Description

IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2023, IFC committed a record US$43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.

The Financial Institutions Group (FIG) aims to expand financial inclusion among different vulnerable segment markets by engaging in a wide range of sub-sectors including Microfinance, SME, Gender, Climate, Insurance, Capital Markets, Housing, Distressed Assets, and other areas, with both investment and advisory services delivered globally to IFC’s clients through IFC’s global network.  

The FIG Advisory team manages a portfolio of projects in the LAC region and works in strengthening different aspects of financial institutions’ business, strategy, and operations. An example of our advisory work includes improving innovation and open finance strategy, developing a value proposition for new target client segments, product development, conducting diagnostic and developing a digital banking strategy, developing a gender finance strategy, enabling digital financial solutions for migrants, strengthening the MSME business model, among others.

The Financial Inclusion and Digital Innovation team within FIG Advisory provides advice to financial players bringing new solutions to our markets, works with incumbents and challenger financial institutions seeking to adopt new financial solutions, adapt channels, and processes, and become more adept in delivering customer-centric financial products and services, and partners with banks, MFIs, and digital players to foster greater financial inclusion and reach leveraging digital innovation. The scope of projects to be implemented may include, but it is not limited to, enabling the digital inclusion of forcibly displaced people (migrant), developing the open finance and data-driven capacities of the financial sector, exploring the barriers to financial inclusion of afro-descendant and indigenous population, innovating in financial solution in the agrifinance space, among other areas of work that accelerate the financial inclusion of vulnerable segments and leverage innovation capacities in the financial sector.

IFC is seeking a motivated ET Consultant to support the FIG advisory financial inclusion and digital innovation program in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), developing, leading, and implementing advisory projects with financial institutions that are in line with IFC’s financial inclusion and digital innovation objectives. The ET Consultant will work in close collaboration with and report directly to the financial inclusion team and indirectly to the IFC LAC/Europe FIG Upstream/Advisory Services Manager, while interacting with Project Leaders and Senior Specialists. S/he will be based in Bogota, Colombia. Some travel may be required. 

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: 

•  The ET Consultant will support the advisory team in developing, leading, and implementing projects with strategic partners financial institutions and digital players in the LAC region, with a focus on financial inclusion and digital innovation.
•  The ET Consultant will help the team in structuring and developing high impact presentations and technical proposals for potential advisory projects with key partners financial institutions and contributing to preparation activities related to originating and launching the project and related to IFC’s project cycle in order to ensure all activities follow IFC governance (e.g: defining project activities and scope of work, implementation plans, and consolidating findings in a structured and concise manner, supervising budgets, designing result measurement framework, etc.).
•  The ET Consultant will support the project lead and/or lead the implementation of a portfolio of advisory projects and client-facing activities, which can include applying human-centered methodologies to establish the desirability of new business concepts, elaboration of project workplans and high quality project deliverables, leading the organization of missions, conducting workshops related to the project delivery, conducting or leading the research or quantitative analysis of client information and databases, synthesizing and presenting information in a clear and concise manner, developing high impact presentations for clients and project supervision reports, leading client meetings and implementation activities, leading and/or supporting the implementation of (proposed) recommendations and overseeing implementation of services/ solutions/ recommendations to clients, ensuring overall the quality control in line with corporate monitoring and evaluation requirements, among others. The ET Consultant will work closely with project leads, analyst, and specialists to build and apply technical capacity for the delivery of the projects and coordinate with the team to meet financial institutions client expectations and ensure all activities required in IFC’s project cycle and project objectives are met.
•  Contributing to FIG disseminating knowledge and lessons learned from LAC advisory projects.
•  The ET Consultant may support other initiatives with previous coordination with the Financial Inclusion Team or Project Lead.

Selection Criteria

•  Master’s degree in Business, Economics, Finance, International Development, or related fields. Minimum 8 years of working experience in banking, financial services and/or consulting in the financial sector in emerging markets, or in strategy development in the financial services industry, with proven track record in the field of digital transformation, data analytics, and/or financial inclusion and innovation.
•  Experience in helping financial institutions to develop and launch new solutions/concepts/business models and piloting new initiatives/approaches.
•  Solid experience in project planning and management, as well as agility, scrum, and other approaches with application in the financial sector.
•  Solid understanding of the trends and barriers in financial inclusion and digital financial services and of the potential of leverage innovation to accelerate financial inclusion, considering different players: incumbents (banks, MFIs) and innovators (fintech or digital banks offering financial services).
•  Strong project management, sales and client relationship management skills, including the ability to develop and maintain mutually beneficial stakeholder relationships and ensure timely and appropriate follow-up.
•  Strategic mindset to address issues emerging in project implementation with client facing activities.
•  Ability to work under pressure, tight deadlines and have flexibility in handling a variety of concurrent tasks, while keeping attention to detail and producing high quality work.
•  Highly motivated, energetic, team player with excellent interpersonal skills and client service skills with the ability to multi-task, self-starter with ability to problem solving, deal with conflicting priorities and deliver high quality work on schedule.
•  Ability to communicate ideas clearly and confidently, and credibly represent IFC with clients and stakeholders, including at the senior executive level; and ability to present information in different and approaches to facilitate the managerial decision-making processes.
•  Sound business judgment and problem solving, negotiation and commercial skills.
•  Ability to interact directly and independently with the management of potential clients and of financial and technical partners.
•  Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Spanish. Portuguese would be a plus.
•  Strong computing skills (proficiency required in Microsoft Excel, Word and Power Point; knowledge of collaborative working tools (Miro, Mural, Trello, etc.) is a plus.
•  Willingness to travel as needed.
•  Genuine commitment to sustainable development and development finance.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

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