Читать книгу Effective Product Control - Nash Peter - Страница 10

Product control is the face of finance to the sales and trading desks in a bank. They provide financial control and transparency through (Figure Figure 1.1):

• Providing a profit and loss statement and balance sheet which is accurate and timely;

• Providing meaningful insight into the desk's financial results;

• Supporting the desk in the execution of their business strategy; and

• Evaluating and integrating new products into the financial environment.

Product control's purpose is executed through a series of controls across the P&L and balance sheet, many of which are performed daily. On top of these controls, product control's financial acumen and understanding of the bank's systems can be used to support the execution of the desk's business strategy. This includes providing insight into drivers of financial performance, reviewing the desk's use of legal entities within the banking group and assessing the efficiency of process workflows.

Figure 1.1 The purpose of product control

The centrepiece of the product control role is the daily P&L (Figure 1.2). If you aren't familiar with this term, it measures the income and expenses for the sales and trading desks. If the sum of the income from trading activities, client sales and trading expenses is greater than zero, a profit is reported, otherwise a loss is reported.

Figure 1.2 The P&L

We will explore the controls that product control normally execute in greater detail throughout Parts III through VII of the book.