Financial Reporting, Policy, and Technical Accounting Lead - BPL

As a Financial Reporting, Policy & Technical Accounting Lead, you'll play a pivotal role in delivering high-quality external financial reporting, including statutory and group accounts. You'll lead key reporting and technical accounting activities, helping to enhance external reporting processes and ensuring outputs are accurate, timely and fully compliant with applicable accounting standards. Working closely with the Head of Financial Reporting, Policy & Technical Accounting and the Risk team, you'll help ensure that financial reporting appropriately reflects the firm's risk profile, with clear alignment between financial and risk disclosures.

You'll support the development and maintenance of accounting policies, acting as a technical subject matter expert on accounting matters, including debt, complex transactions and other judgemental areas. You'll provide guidance and insight to stakeholders across the business, supporting the interpretation and application of accounting standards and helping drive consistent accounting practices across the organisation. This is a critical role where your technical expertise and ability to translate complex accounting issues into clear and practical solutions will help underpin the integrity of the firm's financial reporting processes.

Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.

In April 2025, we announced a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation - activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve-outs - to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long-term growth.

Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance-linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long-term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years.

For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.

To be successful as a Financial Reporting, Policy & Technical Accounting VP, you should be able to demonstrate:

• Qualified accountant (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent), with experience in technical accounting and financial reporting
• Proven experience owning technical accounting processes, including multi‑entity statutory reporting within a complex organisation
• FinTech or EMI experience is desirable, with an understanding of electronic money regulations and reporting environments

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

Purpose of the role

To manage the financial operations of the organisation, ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and reliability of financial reporting. 

Accountabilities

• Management of the preparation and presentation of accurate and timely financial statements, and other accounting records in accordance with the relevant accounting standards, rules and regulations.
• Support in identification, assessment, and mitigation of financial risks, and report on these financial risks to senior colleagues.
• Development and maintenance of a robust system of internal controls to safeguard assets, ensure that there is no fraudulent misreporting, and ensure the accuracy of financial data, including regular assessment of the effectiveness of internal controls addressing any weaknesses or gaps.  .
• Development and implementation of up-to-date financial policies and procedures to ensure consistent and effective financial practices across the organisation.
• Management of the selection, implementation, and maintenance of financial systems and software applications, including collaboration with IT colleagues to integrate financial systems with other enterprise systems.
• Preparation and submission of statutory and regulatory reports to authorities, and provision of support to other departments in their preparation and review of regulatory reports.
• Coordination with external auditors and regulatory authorities in support of audits and examinations.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.