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.

In our Unofficial Guide to Banking, 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. With clients ranging from individuals to businesses, or even governments and nation states, banks are typically organisations that are as complex as they are large, playing a part in people’s lives across the world.

Deutsche Bank hires graduates, interns and apprentices across the organisation. Some of these are outlined below but we recommend you visit both the Unofficial Guide to Banking and our careers website for all vacancies.

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

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.

Investment Banking & Capital Markets provides strategic advice and capital markets solutions that help clients build their businesses. To put it another way, they link companies that need funding with investors who 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 support the client’s growth.

Roles in Investment Banking & Capital Markets 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 that clients 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 in FIC buy and sell products like debt (bonds) and commodities (like oil and natural gas), as well as executing 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 right technology can give a competitive edge. With emerging applications, like Blockchain and AI, transforming the banking industry and the increasing significance of the Cloud, institutions are investing vast sums in tech – employing thousands of people to develop and maintain it.

Data and digitisation can help with everything from compliance to enhancing sustainable practices. On the trading floor innovation is making trades faster, more competitive, and more profitable, and finding the right technology, then making that technology better, is crucial to every part of a bank.

This is not an exhaustive list of all divisions at Deutsche Bank. Please visit the Deutsche Bank Careers website for a more comprehensive overview.