So you sef dey find bank work? Make u ready o!

So you dey find bank work? An advice to y’all on Commercial Banking

Overview
In the most basic terms, commercial banks take deposits from individual and institutional customers, which they then use to extend credit to other customers. They make money by earning more in interest from borrowers than they pay in interest to those whose deposits they accept. They're different from investment banks and brokerages in that those kinds of institutions focus on underwriting, selling, and trading corporate and municipal securities.
Most of us maintain checking accounts at commercial banks and use their ATMs. The money we deposit in our neighbourhood bank branch or credit union supports economic activity through business loans, mortgages, auto loans, and home repair loans. Banks also provide loans in the form of credit card charges, and render local services including safe deposit, notary, and merchant banking. The bank branch or credit union office remains the cornerstone of Main Street economic life.
Banks have been undergoing rapid change over the past decade or so. Traditionally conservative businesses, most large banks now offer banking services over the Web. Businesses commercial banks operate in huge new areas of business that are non-traditional commercial banking businesses such as selling insurance products and securities.

Trends
New Electronic-Payment Options
For years, there were just three main means by which most consumers and businesses purchased goods and services: They paid in cash, wrote a check, or, if the purchase was sufficiently large, they charged the purchase to a credit card. Thanks to technology, purchasers now enjoy a whole host of payment options and banks enjoy a number of new revenue streams, thanks to the fees and interest charges associated with the new payment options. For example, most big banks now offer prepaid MasterCard and Visa cards.
Online payment technologies allow consumers and businesses to transfer money to vendors from whom they make purchases via the Internet. And then there are micropayments; where, in the past, vendors would only accept credit cards for a certain minimum transaction amount, today it's becoming more and more common for purchasers to use credit cards and other electronic-payment options for relatively minor purchases, like music downloads and fast-food purchases.

Consolidation
For decades, banks profited by simply holding customers' money and charging them check-writing fees and interest on loans. Jobs were well defined and stable, and the paths to promotion were clear and secure. Not anymore. Consolidation, competition, and technological change are shaking the industry to its core, forcing layoffs while creating opportunity.
Since Soludo’s 2005 deadline, over 50 large and small banks have merged and reduced to just 25, with an eye on building market share and/or increasing economies of scale. Today, a handful of recently consolidated giants — UBA, First bank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank — dominate the banking industry. The new behemoths are entering new markets, while replacing service personnel with online and other technologies. However, hiring by a growing number of non-banks compensates for this trend to a degree.

Risk
Record levels of consumer debt and personal bankruptcies, and drop in oil prices all threaten to dampen prospects for commercial banks. Protecting customer information and transaction data from cyber threats is another area banks are concerned with, and many are working to upgrade their enterprise protections. Because problems in the market inevitably affect banks, many are putting new emphasis on upgrading risk management capabilities in case something goes awry.

How It Breaks Down
The most important distinction for job seekers to keep in mind is the distinction between regional banks and the big global ones. Here, we've broken down the industry by type of banking, rather than size of player, since banks are increasingly adding new services to their array of traditional ones.

Consumer or Retail Banking
This is what most people think of when they think of banking: A small to mid-sized branch with tellers and platform officers—the men and women in suits sitting at the nice wooden desks with pen sets—to handle customers' day-to-day needs. Although thousands of small community banks, credit unions, and savings institutions still exist, employment opportunities in this sector are increasingly coming from a few megaplayers such as Oceanic bank, Zenith bank , Bank PHB, which have built national—and even international—banking operations.
In addition to extending their consumer-banking operations, many of the larger banks have added to their investment banking and asset management capabilities. So, make sure you're applying to the right part of a large diversified organization.

Business or Corporate Banking
Many of the players in this group are the same ones in the consumer banking business; others you'll find on the NSE and the forex market. At the highest level, the larger players (First Bank, Zenith Bank, Diamond Bank) provide a wide range of advisory and transaction management services to corporate clients. Depending on which institution and activity area you join, the work can resemble branch banking or investment banking.

Securities and Investments
Many of the commercial banks have aggressively added investment banking and asset management activities to their portfolios. For anyone interested in corporate finance, securities underwriting, and asset management, many of these firms offer an attractive option. Be aware, though, that hiring for these positions is frequently done separately from that for corporate and consumer banking.

Nontraditional Options
Increasingly, a number of nonbank entities are offering opportunities to people interested in financial services. Players include credit card companies such as MasterCard, and Visa. Although people at these firms are still in the money business, the specific jobs vary greatly, perhaps more widely than jobs at traditional banks do. In particular, given the volume of transactions that many of these organizations handle, opportunities for people with strong technical skills are excellent.

Job Prospects
The Nigerian domestic banking sector is rapidly growing, and new population centers are emerging all the time, so there will be new jobs available in new locations. Opportunities for bank tellers and back-office clerical workers stagnate, financial analysts, financial advisors, trust officers, marketing pros, and techies will enjoy growing opportunities.
In fact, many banks are actively preparing for the retirement of the baby boom generation by launching talent management programs designed to look at training, performance management, and workforce planning as related parts of a bigger whole. The emphasis on retail banking have created opportunities for people in banking to become providers of a suite of financial products, rather than just bank tellers. In coming years, look for more opportunities for financial services sales reps and fewer opportunities for loan officers and others with only a limited knowledge of the full array of financial products banks can now sell.

Love-Hate

What's Great
The Three Ps
The three Ps in banking are pay, portability, and promotions. As the line between investment and commercial banking continues to blur, commercial banks increasingly have to match Wall Street salaries. And, regardless of whether you join the commercial or investment banking ranks, you'll pick up skills that you can easily take with you to other jobs in finance.

Prima Donnas Need Not Apply
If you're just not the I-banking type and your selling style is less in-your-face than what most brokerages seem to be seeking, banking may be where you belong instead—unless, of course, you want to join the I-banking operations of one of these players. An MBA is helpful but not a prerequisite to future success. Your degree, graduate or undergraduate, doesn't have to be a highly prestigious one. You still need to be smart, detail-oriented, good with numbers and people, and resilient in the face of fairly constant change, but otherwise, most banks aren't high-stress, difficult places to work. And it's not against the rules to be nice to your colleagues.

What's To Hate
How Do You Feel About Change?
Mergers, competition, and evolving technology mean fewer jobs and more uncertainty. Even as you read this, banks are plotting and negotiating the next big banking acquisition or merger. They have to in order to survive. There was a time when all you had to do to keep your job at a bank was remain faithful and stroke the boss. These days, however, even faithful and competent sycophants are getting pink slips. When it comes to putting your career on the edge, banking is not Silicon Valley. But no one would mistake it for the civil service, either.

The Great Banking-Services Robbery
Brokerages, corporations, and insurance firms have snatched bank products and successfully made off with them. Banks no longer have payment processing, mortgages, or ATMs to themselves either. No matter what area of banking you're interested in, remember that brokerages and virtually every other type of financial institution are embarking upon an unstated mission—to make the banking job you want obsolete. Just so you know.

Bank on Longer Hours
Once upon a time, banking was a 9-to-5 job. But, increasingly, bankers' hours are coming to resemble those of brokers and consumer product marketers. What's more, as brokerages, securities firms, and insurance companies move into banking, their take-no-prisoners culture could mean even longer work hours for folks in the industry. Banking may still be better than a lot of jobs for semi-fast-track moms and as-yet-undiscovered Nollywood, but your getting home before 6:30 pm is now a mirage.