Commercial Banking is our business-to-business offering, helping businesses of all sizes to grow - from small enterprises to large multinationals. We provide expert advice and essential services dependent on business needs. These could include trade finance, global payments, multi-currency accounts, commercial cards and insurance, alongside many others.
Programme details
This is a 3-year Degree Apprenticeship that blends academic study with real-world learning.
You’ll complete a BSc (Hons) in Applied Retail and Commercial Banking via the University of Exeter.
Who you are
We’re looking for people who love building connections, supporting others, and making a real impact. You don’t need to know everything about banking – bring your curiosity and drive, and we’ll help with the rest.
This is a customer centric business which is focused on people and constantly evolving. So, you’ll need a flexible mindset to be able to deliver exceptional service in an ever-changing environment.
- A natural communicator: You express yourself clearly and enjoy helping others understand new concepts.
- A people person: You love getting to know people and building relationships.
- Fast-paced and detail-oriented: You can juggle different tasks, and work well under pressure, paying attention to detail and adapting when priorities shift.
- Team player: You enjoy working with others and you know success is always a team effort.
- Sense of ownership: You don’t wait for someone else to solve your problems, you take initiative and suggest solutions.
- Eager to learn: You’re curious by nature, always wanting to learn more and ready to pick up new knowledge.
- Self-aware: You understand how your actions and attitude affect others, and you want to grow both personally and professionally.
If you’re the kind of person who gets a buzz from helping others succeed – and loves the idea of being part of your clients’ story – we’d love to hear from you.
What you’ll do
From day one, you’ll be part of a dedicated team focused on building, growing, and protecting deep, trusted relationships with our Commercial Banking clients. You won’t just observe – you’ll play a role in helping clients succeed and safeguarding their legacy, while strengthening HSBC’s position as a trusted partner.
Here’s a taste of what you’ll get involved in:
- Work with specialist teams: See how Relationship Managers partner with experts across the bank to grow client relationships and deliver tailored financial solutions.
- Get early exposure to clients: You’ll start building connections from the outset, gaining insight into clients’ businesses, their goals, and how HSBC’s solutions – from sustainable supply chains to green bonds – can support their success, because their success is our success.
- Act as the link between HSBC and its clients: Support the team in getting to know clients inside out. That deep knowledge helps us ensure HSBC delivers the right solutions at the right time.
- See collaboration in action: Experience how we work across teams, geographies, and functions, including Legal, Credit, and Risk, to deliver for our clients.
- Get hands-on with real tasks: You’ll help create client presentations, reports, and credit papers; support strategic reviews and pitches; and conduct financial analysis and risk assessments on client portfolios and transactions.
What you’ll learn
Your journey kicks off with structured expert-led training to give you the technical know-how to hit the ground running. Your first few months will be about getting settled into HSBC and your first placement. Your apprenticeship qualification will begin in January.
Your Degree Apprenticeship programme will consist of four placements with client exposure from the very start.
Placements one and two focus on developing the skills and knowledge needed to understand how we support our clients, the services we offer, and the regulatory environment in which we operate.
By placements three and four, subject to performance, you could achieve a promotion and take on more advanced roles. This could be working in smaller, client facing teams with much greater autonomy, roles which require you to lead and initiate key projects to help better serve our clients, or take on a team leadership position, with accountability for the performance and development of others.
By the end of the Degree Apprenticeship programme, you’ll have a solid understanding of our products, who our customers are and how we serve them, and be set up for a permanent role within our client facing teams.
Eligibility criteria
- Available to work full time from October 2026 onwards
- A minimum of BCC across your top 3 A-levels (or equivalent)
- 5 GCSEs at grade 4/C or above, including Maths and English
- Fluent in English
Please note, all candidates will be invited to complete an assessment unless you declare you do not meet the criteria, and had no mitigating circumstances. If you have equivalent qualifications, we’ll need to check these with our training provider after your assessment to make sure they meet the required criteria.