Читать книгу Effective Product Control - Nash Peter - Страница 12

Product control has historically employed candidates with varying levels of experience but one of the most common recruitment styles of banks has been to employ candidates who, after completing three years of work experience in an accounting firm and passing their accounting exams, have qualified as chartered accountants. These chartered accountants would then be brought into the product control function and be trained up to control the sales and trading desks.

Over time, these candidates would gain the necessary experience to move through the product control ranks by becoming senior product controllers and then product control managers.

Accountants who, for various reasons, have decided not to train in accounting firms are also very prevalent in the product control ranks. These candidates commonly spend their qualifying period working within the financial services sector at banks, fund managers, credit rating agencies and so on. This means they have different, but equally valuable, experiences to bring to product control.

Once in product control both sets of candidates can further their qualifications and skills by taking postgraduate courses.

Table 1.1 lists the product control hierarchy and the typical experience, qualifications and skill sets that you could expect to see in any bank.

Table 1.1 Qualifications, experience and technical skills

Note: Corporate titles will vary across the industry

VH = very high, H = high, M = medium, L = low.

The depth and breadth of experience and skills, which product control provides, can open many opportunities within banking. Prior to the Jérôme Kerviel and Kweku Adoboli rogue trading events, these opportunities included transfers onto the trading desk. These transfers are now very rare due to the risks they pose to the bank. More commonly, many product controllers transition into chief operating officers (COOs), chief financial officers (CFOs) and operational risk executives.

On the flip side, given the broad set of technical skills required to advance through the ranks in product control, it is more difficult to enter the field later in your career if you do not already have these skills.