Big 4 Tax to Commercial or Corporate Banking?

Hi There,

Was wondering if a couple years in tax with a Big 4 firm and a CPA license would be helpful for breaking into commercial or corporate banking?

I've done some networking and it seems like most people who work in commercial or corporate banking started in a formal bank training program and were pretty much trained from the ground up. I did meet with a large bank in the past (before I started at Big 4) and most of the staff started their careers there or other banks. This was also paired with the fact that not a lot of people with pure accounting backgrounds worked there.

A lot of my peers have left for traditional exit opportunities such as FPA&A, in house accounting/tax departments, back office finance and fund accounting but not commercial/corporate banking so wondering why this might be?

If I left, I would like to work in the underwriting/portfolio management side as I enjoy analyzing financial information and the underwriting aspect of the business. Partly unrelated, but I do have a few years of underwriting experience in the consumer lending area which I obtained from a job while attending accounting school.

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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