What’s on offer
The scope of jobs on offer in B-2-B advice is quite mind-boggling. You could choose from literally hundreds of areas, such as commercial mortgages, mergers and acquisitions investment, asset based lending, fleet finance, leasing, trade credit - or just pure banking and commercial lending. Featured here are just some of the key roles you’ll come across.
Business Adviser/Customer Relationship Manager
In the corporate finance world, Relationship Managers provide the single point of contact and coordinated access to the bank’s range of products and services. Your role would be to work closely with clients, identifying and understanding their needs and then devising and implementing appropriate solutions.
Key responsibilities
- Running through business plans, suggesting potential options to market services and grow a business.
- Investigating financial options, such as loans, grants etc.
- Marketing the products and services offered by the bank that best meet their needs.
- Visiting clients’ premises to assess the quality of facilities and management.
- Maintaining ongoing relationships with clients, reviewing their business and product needs.
With experience, corporate bankers can specialise in a certain type of finance or transaction, sharing technical expertise. Within the larger global banks there are multiple product areas, including invoice finance, treasury and capital management or asset finance.
| Starting salary | Business Advisers within the corporate banking environment usually start on between £15,000 - £25,000 a year |
|---|---|
| Potential earnings | Experienced Business Managers can earn well over £60,000. |
| Entry requirements | Experience in an advisory capacity is vital. You’ll need to have professional qualifications and specialist knowledge, which comes only from experience. |
| Professional qualifications |
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| Apprenticeships | Foundation and Modern Apprenticeships for bank cashier and junior customer service roles may be available. Contact www.careerswales.com |
| Promotional prospects |
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Credit/Research Analyst
Whether lending on commercial property or funding a new development, your job would involve weighing up the many risk factors. You would need to take a dispassionate view – doing the nitty-gritty work, assessing how likely they are to default on a payment or other financial package proposed and checking whether the business case is secure enough. You’d be asking what insurance clients have in place and what efforts have been made to reduce hazards. Basically, your job would be to minimise your company’s financial loss.
Key responsibilities
- Checking the credit worthiness of a client and what security they are offering.
- Assessing various types of lending proposals, from very straightforward to complex.
- Deciding whether a customer is an attractive proposition or risky and what terms you will offer.
- Adjusting standard terms or imposing extra charges to reflect a risk.
- Meeting with clients, gathering information about the purpose of the loan, business strategy and business case.
- Overseeing ‘high-risk’ portfolios with many different elements worth millions of pounds.
| Starting salary | £20,000 to £35,000 |
|---|---|
| Potential earnings | Senior analysts can command anything from £40,000 to £60,000. |
| Entry requirements | Most are graduates. A degree in finance, business or economics would be an advantage. |
| Professional qualifications |
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| Apprenticeships | Graduate programmes and fast track schemes may be available within larger companies. |
| Promotional prospects |
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Details about the role of insurance underwriter feature in the FSSC Insurance and Risk Management fact sheet.
Insurance Broker
These are the middle people, liaising with insurance companies and corporate clients to track down the most appropriate insurance cover at the best price. With so many strands and potential risks, businesses have many complex requirements, each of which must be tailored to their specific needs. Some insurance cover is a legal obligation. Using your knowledge of the insurance markets, you’ll be presenting options that put your clients’ best interests first. You’ll need to be scrupulously honest and discreet, as you’ll have access to highly confidential information.
Key responsibilities
- Compiling and providing reports to insurance underwriters.
- Carrying out surveys and negotiating terms with the underwriters, gathering quotes from various sources.
- Resolving claims and negotiating settlements with insurers, processing and filing all the relevant paperwork quickly and efficiently.
- Liaising with other professional people, such as surveyors, loss adjusters and claims managers.
| Starting salary | £10,000 to £22,000 |
|---|---|
| Potential earnings | Experienced insurance brokers can earn up to £40,000. The most successful can earn in excess of £100,000. |
| Entry requirements | Employers recruit from various academic backgrounds. Many prefer at least two A levels. |
| Professional qualifications |
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| Apprenticeships | Foundation and Modern Apprenticeships may be available for insurance intermediaries. |
| Promotional prospects |
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Venture Capitalist
Budding entrepreneurs need somewhere to go knocking for vital funds to get their ideas moving from the drawing board to the boardroom. Hit BBC show Dragon’s Den has pushed the world of venture capital into living rooms, illustrating the importance of this role for aspiring business people. You’ll need a nose for opportunity and plenty of commercial wisdom. People are usually looking to you for money, in return for a stake in the business. The larger the earning potential, the more likely you’ll be to invest.
In this business, everyone has ‘the prettiest baby’. Rejecting a commercial proposition requires plenty of diplomacy and justification - all of which comes with experience. Opportunities are very limited and you’ll need to strengthen your business know-how in an accountancy or investment role before joining this very compact, niche industry.
Key responsibilities
- Examining business plans and the thinking behind an idea, including market potential.
- Questioning business forecasts and the viability of an idea.
- Asking the ‘what if?’ questions.
- Providing financial backing.
- Justifying any risk an investor is likely to take.
| Starting salary | Anything from £30,000 to over £100,000 depending on experience. |
|---|---|
| Potential earnings | Those making wise investments and ploughing their own money into investments can literally earn millions. |
| Entry requirements | Employers will be looking for successful commercial and business experience, usually post MBA or accountancy qualification. Corporate finance experience is also very useful. |
| Professional qualifications |
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| Apprenticeships | N/A |
| Promotional prospects |
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And there’s more...
Investment specialists, operations developers, commercial directors or even support roles – the B-2-B business is full of fascinating niches. Don’t bother if you want a job that’s routine. Things never stand still in the commercial world for long, and neither will you.
For more information about these financial jobs and others visit:
- www.fssc.org.uk
- www.careerswales.com
- www.connexions.gov.uk/jobs4U
- www.ifslearning.com
- www.sii.org.uk
- www.cii.co.uk
- www.uksip.org
For jobs specialising in financial advice and wealth management, see separate fact sheet.