ Department:
We are seeking an experienced Equity Agency Securities Lending and Total Return Swap Trader to join Northern Trust's London-based Global Securities Finance Trading team. The role will be responsible for managing and optimising institutional client lending portfolios, executing equity securities lending transactions across a diverse global beneficial owner base, and supporting the continuous build out of Northern Trust's equity total return swap offering. The successful candidate will work closely with borrowers, broker-dealers, swap counterparties, and various internal functions. The role requires a strong understanding of equity markets, agency securities lending, equity finance, collateral optimisation, corporate actions, total return swaps, and the risk management framework required to support a client-focused, securities finance programme.
As part of a globally integrated trading team, the individual will be expected to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for clients, identify new lending and financing opportunities, strengthen borrower relationships, provide market intelligence and thought leadership, and contribute to the ongoing growth and innovation of Northern Trust's Securities Finance business. The successful candidate will combine strong commercial acumen with a fiduciary mindset, ensuring client outcomes, risk management, regulatory compliance and operational excellence remain central to all trading and portfolio management decisions.
The key responsibilities of the role include:
Agency Securities Lending Trading:
- Manage day-to-day trading activity across an institutional equity securities lending portfolio, with responsibility for maximising client revenue while operating within approved risk, collateral, liquidity and counterparty guidelines.
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with borrowers, including prime brokers, banks and market intermediaries, to optimise lending demand and portfolio performance.
- Identify and monetise intrinsic lending opportunities across general collateral, specials, corporate actions, index events, rights issues, tender offers, and other market-driven demand opportunities.
- Monitor utilisation, fee levels, borrower demand, short interest, market liquidity, collateral usage and revenue performance to ensure the lending portfolio is optimised on a risk-adjusted basis.
- Partner with sales, client executives and product teams to identify and build incremental lending opportunities, support client reviews and contribute to new business opportunities.
- Prepare market commentary, trading colour, performance attribution and management reporting for internal stakeholders, beneficial owners and prospective clients.
- Ensure all trading activity meets best execution, fiduciary, counterparty credit and client guideline requirements.
Equity Total Return Swap Trading:
- Support the continuous build-out, execution and management of an equity total return swap product offering for institutional and alternative investment clients. Comparable VP equity swap roles involve acting as the primary point of contact for top-tier funds, managing swap trading books, and supporting the development of local or regional swap offerings.
- Price, book, monitor and manage equity swap transactions across client portfolios, ensuring trades are aligned with client guidelines, internal risk limits and applicable market regulations.
- Monitor and manage financial risk within the equity swap trading book, including delta exposure, financing risk, dividend exposure, corporate action risk, liquidity risk, counterparty exposure and P&L volatility.
- Ensure swap and hedge bookings are accurately captured and reconciled, with daily P&L, delta and exception reporting reviewed and resolved on a timely basis.
- Coordinate with sales and relationship managers to help support client onboarding, trade execution, lifecycle management, resets, unwinds, amendments and ongoing service requirements.
- Work with operations, technology, legal, risk and compliance teams to enhance the equity swap platform, improve workflow automation, strengthen controls and support product scalability.
- Contribute to product development, including new market access, financing structures, pricing frameworks, client reporting and operating model enhancements.
Risk, Control and Governance:
- Operate within a robust control framework covering client guidelines, counterparty credit limits, collateral eligibility, margin requirements, best execution, fiduciary standards and regulatory obligations.
- Partner with risk management to monitor portfolio exposures, trading concentrations, borrower limits, collateral quality and capital usage.
- Ensure accurate trade booking, settlement, billing, reconciliation, lifecycle event processing and exception management across both securities lending and equity swap activity.
Skills/Qualifications:
The successful candidate will benefit from having:
Required Experience:
- Extensive experience across securities lending, equity finance, prime brokerage and/or synthetic financing
- Demonstrated ability to generate revenue and improve portfolio performance within a controlled trading environment.
- Strong understanding of equity markets, borrow demand, specials, corporate actions, collateral mechanics, margining, trade lifecycle events and securities finance economics.
- Experience engaging with broker-dealers, prime brokers and other securities finance counterparties.
- Strong knowledge of trading controls, best execution, counterparty credit risk, client guidelines and operational risk management.
- Strong analytical and quantitative skills, with the ability to evaluate portfolio opportunities, pricing, borrow demand, financing spreads, collateral usage and revenue attribution.
- Good Excel skills and comfort working with large datasets, portfolio analytics, trading dashboards and performance reporting.
- Data skills such as Python, SQL, and Power BI would be advantageous but not essential.
Work Authorization
Applicants must have the right to work in the United Kingdom at the time of application and for the duration of employment.
Please note that Northern Trust is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role. This includes Skilled Worker visas, Global Business Mobility routes, Graduate visas, Youth Mobility Scheme, High Potential Individual visas, Scale-up Worker visas, Temporary Worker visas, and other employer-sponsored visa categories.
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com, or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.