The financial services industry is built on trust; customers must know their best interests are being protected. In many parts of the industry, trust has been supplemented by lots of government regulation aimed at protecting customers, investors and the economy.
Legal professionals tend to directly work in banking and finance as corporate finaciers or mergers and acquisitions (M&A) professionals. Many legal professional enter the advising on corporate law as well as the compliance side of banks and financial institutions.
Banmking and Finance is all about legal ownership of securities, derivatives and other finacial instrument, which in effect, are legal contracts of ownership. In constructing these legal owenership contract legal professional that have a great understanding of banking, finance and business play a huge role in the effectiveness of the banking and finance sector.
The compliance department ensures that internal controls and regulatory processes are carried out, that records are kept and that issues are identified before a customer’s interests are damaged, or the regulator takes action.
Compliance staff monitor many different procedures and processes, which break down into a number of categories.
The selling of mortgages and investment advice are both regulated areas of business. This means that the people selling these services must have the right qualifications and the sales processes must be carefully documented, so that any mis-selling can be identified at the earliest opportunity.
Compliance plays a very important role in ensuring that the selling of these services and the processes behind them comply with regulatory requirements and with the financial services company’s own standards. No bank or other financial services company wants to be hit by a mis-selling scandal.
There are a great many other regulations that banks and insurers need to apply to their operations. These include:
- Anti-money-laundering regulations all financial services institutions have to have processes in place to prevent criminals from depositing money gained through crime in the banking system
- Data protection rules banks and insurers have to comply with data protection laws.
- General duty of care all banks and insurers have a general duty of care to their customers, in order to ensure that customers are sold the right product for their needs.
- Banking Code this is the code that all banks must follow in order to ensure that customers receive good service.
- Treating Customers Fairly this is new legislation that formalises the duty of care. It requires banks and insurers to put in place specific compliance procedures to ensure that the products customers are sold are appropriate for them.
How do I get a graduate scheme / internship / entry level job or career in Law in Banking & Finance?
Obtaining a graduate scheme, internship or entry level role in banking & finance law can be very challenging and competitive – though very achievable by getting your application, CV, interview and general approach right. You can guarantee that ninety percent of applicants for banking & finance law roles will not know how to apply, so getting your application in the top ten percent makes things a lot more achievable.
Approaching the company in the right way will make all the difference. Combining the right approach with a strong interview (and in some cases assessment centre) writ a strong focused tailored CV will go a long way. Make sure you have gone through the free videos on this sight by entering your name and email address in the top right of this screen underneath the video. Once you have filled this in you will have instant access to everything you need to secure your career in banking & finance law.
Top 5 Graduate Recruiters in Compliance / Corporate Finance (In no order)
- Morgan Stanley
- Goldman Sachs
- UBS
- Barclays Capital
- JP Morgan
Top 5 Banking & Finance Legal Institutions (In no order)
- Clifford Chance
- Freshfields Bruckhouse Deringer
- Linklaters
- Allen & Overy
- Slaughter and May
