Career in Banking

Career in banking had come a long way since the 1980s. It is now one of the most sought after career, especially for high-calibre accountants. This was also encouraged by the narrowing of the salary gap between banking career and other careers. Many of those who had opted for a career in banking was also looking at other benefits such as training and development, intellectual challenge, career mobility and the global industry. Besides, there also instances where those in the banking career had received a bonus of 100% of their base salary.

A survey conducted had also shown that those who had a career in banking derived a lot of satisfaction from their career. If you are seeking for a career in banking, you have to be prepared to work as part of a big organisation. You are expected to share your knowledge with international markets and other business units. A career in banking also require that you think out-of-the-box and to have lateral thinking. You are expected to have great analytical and numerical skills.

In the first few years of your career in banking, expect steep learning curve and be prepared for inter-department transfer and change of job functions. Because of its international business nature, a career in banking can be exciting. A bank can not do away with information technology.

The followings are the possible job functions that you can apply for in a career in banking:

Product Analysis Financial Control Equity and Fund Analysis Risk Management Projects Operational Risk Review Corporate Finance Credit Analyst Loan Officer Branch Manager Trust Officer Mortgage Banker

To be a good candidate for a career in banking, you need to have good people skills. In some job functions, having good writing and accounting skills are essential too. Strong work ethics are more important than good academic results. Recently, those with good marketing skills are well-sought after. As corporate investment is also in high demand, those with strong inclination towards investment also will rise in the rank in a career in banking. However, you need to be prepared to put in long hours in your banking career.

The followings are a summary of the levels of requirements for your career in banking:

People Skills – High Marketing Skills – High Communication Skills – High Analytical Skills – Moderate Creativity – Moderate Initiative – Moderate

When it comes to salary for banking career, the starting salaries in a commercial banking range from $24,000 to $38,000. Those with MBA qualification command a higher salary ranging from $30,000 to $50,000. A Department Manager with more than 10 years of experience can expect a salary of $100,000. A senior VP earns about $200,000. There are also those high-profile manager who earns up to $500,000 per annum.

What does the future holds for a career in banking? The banking industry is undergoing a period of consolidation. Hence, you have to expect mergers and acquisition. As far as consumer’s behaviour is concerned, many are switching to ATM and online banking. Marketing officers have to meet their client at their homes instead of expecting consumer to visit banks. Specialised banking are also growing and middle management is in great demand.

For those who are still in the midst of their career search, a career in banking may be an exciting choice.

Investment Banking Interview Preparation

For undergrads and MBA students, the news that they have been selected for an interview at an investment bank comes with both excitement and dread. A position as an analyst or associate in corporate finance can be the first step towards a highly successful and highly lucrative career. Investment banking interviews, however, can be some of the most intimidating interviews out there, so let’s take a look at how to get prepared.

Before we jump into interview practice mode, we should take a step back and think about how we want to come across in the interview. In short, investment banking candidates should come off as bright, confident and likable.

In the final cut of selecting a hire, investment banks have already determined which candidates are smart and capable, so the decision comes down to who they like the best. So in addition to knowing a thing or two, candidates must remember to come across as a fun person to work with as well.

Know Your Story

Like any interview, candidates should have stories prepared about their lives that discuss their past, present and future. These are great answers for the standard questions:

“Tell me about yourself.” Or “Walk me through your rsum.” “Why are you interested in investment banking or this firm?” “Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?”

Candidates are highly likely to receive these or similar questions in any interview, and having succinct, practiced answers to them will give the impression of a polished candidate.

Your past story should highlight events that have qualified you for or gotten you interested in investment banking. Your present story should demonstrate why you want the particular position, how it is a logical step from where you are coming from and perhaps touch on where you hope the position will lead.

Your future story should discuss how investment banking will lead to where you want to go. Good future ambitions might be a managing director position in investment banking, a principle at a private equity firm, a CFO or perhaps and entrepreneur. In any case, you should communicate that those are long-term ambitions and you look forward to the experiences you’ll have in the position you’re interviewing for.

Know the Industry and Firm

Where investment banking interviews begin to get trickier is that firms will expect you to know what you’re getting into. If you confuse an equity analyst position with an analyst position in corporate finance, for example, you will not make it any further in the process.

You should understand the major divisions within an investment bank – sales & trading, corporate finance, research, etc. You should understand the hierarchy of positions within corporate finance – analyst, associate, vice president, managing director – and what each position does.

At the macro level, you need to understand the major differences between bulge bracket investment banks, middle market and boutique investment banks. You should also have a good answer for why you would prefer one type over another (and be sure that you prefer the type you’re interviewing with).

Transforming Banking Solutions Thinking Out Of The Box

Bank Profile
Bank Sohar is a start up bank in Oman. Bank Sohars entry into the Oman banking sphere came about amidst much hype and fanfare. Bank Sohars IPO was oversubscribed more than 5 times even before the bank opened, revealing the Omanis expectations. With a strong group of promoters behind it, Bank Sohar now has an initial built up capital of 50 million Omani Rial (approx 125 million USD). Bank Sohar will cover the entire range of retail, corporate and investment banking services. Bank Sohar will focus on specific market segments and a phased approach to launching new products and services gradually evolving into a universal bank.

Key Business Drivers
Technology is viewed from 3 perspectives:

The demands that arise from the complexity of the operating environment created by urgent imperatives, risk mitigation drivers, sales roll-outs and so on cannot be ignored. Typically, deployment of solutions in such an environment translates into a period of about 18-24 months. The project can exceed this period, as well, if the architecture is complex and mired by inflexible legacy systems.

The imperat i ves, when the environment requires pure vanilla offerings and quick deployment schedules, are unique. For banks who want to synchronize technology and processes, BIAB offers solutions with which organizations can start leveraging technology benefits from day one.

The focus of the bank, that centres around absorbing best-in-class processes and banking practices, needs to be addressed effectively. Technology can help them compete aggressively with players in the international arena.

Solution Overview
Technology Players: Matching the Pace of Banking

Finacle Bank-in-a-Box (BIAB) framework is a new implementation paradigm that allows a bank to go live on Finacle core banking solution in a very short span. It is a pre-configured, fully integrated banking transformation solution based on its proven universal banking solution.

BIAB is an approach aimed at bringing down the implementation time and most importantly provides customers a best configured banking environment.

The bank wanted to implement the Finacle universal banking solution covering the functionalities of core banking, treasury, e-banking and CRM with interfaces to ATM, SWIFT, Oracle GL and RTGS/ACH apart from other third party products such as NetCast and Omnidocs.

Finacle had allocated four months to complete the project, however because Bank Sohar was a start up, it was engaged in its recruitment process which impacted the start date. The challenges included executing a project with key decision making personnel not on board from the beginning and basic infrastructure not in place at the bank’s site. The implementation was delayed by two months until February 2007, however, the deadline date had not changed as the banks CEO strongly requested that the original date of 1st April 2007, be maintained.

This posed significant risks, resulting from completing a four month project in less than two months, which meant that every activity would have to be watertight, without any contingency whatsoever. Thus, there was no scope for lags in any activity.

It was decided that Finacle Bank-in-a-Box would be deployed to save time and effort. Since this was a new bank, it was deemed that this would also add value in terms of providing a readily available base of best banking practices. The plan was to adopt a recommend approach rather than a requirement seeking approach.

Detailed project planning was done to carefully chart out every activity and crunch the activity to the bare minimum.

Core team training and Business Process Definition (BPD) traditionally done sequentially were now designed to be performed in parallel.

The BPD document which consisted of multiple modules and was traditionally signed off at the very end was now broken into multiple documents to facilitate quick sign offs after each module was completed.

To perform a complete but timely testing during System Integration Testing and User Acceptance Testing, Infosys recommended that the bank engage its Finacle Testing services unit to carry out this activity, which they did, ensuring timely completion.

Senior management commi tment Unequivocal commitment from the top management throughout the different phases of the implementation, paid off. It was defined in the project kick off meeting that all issues (on the banks side) should be escalated to the senior management immediately, which worked to ensure a disciplined and smooth implementation.

Core team training / BPD An 18-day workshop was designed with daily activities listed. Business owners responsible for sign offs for each of the days were also listed. Core training was planned to be performed during the first half of the day and the BPD immediately afterwards.

Benefits of Leveraging Technology

Bank Sohar core banking implementation (Phase1) was carried out before the bank formally opened its doors to the public within a record breaking timeframe of 56 days.

Was executed under a non-negotiable deadline committed to the bank

The retail loan module was not part of the initial project scope. However, 2 weeks from Go Live, the bank requested that at least one retail loan product be delivered as this was a basic requirement for local customers. Infosys took cognizance of the banks critical need and decided to meet it through innovative use of the corporate loan module, since a typical retail loan launch would have taken much longer. Infosys built in all the basic features of the retail loan product in the corporate loan module, positively impacting revenues from the loans portfolio for the bank.

A breakthrough decision taken, resulted in the actual revenue of the loans portfolio growing to over 10 times the expected target.

Save your baby’s cord blood through Cord blood stem cell banking

Hello, I am John Franks and I am writing this to share my ideas on Cord blood stem cells. Cord blood is composed since it contains stem cells, as well as hematopoietic cells, which can be used to care for hematopoietic and hereditary disorders. Although the cord blood does contain stem cells, there are usually not enough stem cells in one unit of cord blood to treat a mature patient. The placenta is a much better source of stem cells since it contains up to ten times more stem cells than cord blood. The use of cord blood stem cells in treating situation such as brain injury and type I diabetes is already being studied in humans, and earlier stage research is being conducted for treatments of stroke, and hearing loss. However, apart from blood disorders, the use of cord blood for other diseases is not a routine clinical modality and remains a major challenge for the stem cell community. Cord blood stem cell banking is an once-in-a-lifetime chance to save our baby’s cord blood stem cells for possible medical uses. Collecting cord blood is a simple, safe, and effortless procedure that usually takes less than five minutes and happens immediately after birth. After the umbilical cord has been cut, the left over blood in the twine is composed. The cord blood is then shipped to the laboratory and ice-covered in cryogenic storage tanks for long-term preservation. Our baby’s umbilical string and cord blood contain lifesaving trunk cells. With Cryo-Save, Europe’s leading stem cells bank, we can save them for a lifetime; thus giving your offspring the best start in life and peace of mind for the future.

At current, umbilical cord blood stem cell storage is done for management of certain high-risk illnesses. In together vaginal and cesarean deliveries, group of cord blood is done before long after delivery however, quantity of cord blood collected in case of caesarian deliveries is less. The process for collecting cord blood is carried out by a practiced midwife or a medical doctor. Months before your due date, the cord blood bank sends you a group kit that contains everything that is needed for the process. The bank also sends your OB or Midwife commands to make sure he or she knows how to collect the blood. When baby is born, and the umbilical cord is cut, the OB or Midwife collects the blood from the left behind umbilical cord and placenta (not from baby) into a needle or blood bag. This cord blood stem cell, banking, storage are the best thing for our babies for saving life for them.

About the Author:

This article is written by Jackson daren this is having topics on Cord blood stem cells, Cord blood stem cell banking, cord blood stem cell storage and many more. For more: http://cryocell.wordpress.com/

Personal Banking Can Benefit You In Various Ways!

Personal banking or personal touch banking is often called retail banking because of the retail services offered to consumers. It differs from commercial banking in a number of ways. There are various banks offering personal touch banking services in Florida. The banking services and financial products available to individuals may differ from those offered to institutions. Commercial banking and personal touch banking Jacksonville, Florida often differ in the total amount deposited by individual customers. Personal banking deposits are usually much smaller than those from commercial bank customers.

Customers

Personal bank customers are individuals with deposits of less than $100,000. Commercial banking customers vary from small businesses to very large businesses and corporations. Sometimes, a commercial customer may be another bank.

Loans
Loans made by a personal bank may include auto loans, personal loans and mortgages. Personal bank loans are much smaller than the loans offered by commercial bankers. Commercial banks offer lines of credit and larger loans that allow a company to stay in business.
Account types
Both personal banking and commercial banking offer checking accounts. The commercial accounts include fixed deposit, an interest-bearing account similar to a retail banking certificate of deposit (CD) and a current deposit, an account that generally pays no interest on money in the account.
Profitability
Commercial banking can often be more beneficial for large financial institutions as compared to personal banking. However, there is also more risk in commercial banking because of the potential for larger losses. The capability for losses from personal banking are much smaller, thus they are lower risk.
Acceptability of risk
Commercial clients with very large deposits and some private banking customers are more often willing to accept higher risks with bank investments. This acceptability of risk can sometimes lead to high gains, but can also lead to large losses.
With personal touch banking Jacksonville, you can get all the banking services you need in a checking account with a no minimum balance requirement and unlimited check writing. The Jacksonville bank personal checking is a no-cost, value-added solution for you.
Personal checking services can benefit you in a number of ways:
1.Unlimited check writing
2.Free online and phone banking
3.A free cash and check card
4.Free notary service
5.Free imaged monthly bank statements and checks

So, if you are interested in personal or personal touch banking Florida, please visit jaxbank.com