Anyone know much about corporate banking - as in a kind of relationship manager position?
What the day to day activities are, what sort of skills are required etc.
Thanks in advance
Anyone, any tips for an interview??
I’ll be moving to a corporate banking – asset side role shortly (moving from research dept. within bank, therefore didn’t go through interview process) so I can’t say much right now but from what I’ve been told a relationship manager is responsible for looking after credit limits of his accounts, gets his clients to use banking products (Letter of credit, running finance etc.) so that limits assigned to them are fully utilized, facilitates his clients even in operational matters related to bank (e.g. check clearing) and performs analysis/due diligence to assess whether to extend/maintain/terminate the facility to the client at periodic intervals.
These days economy is sh*t , so banks here are extending loans only to selected clients with great credit history (and even that with over-collateralization). Relationship managers’ role is effectively limited to recoveries of principal/interest payments, the kind of work which makes you want to saw off your manhood.
Oh, that does not sounds great.
But this role is as a credit analyst, but i think also involved in those recoveries
In my organization, credit analysts perform two functions: portfolio management – they have macro view of things as they manage sector-wise exposure and day-to-day limits of each client while acting as liaison between corporate banking group and risk management group; credit analysis – they review the credit proposal submitted by relationship manager and perform due diligence (re-run the numbers) to assess if client is creditworthy as per financial ratios/risk matrices.
If your title is relationship manager – credits, then you’ll likely be involved in recoveries as well. Corporate banking is mostly operational (therefore, lethargic) in nature except when you get to work on syndication and project financing deals, that part is exciting. If you like interacting with people, then you’ll like the job as corporate bankers spend most of their time on phone with their clients.
Thanks for the advice. Well this isnt a relationship manager role, its working with them, so assume its assisting with stuff you mention in the first paragraph.
Have you got any tips on what I should try and highlight skills wise in the interview? and why i could possibly want this job etc? I find this question hard, as truth is I dont want to work for someone, but such is life.
Strength, weaknesses to highlight?
unemployed at the moment, so Im really banking (no pun intended) on trying to get in here. YES, I am an unemployed CFA!
Just go over financial ratios from FAS-level 1 and the credit analysis (used to be the 1st LOS in FI SS) from Fixed Income-level 2. Have an understanding of what kind of things bank should look for while extending credit (cash flows, earnings or revenues etc). Have some knowledge of basic banking products/terms (hypothecation, lien, pledge, running finance, letter of credit etc); basically view the basics of commercial lending. If it’s an entry level position you should be fine with that much knowledge otherwise it might be good idea to at least have some general idea of lending regulations (set by central bank) as well.
You must be good with excel. Strengths would be ability to think critically, attention to details, work under tight deadline, team player, ability to take initiative etc. (or similar buzzwords). Weakness is a tricky question. I believe there is already an active thread on this topic.
Know the line items on the BS, IS, and CF. Prepare for behavioral type questions and use the STAR format in your response.
Had the interview. Seemed like it went well. Although i tend to find when i think it went well it didnt, and when I think it went bad it went good.
They seemed a bit unprepared and it was very much a discussion, not heavy hitting interview.
On that note, do you think I should email the one guy who I interviewed with thanking for time? or just leave it until they get back to me?
Fixed the ethics violation and oh I hope you’re a charterholder! Good luck with your application, else.
Well, Corporate Banking is a rather broad term. I know in Europe that the division between IB and Corporate Banking isn’t as clear as in the US.
The strictest definition of corporate banking would be providing financing to companies without the issuance of securities.
But then there are Corporate Banking activities that are not as plain-vanilla, such as levereged loan syndications or project/structured finance. These activities are qualitatively different than say, providing a classical credit facility to corporation XYZ.
IMO working at a Corporate Bank, classical banking products don’t require much analysis. The “analysis” is mostly limited to:
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punching financial statement numbers in a shitty programm which does the ratios for you
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preparing credit committee documents
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compliance stuff (you wouldn’t believe the amount of red tape involved in Corporate Banking) like credit limits, KYC, etc.
Now if you work in cash-flow financing such as LBO or project finance, you won’t escape the above, but at least you’ll do modelling in excel which will be your tool for analysis.
I have worked in LBO, PPPs and Project Finance in the Front Office. Some stuff is very interesting and technical, but as someone has said, sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much of it is just pushing paper from A to B, dealing with compliance garbage, basically BO crap.
Oh and I almost forgot: the documentation side of Project Finance is just hell.
This
Still havent heard back. Interviewed on friday.
DO you think i should send an email to HR, or the guy who interviewed me?? He gave me his card incase I had any further questions
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to follow up after 3-4 working days but I think it depends on the stage of hiring process. If it was initial screening interview, it might not be a good idea to call him. May be you can email him in that case. However, if it was 2nd or final round interview, I think you can call him to check. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if somebody calls me up to inquire about hiring status.
Ok, they called me back.
Didnt get it. They said with my experience I would be bored and there is too much admin in the role, and I should be in a more senior role like a relationship manager, and said they will contact if something comes up very soon.
The guy sounded sincere, but I know its just talk, as I know they will say that when that rile comes up i havent got the required direct experience for that. If im transitioning I need to start somewhere!
#frustrated
What’s your prior experience?
Prior experience is in big4, debt and vauations.
Yes, unfortunately there is a big admin component in corporate lending, from what I have seen.
With your background though I think you have a shot at something more sexy.
THanks, tough market to get into the sexy stuff.
Out of interest, is working in transaction services a worthwhile endeavour? I assume its mostly due diligence work? is this boring as hell?