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To explore the career options in a Bank let us first understand the banking landscape in India, the business model of banks, the typical banking organisational framework and finally what attributes are looked at in individuals while recruiting for specific roles

1. Banks in India

Parameter

Foreign

Private

PSU

Ownership

Majority owned by Foreign Banks or Financial Institutions

Majority stake/control with Indian promoters/ Financial Institutions

Majority owned by GoI (post the Nationalisation of Banks)

# of Banks operating in India *

43

20

26

Total # of Employees*

25384

269941

801659

Prominent Banks

Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered

ICICI, HDFC, Axis, Kotak Mahindra,Yes Bank,Indusind

SBI, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank

Focus area of Business

Trade Finance

Corporate, Retail Banking

Project Finance, Rural Lending

• Source – RBI database – “A profile of Banks” 2012-13

2. Business model

Assets – The Banks earns from lending to –

Area of Finance

Attributes

Project

  • Funding large infrastructure projects like power, roads, airports, etc.
  • Long gestation periods
  • Large loan sizes

Corporate

  • Funding requirements of medium and large corporates
  • Working capital, Capital expenditure for expansion or acquisition
  • Medium term and relatively smaller loan sizes

Trade

  • Financing import & export requirements
  • Short term to medium term
  • Currency fluctuation

Retail

  • Funding the borrowing requirements of individuals and small businesses
  • Mortgage, Automobile, Credit Cards, Personal & Small business loans

Liabilities – The Bank funds the above assets using

Funding Source

Attributes

CASA

  • Current Account & Savings Account deposits.
  • Sticky because of people’s inertia to move their accounts to other banks
  • Dependent on Branch network

Term Funding

  • Time Deposits/Fixed Deposits
  • Bulk deposits placed by Institutional investors is highly sensitive to changes in rates and liquidity position in the market
  • Easy to raise large sums through bulk deposits

3. Typical Organisational Structure

The Heads in turn would have reportees across Regional/ Product verticals.

4. Key attributes & responsibilities of various roles

Parameter

Sales

Analysis

Trader

Titles

Relationship Manager

Business Analyst/ Risk Analyst

Dealer/ Trader

Business Vertical

  • Corporate Banking
  • Retail Banking
  • Corporate Banking
  • Risk Management
  • Asset Liability Management
  • Proprietary Trading
  • Treasury Sales

Educational Qualifications

MBA, CFA

CA, CFA, FRM, MBA

MBA, CFA, FRM, Post Graduation in Mathematics/Statistics

Skills

  • Negotiation skills
  • Problem solving
  • Team management
  • Innovative thinking
  • High levels of self motivation
  • Understanding business model
  • Impact of economic cycles
  • Financial Analysis
  • RBI Regulations
  • Understanding fundamentals of asset classes eg. Rates, currencies
  • Technical analysis
  • Working under pressure

Role expectations

  • Income & Loan targets
  • # of new customers
  • Portfolio quality
  • Set credit quality parameters
  • Appraisal & Monitoring
  • Early detection of weak credits

1. ALM- Fund raising through ST/LT debt

  • Ability to raise funding at lowest risk & cost
  • Managing G-Sec portfolio

2.Sales– provide bid-offer quotes to banks clients on
rates, currency, etc

  • Income/Volume targets

3.Proprietary Trading taking positions in approved asset classes

  • Income targets

Interview Questions would be towards understanding your ability to

  • Sell a product/idea
  • Convincing ability
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Presentation & Communication skills
  • Understand balance sheets
  • Read economic conditions
  • Written communication skills
  • Understand asset pricing
  • Handling pressure
  • Understand trading strategies

Given the wide variety of roles offered, banking in India has been a large employer in the service industry and has been the preferred option for many finance professionals.

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