Bank of America Quantitative Middle Office? is it quantitative or middle office?

the QMO from Bank of America is not good for people who are interested in trading or investment. It's a middle office, not a quant group. No matter how hard they window dress themselves, it's a middle office with absolutely zero quant work. Industry know that, so stay away and don't be the last one fooled.

as a desk quant, i simply don't understand why a group from middle office call itself quant. Correct me if i'm wrong, but why would any kind of quant work fall outside of front office? BOA has its own market risk function to manage risk and everything else is taken by desk quant. What's left for middle office is just validation and reconciliation. Spreadsheet is sufficient enough for this kind of work... not quant...

when in doubt, ask the interviewer the details of their project, ask them what exactly the tools they're using, ask them which part of the project they're responsible of, it could be design, implementation, or just testing/validation which is most middle office do.

Found this with some quick googling. IA amounts are simply a % of derivative notional and usually done by operations / collateral teams. Definitely just an MO/BO position with a little model validation here and there, hardly real quant work.

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Bank of America New York, NY View Bank of America Company Profile Description The Quantitative Middle Office Independent Amount (IA) team is responsible for assisting the Counterparty portfolio management team with the establishment of business processes and controls needed to ensure the firm’s IA calculations are accurate and consistent with Dodd-Frank’s Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR). The current opening is for an associate located in either New York or Chicago and will work in a team setting to ensure delivery on the following items by December 1, 2015: Assist with the testing and validation of IA results through each technology release Provide enhanced analysis and IA explains to front office and collateral operations teams when counterparty disputes arise on IA calculations Review and verify the model inputs feeding the IA calculations Asses production IA results for errors Identify and Establish control processes that will mitigate future IA calculation errors Work directly with the front office and technology teams on issues discovered through technology testing and model validation Provide assessment of counterparty computed IA numbers for reasonableness Conduct in-depth analysis of reasons for discrepancies in IA results between the firm and counterparty Validate and explain drivers of day over day changes in IA to CPM and Collateral operations teams Work with technology teams to guide IA calculator reporting and control requirements **This position can be located in Chicago, IL or New York, NY**