How to enter middle office (KYC, Compliance, Risk Management) in bank ?
 

I am a fresh grad, holding an engineering degree. I wish to enter to these sector but it seems not easy. Most of my engineering friend start off by accepting those contract based job to accumulate at least 1 yr exp for a next job hop. Their official career started is when the day they convert into perm. Most of them took half mth to 1 yr to convert into perm. It depends mainly on luck, network and headcounts of the bank.

I facing difficulties to get a contract job becoz I wanna to get in to KYC/AML, compliance or risk management roles as some of my friends are lucky enough to get their hands on for those field on their first job. Therefore, I am trying my luck. Sending resume and checking with recruitment agent. Any advise to improvise my job seeking skills?

For compliance and risk management roles, how is the job nature compare to a bank and those MNC companies? In terms of annual income, workload and job scope, could anyone share the differences and experience?

I am wondering, for pple who started off in compliance or risk management roles in MNC regardless of any industries, can the exp and skill be transferable to banking sector during urs mid term career ?

anyone could advise?

Hi,

Can anyone share some tips? I am also seeking for back end mid office banking roles. Any tips on entering this market? Which roles are the prospect ones and with easier entry.

If there are any openings of related field in your current job, Pm me thanks.

Advice
 

My advice is don't bother if you think you can make big money out from it. Many people are suffering and want to get out. Like what the guys in UK say, the go-go years are gone. Base pay is getting lower, bonus (if there is) is miserable for the amount of workload.

It doesn't make economical sense to house a non revenue generating department in Singapore anymore.

Go find something that you are truly keen on.

This is the best advice i can give. Otherwise, you just have to keep trying.

Bro dun be too pessimistic la... its not the end of the world =) Anymore advice?

hahahaha...go in and you will know...the true meaning of a living hell...

contract staff in middle office but i do not see much prospect entering such positions

perm staff worked for long hours here and the remuneration dont really seem worth it.
on top of that, have to see the patterns of those sales people cause your bonus is indirectly dependent on their sales numbers..

I am in credit risk management and it's not really hell leh. I get to go home everyday before 6 pm loh usually i leave around 5.35 - 5.45pm. My official hours are 9am - 5.30 pm loh. Work load is v manageable. Salary wise also not too bad 6k+ bonus around 2 months.

Pro-tip, work for a small-offshore bank where you do have crazy workloads.

ya I am trying to get in to tis field too.. any tips or lobang? U may pm me. So far none response... Thanks ... any lobang?

No tips leh, start of applying to be a junior credit analysts lo. Alot of banks hire those, responsible for preparing credit applications for new or existing customers.

can u briefly describe what is the jobscope of credit risk management about?
Need alot of analysis? or thinking?

work for a small-offshore bank where you do have crazy workloads?
Do u mean work for big bank better?

Becoz I am holding an engineering degree, could it be the reason of having difficulties to enter credit risk or other banking related fields? Any of your colleagues who are doing the same field with u but holding engineering degree?

Dear Happyman,

What makes you think that the banks should hire engineers for middle office positions when there are abundance of business students fighting to get into banking industries. Even with a first class honors in engineering from the local university, you would have difficulties handling the complexity of risk management and compliance. If you had taken business modules in during your tertiary education, forget about it, these modules are the tip of the iceberg.

Being in the risk management for few years, i hardly see any engineers other than financial engineers. To make things worse for you, the bank are freezing the recruitment of the non-profit departments or/and shifting them to countries with lower labor cost.

If you want join the bank, engineering fresh graduates with good honors should consider financial planners or branch operations officers.

Sorry i meant joint a off-shore bank where you do NOT have a crazy workload. Those big local players inclusive of the big foreign banks like HSBC, Citibank have crazy volumes.

I don't know any engineers in credit risk management, my peers are mostly economic, accountancy, business/finance/banking grads. I do know one in exotic financial products evaluation but he has a masters in financial engineering (damm siong degree).

For corporate credit risk, the role involves mainly analysis of companies, usually latest 3 years of financial statements and look at their profit & loss performance and the strength of their balance sheet. Then also see whether the facilities being applied are suitable / repayable for the customer, within working capital requirements etc.

Other than that we also do industry analysis and sometimes industry stress testing eg if steel prices fall to xxx which steel companies will end up being loss making?? etc.

advice
 

Getting a perm job in a bank is one problem. aside from that, im a fresh grad who just entered compliance... its true that once u get in, its a hell hole. however it pays pretty well.

Can elaborate? Long hrs, the work or organisation etc? What type of compliance do u do?

answers to your questions
 

1. How to get in to compliance?
- Apply contract roles as Fresh Grad. Try to stay away from AML operational compliance i.e. KYC roles (but most likely this is ur best chance. work your hardest and you will get rewarded with conversion or transfer)
- Join MAS (Best option)
- Join Big 4 Audit firms (financial services audit only).
- After a 3 year stint in any of the above, then your doors will open.

2. Life as a compliance officer:
- Generally AML colleagues tend to work later due to higher volume.
- Non-AML is not as high volume but more manageable in local banks vs foreign banks.
- To sum it up, local bank is your best bet if u want good stable life.

3. What does a compliance officer do?
Honestly, it can be quite dull. Do you like reading regulations? please search Singapore banking act on google. If you like reading and interpreting such stuff then yes. For AML colleagues, perhaps interpreting own AML framework and guidelines onto the potential client onboarding etc..

Dont join just for the sake of money.. i have some friends who left to other parts of the bank as it was too dry for them..

all the best guys..