In today’s world, the moment someone completes his/her graduation or post graduation in commerce/finance, they start looking for a career which is lucrative as well as stable in the longer term. One such option is a career in Investment Banking Operations.
Investment Banks (IB) in India have grown big time since their initiation in the 19th century and some of the institutions like HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities, BNP Paribas, IDBI, Barclays Bank, JP Morgan India, have penetrated in the Indian stock markets and have made a mark for themselves within a span of 10 to 15 years.
Of the many places in India, cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Kolkatta have become the hub of opportunities in the IB space. MNCs like Broadridge, Franklin Templeton, JP Morgan, State Street Bank, Bank of America, Genpact, Invesco, Wells Fargo, etc have outsourced a lot of business to Hyderabad, which is predominantly related to IB Operations. Even some of the IT giants like Cognizant, Wipro, TCS, Accenture have also acquired business from various Investment Banking clients located world-wide for which they keep hiring associates in bigger numbers, thereby making way for candidates with good financial industry knowledge and communication skills.
Experience matters a lot in terms of salaries in investment banking industry. You will make more money as you get more exposure and learn more skills.
To get an entry into Investment Banking Operations one needs to know some basics concepts like mergers & acquisitions, issue of share capital, working capital loans, buybacks, proprietary trading, underwriting, asset management, etc. This apart they should also be aware of the various capital market instruments that are issued and actively traded in the market.
To name a few, one must know about Equities, Fixed Income or bonds, Money Market, FX, Mutual Funds and Derivatives Market. Knowledge of Trade Life Cycle, Settlement of trades, Reconciliations, Regulatory framework, Corporate Actions, Asset Management, etc is an added advantage.
From a qualification perspective, most of these Investment Banks prefer post graduates in business administration with strong communication skills and reasonable knowledge of excel skills.
The growth one can expect in this industry is mind boggling and in a very short span of time, salaries take a steep hike. A person can start his career in back office functions and head towards the front office via the middle office. Anyone with reasonable skill set can keep moving around back office doing functions like settlements, corporate actions or reconciliation and eventually head towards front office functions like sales and trading. The middle office takes care of primary tasks related to legal and compliance and would make sure that there are adequate profit and loss control measures. They also ensure that the stakeholders are adhering to the norms specified by SEBI.
To cater to this ever-increasing demand of learning these concepts, the aspirants need to understand the complete Trade Life Cycle of the traded products and also build on complementary skills like team handling, presentations, time management, etc. that help them in the longer run in the IB domain.
Wishes to all the aspirants for a successful career in Investment Banking Operations.
