The Unofficial Guide to Banking

Banking is not always straightforward. But that’s something we want to change. With the help of Deutsche Bank graduates, we’ve created this no-nonsense guide to the world of banking.

Here, you’ll discover what banks do, how the different business areas operate, what skills you’ll need, where you could fit in and how to get a foot in the door. It’s the ultimate introduction to life in banking – and your chance to discover where a career at Deutsche Bank could take you.

Put simply, banks provide services for people or organisations who want to borrow, lend, and invest money. They are often huge, complex organisations that play a part in people’s lives in every corner of the world, with clients ranging from individuals to businesses, and even the governments and central banks of entire countries.

In Asset Management, there’s one objective: generating income for clients. This is done by directing a client’s capital into a range of investments. These are chosen carefully by balancing risk, opportunity, and other variables such as timeframes and other investments in a client’s portfolio.

On behalf of their clients, an Asset Management team might invest in stocks, bonds, property or foreign exchange to help a client meet their investment goals. These are just some examples of common investments.

Research provides financial analysis across various asset classes – a grouping of similar investments. The Bank’s research team analyses relevant trends in financial markets, the economy and society as well as highlights risks and opportunities, and acts as a consultant for clients and stakeholders.

Essentially, Research is about delivering high-quality, independent analysis that helps investors understand markets and promotes public debate on various issues.

Origination & Advisory provides strategic advice and capital markets products that help clients build their businesses. To put it another way, they link companies that need money with investors that can provide it.

On behalf of its client, the bank will issue debt or shares, and sell it on the global market to pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds and private individuals. The money this raises can then be used to fund the client’s growth.

Roles in Origination & Advisory can broadly be divided into two categories; origination teams, who work with clients to understand their needs and identify new business opportunities, and product teams, who develop and execute specialist solutions within capital markets or by providing advice they may require.

At Deutsche Bank, roles in our Fixed Income & Currencies (FIC) business can largely be broken down into four areas: Sales, Trading, Structuring and Financing.

Although this is just one part of a bank’s work, it is where a lot of its commercial activities take place. In simple terms, traders buy and sell products like debt (bonds) and commodities (like oil and natural gas) and execute foreign exchange deals to make an incremental profit and/or hedge risk.

Sales, Trading, Structuring and Financing encompass the following asset classes: Interest Rates, Foreign Exchange (FX), Credit and Emerging Markets.

The Infrastructure divisions perform control and service functions across the bank, in particular tasks relating to, human resources, operations, finance, audit, legal and compliance, as well as financial services such as risk management and regulation. Some will have begun their careers in banking, but many will have crossed over from a similar role in a different industry. And as banks become more heavily regulated, they depend more on teams of specialists in each division.

Individuals with substantial wealth often have complex financial arrangements and want to ensure that their asset portfolios are generating the best possible returns. They’ll work with a specialist advisor at a bank with in-depth knowledge of financial markets and investment opportunities who will understand their perspective and help them reach their goals.

Wealth Managers work in a consultative way, getting advice from experts and offering appropriate products and solutions.

The Retail Bank provides products and services like loans, mortgages and current accounts to individuals and small companies. There’s much more to it than high-street branches and call centres. It’s a huge, complex and competitive business where customers want the latest digital technology without losing access to personal advice.

Opportunities in retail range from front-line customer service and branch management to relationship management and product development. People with aptitude can progress quickly and get the chance to study for professional qualifications.

The Corporate Bank partners with clients such as financial institutions, investors and issuers to shape the future of financial services together.

Corporate bankers specialise in offering clients the best products and solutions to make the most of their companies’ financial management. They provide them with services like liquidity management, foreign exchange, payment, trade finance and credit solutions.

It’s a huge and complex business where clients expect the latest technology, personalised advice and the benefits of broader industry expertise.

The right technology can give one bank the edge over the competition and plays a big part in compliance with regulations that continue to evolve. It’s now less to do with IT support, and rather about emerging trends set to transform the industry like Blockchain and AI, and the increasing significance of the Cloud. That’s why institutions invest vast sums in tech and employ tens of thousands of people to develop and maintain it. It’s most evident on the trading floor, where it makes trades faster, more competitive, and more profitable, but technology, and making technology better, is crucial to every part of a bank.