BFSI Business Interaction

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
A GOLDMAN
SACHS
SUPPORTED
STARTUP AT
IIMB’S
NSRCEL
Career Conversation
Corporate Finance
&
Risk Management
by
Debraj Banerjee
Head- India Investments,
Nithia Capital Resources Advisors LLP

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
 What is Finance? Why is it one of the coveted career options in MBA campus?
 What do we need to be found suitable to be a Finance professional
 Any mantra for success ? Secret sauce?
 Growth aspects? Finance is considered to be a rewarding work stream!
 Apart from professional aspects, what else is required?
 How can MBA Help?
 Current Market – SWOT of a career in finance
 Preparation for the interview rounds

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
Finance is the expression that tries to provide a rationale to explain the relation
between cost, quality and time. It includes but is not limited to the following
areas of activity:-
Finance is the
measurement of
marginal utility of any
investment….
And more often than not, the right question is what we
don’t spend time upon while solving for the above
Cost Control
Brokerage
Commercial/ Pvt / Investment
Banking / NBFC / HFC
Regulatory reporting &
compliance
Treasury
Corporate Finance/ Investor
Relations
Wealth & Custodian services
Advisory
FinTech | Block Chain
Accounting
Hedge | PE | VC Fund
 One needs to handle a lot of variables, both internal and external, follow strict guidelines in the field of finance
 The economies of scale and scope can be easily applied | remunerations are based on the size of portfolio handled
 Long hours and often arduous meetings are involved
 Everyone is serious when it comes to money!!!

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
 Display understanding of what is the task at hand
 Show that she/he has relative prior experience
 Exhibit relationships and awareness of the job in
question
 Demonstrate discipline and strong ethical values
 Be calm and composed under pressure & deadlines
 Demonstrate objectivity in her/his approach
 Provide examples of continuous engagement and
awareness of business
 Correlate with regulatory and compliance policy
changes that impact business
 Showcase technically and numerical superiority
So the right candidate shall be able to:-

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
 Power point and Excel Files- You
can’t survive without them!
Skillsets Required
 However, explosion of Big Data has
ensured that analytics are being
used in a big way!
 But whatever it may be, core
accounting skills still hold the key!

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
 Diligence | Active networking | executive presence | awareness
 Firefighting to be the order of the day!
 Ability to survive repetitive work and scope may not be well defined
 Relationship & Stakeholder management
Mantra for Success

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
• Mostly front office roles
• Cater to financial management, short and long term fund management and capital structure of an
organization, bank. Defined mostly by buy side and sell side roles. Buy side are mostly on the investment
side ( Investment companies, brokerage, FO’s, Pension funds, Insurance companies, etc. ) whereas sell
side is investment banking, treasury, corporate finance roles at companies and banks.
• Other roles offered are in Strategy and Operations, that exist in , investment companies, banks, fintech,
etc.
Corporate Finance
Risk Management
• Mostly middle office or back office roles
• Cater to market risk, credit risk and operations risk management. A lot of consulting roles are also
offered in this domain. Technology is now a core competency for the same.
• Roles exits, across banks, investment companies, FI’s, Fintech, Companies having large operations,
consulting firms.
• Other associated roles are in compliance, AML, financial crime, etc.

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
Career Growth
 Normally big financials institutions shall have long career ladders; but new age banks, investment banking,
lending institutions, others have a flat structure.
 Typically, Middle level management starts at Senior Manager and thereafter continues to Assistant Vice
President, Vice President, Senior Vice President, Executive Vice President, President and then MD& CEO
 In Investment firms, it will be, Associate, Senior Associate, Principal, Vice President, Director, Managing
Director, Managing Partner, etc.
 Ideally, a middle level entrée should be at senior manager, AVP, VP or senior associate levels based on
relevant experience
 Financial organizations have variables attuned to performance and so it is not uncommon to receive,
incentives, ESOPs ( employee stock options), etc. that may be as high or even bigger than your fixed pay.
Of course, the downside is that in the years of lower performances, there’s a huge dent to your take home
sums
 Aforesaid is for sales driven jobs; however for operations related functions or risk strategy/management, the
salaries (A comparative is provided on the Michael Page website) are more or less standardized and have a
more hierarchical structure.

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
 Analytical bent of mind; always have comparatives, use cases to analyze
 Be very market focused. Always know that there is someone or the other who
would know more than you. So it is best that you continue augmenting your
knowledge
 Develop good communication and presentation skills. In Finance, the leaders are
those who can present their cases well
 Have an ability to synthesize. This entails a lot of core technical knowledge
competency. For example,
 As an investment banker, what suggestion can you provide to ITC Group today?
 As per RBI, Banks in India need to recast their loans and move away from Libor based pricing or
contractual obligations. As a risk consultant, what will be your recommendation and plans to implement the
same for a Bank X?
What else is required?

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
 A crisp presentation of all the skills necessary to take a financial decision can be provided by a well informed and
read MBA candidate
 The candidate should be able to articulate strategy in various ways but the best is the objective and simplified
version. Can you do so?
 Finance and Accounting – annual statements, NPV, ROI, Cash Flow Analysis, etc.- Can you ace it and be confident
about your base knowledge?
 Data analysis-For e.g., Can you do a MonteCarlo simulation to assess the expected behavior of a portfolio? Or, can
you do a regression test to find strong correlation of variable that provide causality of a certain occurrence in
customer data?
 Basics of corporate finance-What is CAPM? A Cross section model or a time series model?
 Basics of risk management-Can you quantify the credit risk, operating risk and market risk of a banking book?
 Operations – Can the candidate understand how to design the process flow for a particular assignment/ project and
run it independently with proper governance?
 OB and HRM – Do you understand how an organogram be designed with proper incentivization that is suitable for
the case in point?
 Marketing – How do you go to the market with your strategy? What is STP for a fintech insurance product?
How can MBA help?
Synthesize, operationalize, execute

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
 Strengths: Is technical in nature | can correlate to most of the things that are
happening around | can be rewarding if the right career is chosen
 Weakness: Is comparatively repetitive; requires long hours | Stakeholder management
is pretty challenging | change management is forever ongoing
 Opportunities: New age development and the explosion of Big Data and Fintech with
mobile usage presents a huge Digital revolution in India. The inset of derivatives and
the inclusion of private and foreign players may make the investment space more
vibrant. Investment houses who were predominantly looking at only real estate are
now more and more looking to invest in healthcare, technology, others. Foreign Banks
are looking at more risk weighted returns and diversification of assets; economies like
Dubai, Hong Kong, Vietnam ( other SEA countries as well) are at an advantage
position
 Threats: Traditional Banking can be wiped off in the next decade. Automation like
voice and eye imaging to be used in credit underwriting. Small financial institutions are
always challenged with existential issues on account of ever changing policy paradigm
and eventful economic downturns
Analysis of a career in finance

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
Preparing for the interview rounds
 Case in Point
 Analyze at least 50 Annual reports with your peers; be well versed with
relevant ratio definitions for each industry. ( This will help in doing a
fundamental analysis)
 Be well read- Be disciplined to go through papers such as Business
Standard, Mint, Business News channels, Bloomberg, etc. and be aware of
the Monetary Policy, Stock Market reactions, Budgets, etc. that provide a
macroeconomic view.
 Have an ability to make sense of charts
 Have role play based mock interviews
 Be thorough in concepts; Have a framework in mind (practiced) to follow
when provided a strategy related or case study based interview question
 Have a view of the major sectors of business in the country and if possible,
know what is happening elsewhere such as China, US, BRICS, PIGS, Asian
Tigers, Eurozone, etc.

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
Corporate Finance:
• For working professionals , post MBA, roles open up in
mostly, operations and technology. Front office roles are
limited. However, with certain focus on positioning, this
may be possible. Candidate may need to grind from the
starting levels.
• Career Growth: Ideally, may start from an Senior
Manager/AVP position post MBA ( with work exp).
However, its very subjective.
• Challenges: Learning curve is pretty steep; experience
matters; However, new age structures are more flat in
nature.
• Key success factors: Ability to start small, and scale.
Remuneration, seniority may be compromised but can
be achieved later
• Leverage MBA:
• Pick up many corporate finance electives, and/or target a
professional certification
• Consider doing an internship ( even if it is without pay) with a
FSI. Helps a lot
• Network | Network | Network. Study live cases and
understand what markets are all about.
• Books: Aplenty. Read whatever about the subject but put a
structure around it.
• My biggest takeaway: Ability to accept my shortcomings, pick
up analytical skills and ability to understand technicalities of
the business. Further, everyone has her/his own career path.
In a nutshell
Risk Management:
• For working professionals , post MBA, roles open up in
mostly, in controls functions, operations and technology.
This is a middle/back office role.
• Candidate may need to grind from the starting levels.
• Career Growth: Ideally, may start from an Senior
Manager/AVP position post MBA ( with work exp).
However, its very subjective.
• Challenges: Learning curve is pretty steep; experience
matters; However, new age structures are more flat in
nature. This is a continuously evolving area.
• Key success factors: Ability to start small, and scale.
Remuneration, seniority may be compromised but can
be achieved later
• Leverage MBA:
• Understand nuances of business from a risk perspective,
and/or target a professional certification
• Consider doing an internship (even if it is without pay) with a
FSI. Helps a lot
• Network | Network | Network. Please organize industry
exchange more frequently
• Books: Aplenty. Read whatever about the subject but put a
structure around it.
• My biggest takeaway: That Risk is a strategy and not a
function. You need to be really involved to understand this
nuanced subject.

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
• Finance Industry
Can be subdivided into
• Orthodox (Vint-age)
– Commercial Bkg
– Investment Bkg
– NBFC
– Insurance
– Advisory
• Heterodox ( New-age)
– Fund Management
– Family Office
– Fintech
– GRCTech
– Disc. Brokerage
– Trade firms
– Alternative Funds
– Inhouse M&A
– Startups
Career changeover discussions
• Relevance
• While the orthodox setup provides minimal
options for exp. Professionals, the heterodox
set offers the maximum level playing area
• But the cohort of today should understand
what is the strategy to make into this sector
• One size fits all can’t be the solution
• Leverage your strength
• Technology & Data are the tombstones of the
FI space from hereon Such opportunities have
thrown the door wide open for talent that don’t
necessarily have the exp. Of a typical
professional who has worked in this for a
decade
• Choose to showcase your actual skill that can
land you in a favourable position.

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GoCrackIt – Your Career Our Mission
Questions??
Thank you!