Legal Beagle Banking

Very, very important!

Banks process millions of transactions every year; they advise hundreds of clients; money flows on every desk. As such, the legal implications are huge. Banks after all need to do the right thing.

Compliance is there to ensure that ethical standards are respected, and they weed out dishonest staff (note: banks prefer honesty and integrity to brightness and ambition, which is not surprising given that we deal with money).

Compliance also monitors staff’s dealings in securities for their own account; we need to make sure that activities such as insider trading are not carried out. The legal department of a large investment bank usually employs bright lawyers that ensure the interests of the bank are protected at all times.

Banking is a regulated activity, and since the intervention in 2008, the oversight has dramatically increased. One word of advice, do not enroll in a bank, thinking you can become rich by using insider information: you will get caught, I can guarantee that. It might take months or years, but it will catch up with you, wherever you are. One of the banks for which I worked employed ex-FBI agents to run their compliance department, so beware!

Middle and Back Office

Legal and Compliance

Information and Technology

Human Resources

Traders

Sales Personel

Structurer

Corporate Financier

Private Banking

Glossary

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