Retail banking
Retail banking is about identifying individual customers’ day-to-day and longer-term banking needs and offering the appropriate products and services to meet them. Customer requirements include everyday transaction needs (eg withdrawing and depositing money), retirement planning, buying a home, borrowing money, managing savings and taking out insurance policies.
Since the consumer explosion in the 1970s, retail banks have had to learn a great deal from high-street shops: banks are now often called ‘stores’ and now take measures to compete for customers’ business, for example through marketing financial products and creating an attractive, customer-focused environment.
The main focus of work at branch or store level is in the front office, meeting customers face to face and dealing with everyday transactions, enquiries and problems. There are also head office roles, although you are more likely to start your career on the shop floor to gain a thorough understanding of the business. Retail banking is all about people, so you will spend most of your time working in teams and building relationships with colleagues and customers. You can have a good work/life balance, although this may vary according to your level of ambition.
Starting out in retail banking
Retail banking is competitive. Getting some work experience or part-time work, especially in a sales or customer-focused environment, can be a real advantage when it comes to interviews, as you will be able to use specific examples to illustrate your answers.
Graduate trainee programmes often last for two years. In your first year you’ll learn the ropes through shadowing and placements in different customer-facing roles, in anticipation of taking on management responsibility. In the second year you might start to deputise for managers as a prelude to your first management role. This might be as a retail branch manager for a small store, as a sales and service manager in a larger branch or in a relationship manager role, where you would be dealing with high net-worth (ie well-off) personal customers.
Skills for graduate retail banking jobs
You will thrive in retail banking if you are consistently positive, calm in a crisis, versatile, able to make decisions quickly and well organised.
Above all, you need to enjoy working with people: lots of people think banking is just about numbers, but that’s what the computers do. The ability to listen effectively, work in teams, build relationships with colleagues and customers, and genuinely care about people is essential.
You will learn the necessary technical skills on the job, so you can apply with any degree background. Recruiters seek candidates who have the right verbal and written communication skills, a positive attitude to customers, problem-solving ability and leadership potential.
The challenge in retail banking is to be an all-rounder, but one of the most rewarding aspects is managing people. You’ll be able to make a difference to the happiness and professional success of your staff, as well as to your customers’ lives, for example by helping someone to buy their first home or start their own business.
Tim Miller is an area retail manager for HSBC Bank plc. He has a BA in economics and politics from the University of Exeter.
