Lucrative Career Opportunities in the Banking & Financial Sector

For all students who are looking for career opportunities in the Banking Industry, you will be delighted to find that your search may finally come to an end. Banking is one of the most sought after career choices among the youth. In a developing country like India, career opportunities in the Banking Sector are on the rise. The global turmoil in the financial segment that occurred a few years ago had the least effect on our country's banking sector because of our sound banking and financial system. The Banking Sector in India is growing at a rapid rate and is among one of the fastest growing industry verticals.

The word “bank” comes from the ancient Italian word “banca”, which means a bench or a counter. Italian bankers during the Renaissance times of high international trade plied their business of money changing and lending from “bancas” or benches set up as tables in bustling market squares.

According to Human Resources (HR) services major Randstad India, the Banking Sector may create up to 15 lakh new jobs in the next 5-10 years! This would be achieved by issuance of new licenses, efforts put in by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Government to expand financial services into rural areas. With only less than 42 per cent of the Indian population having access to bank accounts, top banking firms like HSBC and Citigroup are looking to expand and venture into the untapped rural markets that have so much potential to boost growth and profitability.

The total net worth of the Banking Industry in India is about Rs 64 trillion. Still about 41 percent of the population has no bank account. It means in the days to come, robust employment opportunities are expected to arise. Presently, India has about more than 150 banks, 50, 000 branches and 17, 000 ATMS spread across the country. Economic reforms of the 90’s led to wide range of job opportunities along with fat pay packages. Pay packages in the banking sector at both public and private depends upon nature of profiles and banks.  For clerical jobs, it starts from Rs 20, 000 per month. For higher position, it may be Rs. 30, 000 to Rs 40, 000.  If you are an MBA graduate from a reputed institution, your salary may range from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. Some meritorious and hardworking MBA students of IIMs can touch the figure of 1 crore per annum as salary.

The Banking Industry provides a diverse range of opportunities for experienced professionals, college graduates and entry-level workers. Though it may appear that these jobs are meant for commerce/economics students, but the fact is that majority of bank officers are from different streams of education. While private banks normally resort to campus placements in B-schools for entry level slots, nationalized banks fill up posts based on the Common Written Examination (CWE) conducted by the IBPS (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection). The minimum qualification for the IBPS exam is basic graduation and those with specific focus on banking management or commerce would be better equipped. Those joining nationalized banks would have to rough it first in rural and remote areas and gain expertise in areas like agriculture lending.

Some influential names in the Banking Sector include; Dhruv Desai, Senior Vice-President, Corporate HR from Angel Broking; Madhavi Lall, Regional Head, (India and south Asia), Standard Chartered Bank; Abhijit Mishra, Senior Vice-President, HR, HDFC Bank; Rahul Sharma, Senior Vice-President & Head, India Infoline Ltd (IIFL); D Vijayalakshmi, Executive Director (Personnel) Life Insurance Corporation (LIC); and Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director, ICICI Bank.

The banks in India can be categorized as following; Commercial Banks, Private Sector Banks, Public Sector Banks, Regional Banks, Co-operative Banks, Central co-operative Banks, Primary Agriculture Credit societies, Investment Banks and Specialized Banks. Some private sector banks in India would include Axis Bank Ltd, Punjab National Bank, Centurions Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd, Indusind Bank Ltd, ING Vysya Bank Ltd, Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd, South Indian Bank and so on.

Am I fit to be a professional Banker?

People who desire to go into banking should be very well organized, enjoy numbers, and must have excellent math and computer skills. They should enjoy working with people and catering to their service needs. Working in the Banking iIndustry requires patience and acceptance of people from all walks of life and in all kinds of financial shapes. Those who choose to do so will work with the specific transactional details of many different people. He or she will need to focus on the details of the transactions while making the customer feel satisfied and confident that the banking employee has successfully aided the customer with their service need.

As the Banking Industry today is computer-automated and dependent on the Internet for many transactions, banking professionals must be computer literate and well-versed with accounting procedures and accounting software. If the employee is a trainee or a newly-hired person without that skill set, he or she must have the willingness to learn.

This is not a career for someone who does not enjoy accounting, mathematical details, or adhering closely to many rules and regulations. A bank sells services and products that relate to money and interest, and these fields follow numerous and stringent rules. Someone who has the skill of managing people and encouraging teams to work well together might make a good bank manager. A person with good people skills who is successfully able to troubleshoot issues and negotiate details might make a good mortgage broker. A person with good analytical skills who can see the “big” picture out of many numbers may make a great economic analyst.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the Banking Sector is that serving the public can often be extremely stressful. Money issues are sensitive topics for most people, and customers can be quite rude if the transaction is not correct or not handled perfectly to their satisfaction. A banking professional must be willing to work tactfully and carefully with a bank’s customers, and must be able to confidently and correctly handle all banking transactions.

Popular Careers in Banking:

The Banking Sector provides an excellent opportunity to develop an understanding of the global economy. Moreover, it creates an array of career opportunities that ensure job-satisfaction and dignity. Some of the few careers are enlisted below;

Bank Teller:

Bank teller is usually the entry-level position for someone starting within the industry. The bank teller at a retail bank or credit union will be the person that a customer physically visits when cashing or depositing a check, purchasing a cashier’s check or money order, or any other cash service handled at a retail bank or drive-up bank location. Bank tellers can also be found at banking call centers where customers may telephone a bank for any number of retail banking services. Call centers routinely handle requests for bank account services that may include funds transactions and reconciliations as well as retail services regarding bank products.

You can later transition from a teller job into a head teller or supervisory role. As a supervisor, you must coach your team to follow industry rules as well as your employer's operating procedures. Some banks require branch managers to have college degrees, but other banks allow experienced teller supervisors to transition into these roles. An affinity for numbers and a good grasp of mathematics will help a bank teller be successful, but being able to personally help customers with a friendly demeanor will be the key to real success as a bank teller. The teller exchanges cash, personal checks, and products with the customer and will need to be able to communicate efficiently and tactfully with people of all socio- economic positions while carefully accomplishing the transaction for the customer.

Loan Officer:

Banks generate money by issuing loans, which means loan officers have a key role to play in a bank's success. A loan officer is the person at a bank, a credit union, or other financial institutions who help people and companies borrow money. They need to possess confidence with excellent communication skills, and must be detailed oriented. Many loan officers are paid on commission; therefore, a good work ethic and lots of motivation will be the key to success in this field.

Loans are arranged for many purposes. Individual customers of a bank will need loans for homes; vehicles such as cars, motorcycles, or boats; home remodeling or repairs; and debt restructuring. Small business owners need loans for costs to start the business, such as rent deposits, hiring costs, advertising, to purchase equipment and inventory, or to maintain cash flow for salaries, stock, and other costs. Larger companies borrow money for the same reasons as small businesses but on a larger scale. Some commercial loans are arranged by the loan officer by using a number of banks and bundling a package of loans together for the customer.

To initiate the process of a loan, the loan officer will gather basic information about the client and the type and amount of loan needed. Next the loan officer will analyze the client’s needs, collateral, and credit worthiness against the amount of money and type of loan that the bank determines will be a valid risk for the bank to extend to the customer. Today, much of this analysis is done with sophisticated computer underwriting programs that have already been built by the bank to facilitate the process for both the bank and the customer. The Internet has also drastically changed the loan officer environment as a banking career.

Bank Manager:

A Bank Manager manages all activities of a bank or a particular department of the bank. A manager of a department of a large bank may have more specialized duties overseeing the business, service, or profitability of the department. They typically start off as a trainee, then progresses to assistant manager, and then, if successful, may be promoted to manager. The bank manager is responsible for hiring, training, supervising and if necessary, firing the staff that he or she supervises. In smaller banks, the bank manager may also be the person who solicits business from the community, either by advertising their services or by visiting with local companies and their owners.

A Bank Manager is both an administrator and a sales person for the bank. He or she has the full responsibility for the branch’s activities and functions and must make sure that the staff complies with all banking regulations as well as the bank’s requirements and procedures. It’s the Bank Manager’s duty to make sure that the branch or department is staffed appropriately and that the staff employees have the tools with which to carry out their duties and service the customers. They must also work to make the bank or department a pleasant place for both the staff to work and the clients to visit.

Credit Analyst:

A credit analyst studies the financial details of a person, a group of persons, or a company, in order to evaluate the bank loan applicant’s credit worthiness. Credit analysts can be employed by banks, credit unions, credit card companies, financial investment firms, or credit rating agencies. Generally, most large financial institutions require a bachelor’s degree in finance, business, accounting, or a related field, but many banks will offer on-the-job training in credit analysis for talented employees without such degrees for banking careers such as this.

To be a successful credit analyst, excellent detail-related skills and diligence with numbers are crucial. The credit analyst gathers various financial data about the borrowing customers and will then evaluate the information. Next, the credit analyst writes recommendations regarding the risk assessment and credit worthiness of the applicant, company, or group of applicants. They also analyze borrowing and payment data from many sources to assess the creditworthiness of a line of products, such as mortgages or credit cards, or study the financial and cash flow history of one client or one company in order to underwrite a particular loan to a customer.

Insurance Representative:

Insurance Representatives are employees of the bank holding corporation rather than the bank. Nevertheless, branches have insurance sales goals and employees make referrals to insurance agents who work on-site. Insurance agents sell products such as annuities, life insurance and even health insurance policies. Agents are paid in the form of commission and commissions are not generally capped, which means your earning potential is unlimited.

You must pass a state licensing exam before you can sell insurance. Many banks require branch managers and loan officers to obtain licenses and annuity sales goals are often included in branch goals.

Office Staff:

Banking institutions employ office and support staff for all office departments, similar to any large or small firm. Office departments in a banking firm can include human resources, building and janitorial operations, payroll, administrative and secretarial support, programming and application development, support and maintenance. Each department, depending on the size of the firm, will have multiple levels of authority and responsibility for all banking careers of this sort. Bank jobs within these departments can range from entry-level and intern, to support and middle management, on up to the department’s director or chief officer.

Relationship Manager:

Relationship Managers look after the administration of a bank branch. They also look after the direct sales associates (DSA) and direct sales team (DST). Checking files, forming DSA teams, training people, making DSAs aware of various policies of the bank, creating relationships with customers are some responsibilities that Relationship Managers share. They also take feedback about DSAs and DSTs from customers. They have to ensure that a bank’s services are topnotch, making a customer feel safe and pampered.

Keeping pace with the average 8.5 per cent growth of the Indian economy over the past few years, the Banking Sector in India has witnessed phenomenal growth. It has become the need of the hour by introducing anytime and anywhere banking for its customers through ATMs, as well as mobile and internet banking. It has also offered services like plastic money (credit and debit cards), online transfers, etc. This has not only helped in reducing operational costs but facilitated greater conveniences to its customers. The emergence of technology driven banks has created a large number of job opportunities, so now is the perfect time to begin a career in the Banking Industry.