I have recently retired from working as a Compliance Consultant in an Investment Bank. The project was to transform and remediate the business arrangements to be in line with applicable legal and regulatory requirements and apply them in a way that is appropriate to the business activities of the bank, following disciplinary action and a fine by a regulator.
I first took an interest in the ACT's qualifications when I was working with staff who were trading corporate bonds and selling interest rate and foreign exchange hedging products to corporate clients. The banks originate loans and bonds for corporate clients to raise finance. The banks also buy and sell fx to corporate clients to support their international trading activities. They also sell interest rate derivative and fx derivative hedging products to the corporates to mitigate the risks of the loans, corporate bonds and fx products. I gained my Diploma in Treasury to improve my understanding of the products, the treasury businesses of the corporate clients and the investment objectives of the corporate treasurers when they buy these products.
I find the resources the ACT makes available to enable members to keep up to date most useful. There’s always a lot going on and keeping abreast of it without resources such as these would be very difficult.
Keep an open mind as corporates have very different strengths and skill sets from investment banks.
My favourite part of my job is understanding the different financial products, how they work, their risks and benefits and how they can be used.
Different pieces of advice ‘come into their own’ in different circumstances. One that often comes into my mind is ‘don’t fire off emails’ and it is relevant, for example, in the context of an event or receipt of another email. The sense of the advice is that it is often helpful to wait, reflect and consider before preparing and sending your response.
My career highlight has been the diversity of people who I’ve worked with. I’ve been able to work with colleagues of many different nationalities, ethnicities, cultures and sexual orientations who I would never otherwise have met. Sharing our different experiences has been a source of enormous interest, joy, fun and spiritual wealth. I am truly grateful for this opportunity which has undoubtably changed and enriched me.
My indispensable gadget is my handheld GPS as one of my hobbies is walking. Amongst its functions, the GPS can be loaded with waypoints (for example points along a route) and it indicates the direction of the next waypoint and how far away it is. Preset courses can also be loaded to give the user a course line to follow and an arrow showing the right direction. This summer I relied on a course loaded onto my GPS when I trekked across the Pyrenees to the Spanish coast.
I have recently finished “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thani Ngyen.
I would hope that they could think of me as being hardworking, diligent and kind.