Group Chief Financial Officer (Group CFO)

Group Chief Financial Officer (Group CFO)
About the Role
We are seeking an accomplished and strategically minded Group Chief Financial Officer (Group CFO) to lead the financial strategy, performance, capital management, investment finance, and financial governance of a diversified Insurance & Investments Group.
The Group CFO will have enterprise-wide responsibility for the Group's financial affairs, overseeing finance across subsidiaries, business units, investment entities, and operating companies.
As a key member of the Group Executive Leadership Team, the Group CFO will serve as a strategic advisor to the Group CEO, President, Board, Investment Committee, and other senior stakeholders, ensuring disciplined capital allocation, strong financial performance, balance-sheet resilience, regulatory compliance, and long-term shareholder value creation.
The role requires a sophisticated financial leader with experience across insurance, investment management, asset management, financial services, corporate finance, capital markets, and regulated financial institutions.
Key Responsibilities
1. Group Financial Strategy & Leadership
Develop and execute the Group's overall financial strategy in alignment with corporate objectives.
Provide strategic financial advice to the Group CEO, President, Board, and Executive Committee.
Establish Group-wide financial policies, standards, controls, and performance frameworks.
Ensure effective financial governance across subsidiaries, business units, joint ventures, and investment entities.
Lead the development of the Group's long-term financial and capital strategy.
2. Group P&L & Financial Performance
Assume overall responsibility for the Group's financial performance, profitability, balance sheet, cash flow, and capital position.
Monitor performance across all subsidiaries and business lines.
Drive sustainable earnings growth, expense efficiency, and return on capital.
Establish Group-wide financial KPIs and performance dashboards.
Challenge business-unit leadership on financial performance and corrective actions.
3. Financial Planning & Performance Management
Lead Group-wide annual budgeting, forecasting, and long-range financial planning.
Develop financial scenarios and stress tests to support strategic decision-making.
Consolidate financial plans across subsidiaries and investment businesses.
Monitor actual performance against budgets, forecasts, and strategic objectives.
Strengthen management reporting and financial analytics.
4. Insurance Finance
Provide executive oversight of financial management across insurance businesses.
Monitor premiums, claims, reserves, expenses, underwriting results, and insurance profitability.
Oversee financial analysis of loss ratios, combined ratios, expense ratios, and underwriting margins.
Partner with actuarial, underwriting, claims, and risk functions to understand financial exposures.
Provide financial input into product profitability, pricing, reinsurance, and portfolio decisions.
5. Investment & Asset Management Finance
Provide Group-level financial oversight of investment portfolios and investment businesses.
Partner with the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and Investment Committee on investment strategy and performance.
Monitor investment income, portfolio returns, asset allocation, liquidity, and risk-adjusted performance.
Evaluate strategic investment opportunities and major portfolio decisions.
Ensure investment activities support the Group's liabilities, capital objectives, liquidity needs, and risk appetite.
6. Group Capital & Solvency Management
Lead Group-wide capital planning and capital optimization.
Monitor capital adequacy, solvency, leverage, liquidity, and financial resilience.
Develop strategies to optimize capital deployment across subsidiaries and business lines.
Assess the capital implications of acquisitions, investments, dividends, growth initiatives, and strategic transactions.
Partner with Risk and Actuarial leadership on capital and solvency assessments.
7. Asset-Liability Management
Provide executive oversight of asset-liability management (ALM) across relevant insurance and investment businesses.
Ensure investment portfolios are appropriately aligned with insurance liabilities and liquidity requirements.
Monitor duration, interest-rate sensitivity, liquidity gaps, and market exposures.
Support balance-sheet optimization and financial stress-testing initiatives.
8. Treasury & Liquidity
Lead Group treasury, liquidity, cash management, and banking relationships.
Establish Group-wide liquidity policies and funding strategies.
Optimize cash across subsidiaries while maintaining appropriate regulatory and operational liquidity.
Oversee debt facilities, guarantees, intercompany funding, and treasury risk.
Monitor interest-rate, foreign-exchange, credit, and liquidity exposures.
9. Capital Raising & Financing
Lead Group-level financing and capital-raising initiatives.
Develop relationships with banks, institutional investors, private equity firms, development-finance institutions, debt providers, and capital-market participants.
Oversee debt issuance, refinancing, capital injections, and other funding strategies.
Optimize the Group's capital structure and cost of capital.
Ensure funding capacity supports strategic growth.
10. M&A, Investments & Corporate Development
Lead financial evaluation of acquisitions, disposals, strategic investments, and joint ventures.
Oversee financial due diligence, valuation, transaction modeling, and deal structuring.
Assess the impact of transactions on earnings, capital, solvency, liquidity, and shareholder value.
Partner with the CEO and Board on major strategic transactions.
Oversee financial integration and post-transaction performance.
11. Group Financial Reporting & Consolidation
Ensure accurate and timely consolidated financial reporting across the Group.
Oversee statutory accounts, management reporting, regulatory returns, and Board reporting.
Establish consistent accounting and reporting standards across subsidiaries.
Ensure compliance with applicable accounting standards and insurance regulations.
Maintain strong relationships with external auditors and professional advisers.
12. Regulatory & Governance
Maintain strong financial governance across the Group.
Ensure compliance with applicable insurance, investment, corporate, tax, and financial regulations.
Manage relationships with regulators, auditors, rating agencies, and other external stakeholders.
Establish effective internal controls and financial policies.
Ensure appropriate governance across subsidiaries, SPVs, joint ventures, and investment entities.
13. Financial Risk Management
Establish and oversee the Group's financial risk-management framework.
Monitor market, credit, liquidity, underwriting, investment, interest-rate, FX, and operational financial risks.
Establish appropriate stress-testing and contingency-planning processes.
Work closely with the Group CRO, Chief Actuary, CIO, and business leaders to manage enterprise-wide risk.
14. Tax Strategy
Oversee Group-wide tax planning, compliance, reporting, and risk management.
Ensure appropriate tax governance across subsidiaries and jurisdictions.
Identify opportunities for legitimate tax efficiency.
Monitor changes in tax and regulatory requirements affecting the Group.
15. Investor & Stakeholder Relations
Develop strong relationships with shareholders, institutional investors, lenders, rating agencies, regulators, and other financial stakeholders.
Lead financial communications to the Board and key investors.
Support investor presentations, annual reports, strategic reviews, and capital-market activities.
Clearly communicate the Group's financial strategy, performance, and outlook.
16. Finance Transformation
Modernize the Group's finance operating model, systems, processes, and reporting infrastructure.
Strengthen ERP, FP&A, consolidation, business intelligence, and financial analytics capabilities.
Drive automation and digital transformation across finance.
Improve transparency and real-time visibility across subsidiaries and business units.
17. Leadership & Organizational Development
Lead the Group Finance function and senior finance leadership across subsidiaries.
Develop a high-performing, commercially focused finance organization.
Establish common standards, talent-development programs, and succession plans.
Build strong relationships with subsidiary CFOs and Finance Directors.
Promote a culture of integrity, accountability, financial discipline, and value creation.
Key Performance Indicators
The Group CFO will be accountable for:
Group revenue and earnings growth
Group EBITDA / net income performance
Return on equity (ROE)
Return on capital
Capital adequacy and solvency
Investment portfolio performance
Investment income and risk-adjusted returns
Insurance underwriting profitability
Combined ratio / loss ratio performance
Expense efficiency
Liquidity and cash-flow strength
Balance-sheet optimization
Cost of capital
Capital-raising effectiveness
M&A and strategic-investment performance
Budget and forecast accuracy
Regulatory and reporting compliance
Financial risk management
Shareholder value creation
Candidate Profile
Essential Experience
18+ years of progressive finance experience, including substantial Group or enterprise-level leadership.
Previous experience as Group CFO, CFO, Deputy Group CFO, Group Finance Director, Finance Director, or equivalent.
Significant experience within insurance, investment management, asset management, banking, pensions, reinsurance, or diversified financial services.
Proven experience managing complex group structures, subsidiaries, investment entities, and regulated businesses.
Strong understanding of insurance financial reporting, capital and solvency requirements, investment portfolios, and balance-sheet management.
Demonstrated experience in capital allocation, treasury, liquidity, financial planning, and enterprise risk.
Experience working directly with Boards, CEOs, regulators, auditors, investors, lenders, and rating agencies.
Preferred Experience
Previous Group CFO experience within a diversified insurance or investment group.
Experience covering both insurance operations and investment/asset-management businesses.
Exposure to life insurance, general insurance, reinsurance, pensions, or institutional investment.
Experience managing significant investment portfolios and ALM.
Proven experience with M&A, capital raising, restructuring, strategic investments, or international expansion.
Experience across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory environments.
Experience working with international institutional investors or rating agencies.
Education & Professional Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
Professional qualification such as CA, ACCA, CPA, CMA, CFA, or equivalent strongly preferred.
MBA or Master's degree in Finance/Business is advantageous.
Additional insurance, investment, actuarial, or risk-management qualifications are desirable.
Core Competencies
Group Financial Leadership
Corporate Finance
Insurance Finance
Investment Finance
Capital & Solvency Management
Asset-Liability Management
Treasury & Liquidity
Financial Planning & Analysis
Investment Analysis
Financial Modeling
Capital Allocation
M&A & Corporate Development
Regulatory Reporting
Risk Management
Investor Relations
Corporate Governance
Finance Transformation
Leadership Characteristics
The successful Group CFO will be:
Strategic, commercially astute, and financially rigorous
Comfortable operating across complex group structures
Strong in capital allocation and investment decisions
Experienced in highly regulated environments
A sophisticated communicator at Board and investor level
Strong in balance-sheet and liquidity management
Comfortable challenging business leaders and driving accountability
Able to balance growth, profitability, capital, liquidity, and risk
An effective partner to the CEO, CIO, CRO, Chief Actuary, and subsidiary CEOs
A transformational leader capable of building a world-class Group Finance function
Compensation
A competitive executive compensation package comprising base salary, performance-based incentives, executive benefits, and other benefits commensurate with experience and market benchmarks.
Originally posted on Himalayas