Will be interviewing for an entry level Business Analyst role within the private banking division of a bank. I have very limited knowledge of what a Business Analyst does in a bank as I was mainly targeting risk/compliance related roles, but was offered a shot at this role since there was an opening. From the job description and some research, it seems like it is a role which requires conducting user acceptance testing, and providing operational support. I am a finance major, and a quick search on Linkedin shows that quite a number of business analysts in banks have some form of CS or IT background therefore i’m wondering if this is essential?
Also, is being a business analyst in a bank generally a good job with good prospects, in terms of salary, earning potential, career progression etc? I’m curious to know what the possible roles or functions that a business analyst can transition to within a bank as well. Can business analysts eventually transition or switch to a role within the risk function? (ie. operational risk), or would I be better off holding out for a compliance related role?
The role of “business analysts” in banks is to liaise between technology groups and users, determine operational needs, and make sure that new systems satisfy their intended purposes. It is useful, but not essential, to have some CS background for this role, since it involves communicating regularly with developers. It is equally, if not more, important to be able to cultivate a transparent and functional dialog between the different groups in the company.
Note that this job is different from a “business analyst” at a non-finance company like Google, where the job is more related to business strategy.
In terms of providing “career prospects”, I don’t think it is different from any other non-front office role in a bank. Yes, it could be a good platform to enter a similar leveled job in operational risk, since you would meet a lot of people in the organization and would presumably develop some working knowledge of how the business operates. Your compensation in any of these jobs, assuming you are not promoted to a higher management position, should plateau at comparable levels.
Thanks for the reply. So as I mentioned compliance and risk are my primary interests, so I’m wondering how a business analyst role will compare to that of those functions, both work and salary wise.
Work wise, I believe that business analysts can work within a compliance or risk function as well, although that is not what is being offered right now. So I’m just wondering how difficult it is to transit to such roles in compliance or risk as a business analyst.
Salary wise, how would business analysts weigh up in terms of compensation as compared to those roles? Rank wise, I’m not sure if business analysts follow the analyst, senior analyst, AVP, VP, SVP structure, but would the pay progression be fairly similar?
“Risk” jobs mean a lot of things. Operational risk is not the same as market risk, for instance. Operational risk is a lot like auditing, but it doesn’t seem that the people I deal with have any unified sort of background. In terms of salary, I doubt that there is any meaningful difference between the roles. If the number is 10% or 15% different, that’s just noise and you will see similar variations for all sorts of reasons. They are all corporate/operations sort of positions ultimately.
Alright, thank you for the information. I guess I was not clear on my previous post, but market risk would be out of the question, and I believe operational risk would be the most transferrable from a BA role.
The risk you run is that as a BA you may never specialize in anything, and a lot of BA’s are becoming contract or entry-level roles. (read: cyclical). Obv there are exceptions for seasoned BA’s with specific systems knowledge who will always be retained.
As far as I know, salary starting out will be on the lower end. I think if you’re targeting compliance and op risk you should not be disadvantaged with BA experience (since those jobs have no clear prerequsites)