Faith in Banking

Starting my career in banking and wondering if there are any Christians in the industry. I won't get into my story but I can say with full certainty that I am only in the industry because of the doors the Lord opened for me to be here. Interested to hear from other people, and to hear their "why's" for starting and staying in these roles..

 

I’m not of that faith personally but I believe I have done business and/or worked with people from that background in banking. The ones that come to mind were all fairly high up in their respective organizations. I don’t think their faith affected their work too much, if anything I think it may have enhanced it in terms of them being hopefully (at least in my perspective as a junior banker) sometimes kinder and maybe have that extra network of people from their faith organization to help in doing business and the like. I was very junior so hard for me to give much more color than just saying I think it was cool and those people generally seemed to be able to make time for their faith hopefully. Wishing you and all good luck

 
Funniest

Every day I thank Allah for bringing me to this spot as an incoming MF analyst. Especially with all the fantastic work our people are doing in the middle east, it is a great time to be alive under Allah. Wallahi, I know that I would not be where I am today without His guidance. Inshallah, the jihad continues.

But seriously, you're giving me real BYU grad vibes.

 

I've encountered a fair amount of seniors who participate in Bible study groups and such.

I've found that people aren't super outward in their Christianity (which could come off as off-putting, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, etc. can be clients too), but their moral compasses reflect their faith. 

My perspective on the matter is to be a good person, follow my moral compass and keep my faith to myself (largely because its a personal thing for me).

 
Most Helpful

As someone who believes he has a non-Christian faith, not that I can speak for more than just myself, but for myself, I think you may appreciate to know that when I was on Wall Street / sitting in an IBD seat / working on deals for banks / even interviewing, it was, I believe, more often than not a nice breath of fresh air when I met someone who was open about their faith. Not saying we had to or did agree on everything or even big things, but personally felt more at ease when I had a sense that a certain person I was dealing with was a person of faith and open about it. Just my thoughts that I thought may be helpful for you. Best wishes

 

I work for a PE group that is predominantly Christian (that does not mean non-Christians won't be hired, BTW). Most people are low key Christians, meaning they show up in church and that is it for them. There are, however, some very conservative Christians as MDs in our group with different rules. One MD doesn't drink (same as me), but it has no bearing on the job. You don't have to drink in order to work in PE or banking.

So yeah, most don't talk about Evangelical/Ultra conservative Christian rules or views for various reasons.

Another had a bigger challenge, a senior officer in our firm enforces the Graham rule in his role, meaning he doesn't want ANY closed room meetings with female staff. This had a high-level HR meeting in which they decided to give him an open plan office. Our firm was moving away from non-glass offices anyway (risk of lawsuits, etc) and wasn't a big deal.

 

Christianity is a very diverse group, both from a religious and from an ethnic point of view. Some are more extreme, others more open. Just like anything else.
but in all honesty, most companies will eventually move onto more open plan office design, more standing desks, etc anyway. so it wasn't a big deal.

And he does meet with female staff, just not behind closed doors or when alcohol is served.

He is not sexist or anything, just very conservative.

 

Serious answer:

I am somewhat of a born again Christian. I used to be staunchly atheist, but one day it felt like God just hit me, and I became Christian. I was a pretty good Christian too for several years, but it was only because I wasn't truly tested in my faith. Now I have been tested with substance abuse and greed, and sadly I have not passed muster. I ask God for forgiveness, but deep down it won't matter. There's this famous Hamlet quote where Hamlet is going to kill the King but stops when he sees him repenting because he believes the King would go to Heaven if he killed him, so he want's to kill him when he's sinning. Once Hamlet leaves, the King says "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go." I think about this a lot. I repent, but I don't truly feel sorry for much of what I do. I guess it's the difference between guilt vs shame. Guilt is a feeling when you wish you could take something back while shame is a feeling where you know what you did is wrong, but you'd do it again. 

I guess we'll see on "judgement day" where my soul ends up. See you then broski.

 

I feel you but I wouldn't be too hard on myself. I feel it's good that you're self aware enough to know where to start. I think the verse in the book of Proverbs says, 'He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a child, teach him'. So maybe instead of trying to remove all those things from your life, ie focusing on the bad, you could try to focus on the good and beautiful instead?

Anyway, here I am giving bible lessons. I hope it works out well for you.

 

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