Jose Miramontes
Astoria, NY *****
Phone 917-***-****
E-mail:
************@*****.***
Professional experience
Mar 10-Present Wells Fargo Advisors (consultant via Apex) St. Louis, MO/New York, NY
Brokerage Operations – PM - BA - SME (tax lots, security master, trading, products)
Coordinated Business UAT testing for firm-wide technology initiatives relating to compliance with new IRS Cost Basis regulations.
Wrote detailed business requirement documentation (BRDs) to support relevant enhancements. Analyzed Functional Spec documents from the vendor (Thomson Reuters). Ensured coverage by building a Traceability Matrix to reconcile the two.
Assessed the impact of Functional Spec documents, to ensure the appropriate amounts of departments needing engagement in a project were captured. Use said documents to build Test Strategies and Test scenarios/scripts.
Ensured test scenarios were sufficient and all inclusive with respect to the scope of the testing criteria. Liaised with Technology Vendor and internal business users to ensure.
Worked with end -users to refine test strategy and test scripts. Worked with department heads to ensure staff availability.
Coordinate and lead meetings with Department Heads to explain Test Strategy, Time-lines, Test Approach, etc…
Participated in Steering Committee meetings to the extent of providing updates on the test effort.
Worked as a liaison between testers and technology vendors to understand and to resolve software defects. Develop a system to report and control defects.
Processed and worked through twelve different vendor work requests from planning stage to sign-off.
Ensured successful code deployment from testing to production deployment (BETA code).
Worked with parallel Conversion PMs to plan around overlapping efforts (code deployment dates, testing environment issues, etc..). Ensured Conversion would not be adversely affected by IRSCB project.
Mar 07-Mar 09 Wachovia Securities(consultant via GFS) Richmond, VA
Brokerage Operations Support Specialist/Tax Support/Security Master – Options/Business Analyst
Part of a working group of Business Analysts responsible for gathering technical requirements from Front Office and diagramming process improvements. Acted as a liaison between Front/Middle/Back offices and the BAs working on different projects(specifically, an upcoming merger).
Worked with IT teams to develop better control methods, resulting in a dramatically reduced error rate.
Worked with IT BAs to develop BRDs.
Set up options and their related series, researched and resolved trade breaks. Reconciled firm positions versus the OCC.
Wrote the Policies and Procedures Manual for the Options arm of the Security Master Dept.
Researched investment product information. Set up securities as needed(equities, LPs, UITs, MFs, Hedge Funds, etc…)
Worked on Daily Market Data file from various Data Vendors(Thomson mostly, some Bloomberg). Expected to understand how the Data feed came into BETA and be able to resolve any inconsistencies between the Market Data provided by the Data Vendor and what the relevant exchanges listed.
Worked the OCC Memos on a daily basis. Set up a control system to track these memos and whatever changes were inevitably made onto the BETA system.
Trained staff which comprised of three different business channels on how to process trades (equity, fixed income and mutual funds), correct trade errors, submit ACAT’s, deposit checks, accept voluntary corporate actions, journal cash/securities between accounts, etc.
Acted as a liaison between the front office (Registered Representatives, Branch Mgrs, Operations Mgrs) and back offices (Credit, Reorg, Reporting, IRA’s etc.) with respect to facilitating brokerage account maintenance; expected to have the knowledge and facility of expression to be able to know both how to solve problems and the proper channels to contact in order to achieve that end.
Expected to have a broad and thorough understanding of tax reporting guidelines, knowledge of the differences between reportable tax activity and filing of taxes, familiarity with banking software in order to track activity and cross reference with tax forms, and general firm guidelines with regards to brokerage accounts.
Worked on several conversions (and de-conversions) of Corresponding Clearing Firms.
Dec 05 – Feb 07 Safra National Bank of New York –Funds Dept. New York, NY
Hedge Fund Pricing Analyst/Operations Associate
Accountable for the final authorization of Mutual Fund and Hedge Fund orders expected to ensure KYC compliance guidelines are met. Responsible for tabulating valid transactions and subsequently preparing all related documents (subscription, compliance, wire and shipping documents). In constant communication with internal teams(front office, cashiering) and external parties(administrators, fund managers) to ensure precise and timely executions.
Responsible for collecting and entering Hedge Fund pricing/valuation data on behalf of three different channels (custody, fund of funds, asset management). Entered this data onto SunGard and Axys.
Primary point of contact for external administrators--with respect to the collection of statements, subscriptions, conversion information, capital account structural changes and reconciliation-related reports. As a result of this, I took on the responsibility of verifying custody vs. fund balances, tracking changes and relegating certain tasks to fellow operations staff (which calls for excellent communication skills).
Duties also included the reconciling of firm’s accounts with that of the Hedge Fund/LP. Internal reconciliation between client accounts as well. Also reconciled Axyx versus SunGard on the internal side.
Worked with internal investment teams (retail, institutional, fund of funds) and coordinating with fund administrators to verify subscriptions. Responsible for entering these transactions into internal system or, with respect to LPs and internal trades, creating and maintaining Excel files that accurately reflect front office transactions.
Also responsible for resolving (or delegating, when necessary) conversion and reconciliation-related inquiries from internal staff (traders, brokers, internal administrators). Updated and/or corrected data on two different applications: SunGard and Murex.
Booked Hedge Fund and Mutual Fund trades onto both Axys and SunGard sytems.
Followed up with front-office personnel on KYC/AML documentation issues. Ensured documents were in order prior to wiring of funds. Worked with Front-office to gather documents and submit to Compliance.
May 04 – May 05 Wachovia Securities (consultant via GFS) Richmond, VA
Brokerage Operations Support Associate/Year End Support Associate
Acted as a liaison between the front office (Registered Representatives, Branch Mgrs, Operations Mgrs) and back offices (Credit, Reorg, Reporting, IRA’s etc.) with respect to facilitating brokerage account maintenance; expected to have the knowledge and facility of expression to be able to know both how to solve problems and the proper channels to contact in order to achieve that end.
Assisted with the merger between Wachovia and Prudential. Was responsible for maintaining a broad-based mastery of the procedural/operational and software application related differences between the two firms, along with the ability to explain and train the new staff on these differences.
Participated in a firm-wide conversion and implementation of the Front-office platform (Thompson One Smartstation) which entailed assimilation of said system as well as the ability to field questions from Front-office staff on how to use this new system.
Acted as a liaison between brokers/clients/CPA’s and the Tax Reporting Department with regards to Tax Reporting (esp. 1099’s, 5498’s, REMIC’s, etc.)
Responsible for facilitating the correction of said forms while ensuring that requests for corrections are valid; effectuated change via communications with the relevant departments (tax reporting, branches).
Expected to have a broad and thorough understanding of tax reporting guidelines, knowledge of the differences between reportable tax activity and filing of taxes, familiarity with banking software in order to track activity and cross reference with tax forms, and general firm guidelines with regards to brokerage accounts.
Nov 02 Jan 04 Various Temporary Assignments New York, NY
Temporary Operations Associate
Handled incoming calls from Brokers/Traders from South America (in Spanish and English) relating to account specific questions and trade related issues.
Responsible for ensuring trade related compliance (i.e. checking for funds, suitability, etc.)
Maintained a database that tracked current and past trades for the South American region. Responsible for tracking trades that had not settled properly.
Acted as a liaison between the Regional Office and the New York Trading Floor. Booked Money Market and FX trades on behalf of the Regional Latin American offices.
Worked on Reconciliation project, researching aged trade breaks and correcting said items.
June 99 –October 02 Citicorp Investment Services New York, NY
Registered Representative
Responsible for executing buy and sell orders on listed and OTC securities, equity and index options, US treasuries, municipals and commercial paper for retail brokers, private bankers as well as Citibank corporate and retail clients.
Develop a detailed knowledge of financial instruments to provide timely trade executions for clients.
Maintain a working knowledge of fundamental and technical analysis and an understanding of hedging strategies.
Assisted in the development of a lead referral program that was responsible for generating over $550,000 in revenue during its first three months of operation.
Served as a liaison between clients and back office personnel for the maintenance of retail and tax sheltered accounts.
Assigned projects from different departments (e.g. assisted the investigations department in writing clients with the resolution of more complex problems).
Participated in the successful conversion from an outside clearing firm to an internal one, SSB.
Languages Complete fluency in Spanish. Open to learning new languages.
Technical Skills MS Office, Excel, Internet, BETA, ADP, Dow Jones, Reuters, Lotus, Level One Help Desk, Various Trading Platforms, Thompson-One, ACH, SunGard, Axys, Bloomberg, SQL(queries, mostly), Encore, Series 7 Licensed(since expired), Murex
Education 1997 Williams College Williamstown, MA
Political Economy