Jon moved into this front office position with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) at the start of 2005, after spending two years at the bank in a mid office financial control role. He originally qualified as an accountant, gaining his ACA in 2002, and also holds an MSc in Mathematical trading and finance from Cass Business School.
Q: What does the structured investor solutions team do?
We help companies and financial institutions with available cash on their balance sheets to maximise their returns, subject to their appetite for risk. We put together structured derivative products that suit their needs, accessing the interest rate, foreign exchange, equity and credit markets.
Q: How did your banking career begin?
I started out by training to become a chartered accountant at Deloitte's. I got my ACA in 2002 and then moved to the product control department of RBS, where I initially reported on the daily and profit and loss (P&L) of the exotic interest rates business. It was a fairly standard move for a newly qualified ACA.
Q: How did you make the leap into the front office?
After about nine months reporting profits and losses (P&Ls) I moved into a quantitative pricing role, which exposed me to technical aspects of how the markets and the products work. At around the same time, RBS agreed to sponsor me on my MSc. When the bank set up the structured investor solutions team, they needed a new team member with a relatively quantitative background. I applied and was thrilled to be accepted.
Q: What’s the attraction of a sales role over a finance role?
As far as I’m concerned, it’s better in just about every way. I’m now involved in deals as they actually happen. I’m working on new projects and don’t spend half my time on repetitive daily and monthly processes. During my time in finance I missed having contact with clients, which was a key part of my role at Deloitte’s, so it’s great to get back into that again.
Jon’s tips- Don’t give up hope! Realistically you’ll need to spend two to three years serving your apprenticeship, learning the business and developing relationships within the bank.
- Be focused and make every effort to push your work in the back office in the direction you want, while taking every opportunity to enhance your technical skillset.
- Also, bear in mind that moving into the front office is much easier to do internally than by moving into another bank, although you have to push hard as no-one will do this for you.
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