Banking careers and jobs are among the most sought-after ones in India. Among all categories or sub-domains, retain banking has been of the most common and popular job functions in the banking domain. In this post, we will talk about retail banking careers and jobs; especially in the age of automation and AI.
Retail Banking Careers and Jobs
In the Age of Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Co-authored by Parinita Gupta
What is Retail Banking?
Retail banking, also known as consumer banking, is the typical mass-market banking in which individual customers use local branches of larger commercial banks. Retail banking provides customers with a range of banking services, from current accounts, credit cards, personal loans and mortgages to savings, investments, insurance and wealth management. In retail banking, the focus is on the individual consumer.
Retail banking aims to be the one-stop shop for as many financial services as possible on behalf of individual retail clients. According to Cambridge Dictionaries “Retail Bank is a bank which provides services to the person or individual customer or small-scale business rather than large companies, organizations, corporations, or government”. Retail banking completely deals with companies, trading’s, securities, initial public offerings, M&A’s, etc., and wholesale banking etc.
In the UK, Retail banks are called high street banks while in the US, they are termed as commercial banks. while in the US, they are termed as commercial banks.
Products and Services offered by Retail Banks
Retail banks generally provide the services like savings accounts, overdrafts, personal loans, mortgages, credit/debit cards, safe deposit boxes, and certificates of deposit, mortgage services, ATM services etc, of an individual. It includes the banking services savings and transactional accounts, mortgages, loans, debit, and credit services.
Credit, Deposit, and Money management services are considered to be the most important functions of retail banking which is performed by every retail bank. Deposit services include the services like saving accounts while credit services include loans and credit cards .
Money management means handling both the deposits and credits i.e. the inflow and outflow of money from a bank to individuals and from individual’s to banks. Most popular retail banks in the United States are Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo.
Read: Mobile Wallet War Poised to Create More Business and Jobs in India
How do Retail Banks Work?
Retail banks generally follow the rotation system. They utilize the consumer’s deposit and give back as loans or credit cards at a certain rate of interest. Most of the banks deal with retail and corporate banking and the Federal Reserve which is considered to be nation’s central bank which regulates these retail banks. Federal Reserve will allow the retail banks to keep 10% of the total deposit available and liquid while 90% of the deposits can be offered as loans, or can give credit to the consumers. During the shortage, the Federal Reserve allows the retail bank to borrow the money from other banks and this process is called Federal fed.
Topmost retail banks in India are State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank (Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India), HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank. IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Baroda, and Yes Bank.
Retail banking also include Trade & Forex, Credit Risk
Trade & Forex is, also known as foreign exchange. Forex or currency trading is a decentralized global market. It is the place where all the world’s currencies trade. It is the largest, most liquid market in the world where the transactions are done for each and every second.
Credit Risk – A credit risk is the risk of an individual on a debt from a borrower’s failure to repay a loan or meet contractual obligations. It generally refers to the risk that a lender may not receive the owed principal and interest, which results in an disturbances and delays in cash flows and also increases the costs for collection.
Since 90% of entire country’s currency is in rotation through these retail banks, there is a lot of scope and growth in retail sector banks. There are many career opportunities specially opened for the finance graduates.
Required Qualifications and Skills to make a career in Retail Banking Sector
Any aspirant who wants to join retail banks as an employee should have the minimum qualification bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting, and economics or any degree discipline. Aspirants should possess excellent managerial skills like Interpersonal skills, listening skills and good customer handling skills to become an executive level employee in the retail banking sector.
Job in Retail Banking
- Customer advisor – Customer advisor is the one who completely deals with the customers and ensures the development of a customer portfolio with the bank. There is a lot of scope for customer advisor and he can become a wealth management Manager, general management Manager, business development manager etc.
- Online account manager – Online account manager is similar to the bank manager who takes care of the bank services like customers , prospects and advising on products and services etc. The only difference between the Online manager and the bank manager is an online account manager will provide these services over the phone and through online only. This role has a lot of scopes these days as digital money is becoming more than the liquid flow.
- Account manager – Account manager is also called Commercial account manager who helps the local authorities and associations develop their activities with the main bank.
- Welcome agent – Welcome agent generally welcome’s the customers and help them in meeting the day-to-day needs and perform basic banking transactions.
- Branch manager – Branch manager’s main role is supervising commercial relations with customers and finding new customers. He will also be responsible for cash flow in the bank and also with the adjustments with other similar or different banks. He is also responsible for regional market analysis, sales strategy and implementation etc.
How to Find and Get Retail Banking Jobs
The first and foremost thing to get a job in the Retail banking sector isshould be a graduate from finance or accounting background.
- Find Vacancies – Retail banks generally post the job vacancies on their official website or portal. They will advertise the vacancies and hold careers fairs and events to find the candidates.
- Assessment centres – Joining Assessment centres help you to assess yourself and allows you to understand which role suits you more. Assessment centres assess the candidates with the help of group exercises, case studies, in-tray exercises and psychometric tests.
- Internships – Larger Organisations give the aspirants a chance to join the organisations through formal internships to check the aspirants work experience and knowledge towards the subject. If the aspirant performs well in an internship, then he will be hired directly by the organisation. You can find the internship details in the official portal of the bank.
Employment Outlook in the Retail Banking Sector
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, opportunities in the Retail banking sector is expected to grow by 8% from 2016 to 2026. The demand for qualified students from finance, accounting, and economics are quite very.
Salaries in retail and commercial banking
Graduates can start on a range of salaries, Rs 414,077 per year and the median salary range from Rs 414,077
Future of Retail Banking Jobs in the Age of Automation and AI
Remember the good old bank clerk who used to update your pass book? He is hardly seen these days due to automation and technoligical disruptions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics reduce the need for staff in back-office job roles. Traditional jobs such as passbook updating, cash deposit, verification of know-your-customer details, salary uploads are going digital increasing job redundancies. The likes of Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are pushing the boundaries of technology by implementing robotics to centralise operations and for quicker turnarounds in things like loan processing and selling financial products to customers. This is reducing the need for a manual worker at the back end.
The Indian banking industry has been witnessing a slow transition from people-driven to machines controlled in the past few years. The technological development, which has made banking easier, has also led to a slowdown in the hiring of staff at banks. Although there have been hirings, the nature of skill sets required is changing with a lot more focus on the front end talent.
“Low-end back office jobs like data entries will no longer be required in the next three years. The rate of growth of new jobs in the banking sector will definitely come down,” says Saurabh Tripathi, senior partner and director at BCG.
“Low-skill workers do not have a bright future. They will have to reskill or perish.” A sign of things to come is being witnessed at HDFC Bank, the country’s most valuable lender and the most expensive one among top lenders. The bank has not only been slowing branch expansion and hirings, it has also been reducing overall headcount even as it remains the gold standard of banking in India.
Some bankers and observers have suggested that only the boring parts of jobs, drudgery like data entry and filling out forms, will disappear so the humans will be able to focus on more interesting tasks, and that no actual jobs will be lost.
Bank employees themselves seem to think this. In an Accenture survey released (earlier in 2018) of 1,300 nonexecutive bank employees, 67% said they believe AI will improve their work-life balance, and 57% expect it will expand their career prospects.
Keeping everything in mind, it’s only wise to get re-skilled or up-skilled. Read the following articles to know more about the scopes & impact of technology and automation in the banking sector.
Scopes of Big Data and Analytics in Banking
Scopes of Machine Learning and AI in Banking
Scopes of Automation and UX/UI in Banking