UK 300: top banking, insurance and financial services employers

…as voted for by students and graduates

The UK 300 features the largest and most comprehensive annual survey of student opinion on graduate careers, employers and their own job hunts. The survey determines not only the most popular 300 graduate employers in the UK overall, but also the most popular graduate employers in a range of career sectors, including banking, insurance and financial services.

The top graduate employers for banking, insurance and financial services are listed in the table below. There have been considerable changes to the ranks this year – for example, Barclays has taken the top spot from the Bank of England (which falls to fifth) and Capital One is a new entry to the list, coming in at number eight.

The students and graduates surveyed who were interested in banking, insurance and financial services:

• were less likely than those interested in other finance careers to have completed an internship by their final year: 51% of final-year students interested in this sector had, compared to 56% for accounting and 63% for investment banking.
• valued a high starting salary more than the average student, with 29% ranking it a ‘very important’ factor when choosing between employers, compared to a 25% average.
• were more likely than average to want to connect with employers over networking evenings/dinners (at 44% versus 39%) and to have done so: 25% had attended an employer networking event and 11% had attended an invitation-only event (compared to an average of 22% and 10% respectively).

Percentages have been rounded.

Over 74,700 students and graduates took part in the Trendence UK Graduate Survey, which formed the basis of the results in the UK 300.

1

Barclays

Last year: 2

Financial services and insurance

up

2

HSBC

Last year: 4

Financial services and insurance

up

3

Bloomberg

Last year: 5

Financial services and insurance, IT and technology, Media, journalism and publishing

up

4

HM Revenue and Customs

Last year: 3

Public service, charity and social work

down

5

Bank of England

Last year: 1

Financial services and insurance

down

6

Lloyds Banking Group

Last year: 6

Accountancy and financial management, Financial services and insurance, Insurance, Retail banking, Investment banking and investment, Risk management & control

same

7

American Express

Last year: 7

Financial services and insurance

same

9

Santander

Last year: 8

Financial services and insurance

down

10

Lloyd's

Last year: 10

Financial services and insurance

same

View the full UK 300 list of top employers

View related sector lists: Top accounting and financial management graduate employers and Top investment banking and investment graduate employers