Jobseeker’s Guide: Back Office Banking

Back office banking functions, despite their less than glamorous reputation, are absolutely critical to the day-to-day functioning and operating of a bank. In addition, back office functions in the banking sector are a lot more complex due to the nature of the work and tend to require personnel who are very well-qualified and have strong relevant skill sets. Let’s take a look at some of the most common functions.

Read Also: Jobseeker’s Guide: Front Office Banking

IT

Given the globally integrated nature of the financial industry, having a strong IT infrastructure can make the difference between a successful or redundant bank. This is where the IT support guys come in. They create the IT system architecture, maintain databases and in general help front office personnel (such as traders) get their jobs done.

Given the rise of fintech and new technologies like blockchain, the role of IT personnel has been shifting, with many banks concentrating efforts (and budgets) on technology development and engineering. This demand has led to the chasing of top industry talent, with very decent salaries to boot.

Compliance

The post-crisis scrutiny in the recent decade has led to a number of banking scandals, including but not limited to the LIBOR/SIBOR rigging incidents and so on. With additional regulatory pressure, banks have been beefing up their compliance functions to prevent such misdemeanours from occurring again.

As such, compliance staff has been in high demand, with huge and varying ranges in job scope. Their job scopes could cover financial crimes or other areas of contention like monitoring chat logs and corporate gifting etc. Just like IT, the high demand has led to more decent salaries for compliance functions as well.

Traditional Back Office Operations

This would comprise of legacy back office functions that are required to keep the bank running smoothly. Examples would include trade support, where there are confirmations, settlements, and records etc. Additionally, internal finance/accounting and HR departments, functions that are crucial to any multi-national corporation – can also be found in banks.

Of particular note are HR personnel in banks, who often get much different exposure as compared to other industries. Given the generally much higher levels of competitiveness, the frequent personnel turnover levels, and the maturation of the banking industry into its stable growth phase, HR personnel has a firsthand perspective of these interesting changes.

Read Also: Jobseeker’s Guide: Middle Office Banking

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