Corporate Treasury VP taking questions

Hi WSO,
In case anyone is interested in learning more about the Corporate Treasury function of large banks (i.e. nature of work, recruitment process, exit opps, comp etc.), I'm here to take some questions.

 

1) What does your day to day work look like?

2) How do you drive/add value within the structure of your bank?

3) What should someone do to set themselves up to work in Treasury pre or post MBA

Asking these for the good of the group and to get the conversation started

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
  1. Are you at a BB?
  2. Is this considered a Middle Office job? Exit ops?
  3. Pay/Hours? Analyst-Associate-VP
  4. How competitive in getting into Treasury groups at BBs compared to Banking or S&T? Both at the Analyst and Associate levels.
  5. To get into Treasury as an Analyst, do you need a highly quantitative major? And how much of a "target school" do you need to have gone to?

I might have repeated some questions already asked.

 
  1. What does your day to day work look like?

This is a little hard to answer because I don't have any routine daily responsibilities. I'm involved with a few special projects that are taking up most of my time these days (i.e. attending project steering committee meetings, due diligence, analysis, reports for senior execs). Some of the projects I'm currently involved with are regarding the new regulatory climate regarding liquidity standards and how they would affect our overall ALM strategy.

 
  1. How do you add value within the structure of the bank.

It's difficult to quantify because I personally don't own any PnL (although there are groups in Treasury that do, i.e. Balance Sheet Management, Money Markets desks, private equity investments etc.). Nevertheless, the work I'm involved with is important for several reasons: a) it's required to meet regulations (by the Fed, FSA etc.) and because it helps strengthen the bank's balance sheet.

 
Best Response
  1. What should someone do to set themselves up to work in Treasury pre or post MBA?

I think this depends heavily on the bank. For example, Morgan Stanley has a Treasury Analyst program (last I checked), but my bank does not. We have several openings at any given time though for different levels and depending on the role, we look for different things. Straight from undergrad, we look for either strong business or analytical education with good grades. Post MBA its a lot more varied where I am. Some people have come in at the Associate level, some have started as VPs depending on how much and what type of experience they had before the MBA (and also the quality of the MBA).

Short answer, the overall recruitment in Treasury is a lot less structured than it is in IB or S&T for example. At least that's the way it is at my bank.

 
  1. How would you compare exit opps to the front office and is there mobility to the front office?

Well, the exit opps are certainly different, and not nearly as lucrative. Not a lot of people join treasury because of the exit opps, but those who leave usually do something similar (but more senior) at a competing bank, or they go join the treasury department of a F500 (there are some pretty interesting and lucrative opportunities here). Some have even gone into government.

There is quite a lot of mobility to the front office depending on what you do in Treasury and where in the front office you want to go. I personally know people from my group have gone joined trading desks (repo in particular) or gone into DCM etc.

 
  1. What are bonuses like?

This once again depends on the group. I imagine the groups that have PnL get more but I can only give you concrete data from my team.

For me, on a base of 110K, I can expect 40K in an average year, 20K in a bad year, and 50K in a great year.

Analysts can probably expect about 10K on a base of 60K, and associates can expect about 20K on a base of 80K.

It doesn't compare to the front office, but it's not bad because I only work 50 hours a week.

 
  1. BB? Competition compared to the front office? School and major?

I'm not at a BB. My bank is one of the 50 largest banks in the world by assets. It is not based in the US.

Getting into Treasury in general is not nearly as competitive as IB or S&T, but some positions are more highly sought after than others. The recruiting is less structured and is more on a need basis. But as an example, getting into the private equity group is very competitive (usually impossible to come in externally).

And yes, I would consider my job a middle office role. Regarding exit opps for me personally, I'm not interested in leaving. My plan is to stay here long term and move up the ranks.

 
  1. Where do the money market desks get their traders from?

I haven't met anyone at the Associate or VP level (never needed to) so I don't have any fresh information, but I know one of the MDs and he was trading munies like 10 years ago, and a Director used to be in market risk. This probably isn't representative of the industry in general. My bank is just very open to people moving around internally. In fact, they encourage you to try something new every 3-4 years once you get to my level.

 
  1. Major and quantitative requirement?

Sorry guys, this was asked before and I missed it. I've personally hired a few analysts to report to me so I can walk through my thought process.

a) I usually get 15-20 resumes when an entry level position opens up so the first thing I check for is major. If it's economics, business, commerce, math, statistics etc, it's fine with me. I don't really care that much as long as it's not too artsy. b) Next I look at GPAs. Out of the 15 resumes, I'm left with about 10 after filtering for major. So I usually call in the top 4 GPAs for interviews. I don't really care all that much about school, but if it's something I've never heard of I usually don't bother. c) In the interview, I test for 3 things. General intelligence, interest, and fit. I ask a few simple brainteasers and some questions about current events that are relevant to banking. Once I figure out the smartest/hardest working, I ask myself "can I stand having this kid next to me for 10 hours a day?", and if the answer is yes, I make an offer.

How good the offer is depends on the overall picture (GPA, School, other offers, how much better the guy is from the next best person). I've offered analysts as little as 50K base, and much as 65K base.

 
  1. Can you speak about the opportunities some of your colleagues went to at F500 treasury management ?

A VP here (he had been VP for two years) managed to secure a Senior Director offer at a mining company. His comp nearly doubled and his hours are amazing (i.e. 8-4). I sort of lost touch with the guy now so I don't know what he's doing there day to day.

My former boss joined a pension fund, heading up asset liability management.

A friend of mine who left here as an associate is now the head of interest rate risk at an oil and gas company.

 
  1. Is there anything that is helpful in making an internal transfer from something like FP&A into treasury management? How easy is such a transition?

Moving from Finance to Treasury is not hard if you network. An associate in my group actually spent three years in Finance as an analyst. I think the most important thing is to get really good reviews. When we get internal applications (many of which are from finance), the first thing we do is ask their boss how well they performed, how fast they learn, how much initiative they take etc. If they get good reviews from their bosses, we're generally pretty good about investing the time to get them up to speed. In general though, we prefer people from finance who have been exposed to several business lines of the bank and have a good sense of the big picture.

 

Hi all,

I am new to the website and would like to reAeach more about the treasury sales program specially atari Jpmorgan. I have been offered a position within their sales analyst sum program and would like any sort of input about the sort of work I might be getting expose to and the expectations specially if tis not a investment banking but e treasury services line of business. I would also like to ask if there are exit opportunities to like other desks like quitties or fx or commodities within the firm. If possible could someone also give me some insight about the starting base salaries and sort of bonuses to expect. I eally would like to learn about TSS as not a lot of website talk about it and to me it seems an interesting side of the business to start the career in finance.

Thanks

 

To the OP, even though this was almost 2 full years ago, thanks for this. I have a very solid opportunity opening up to take an experienced treasury analyst job at a well-known full service firm, will know more tomorrow at this time. I'm really excited for the opportunity, but treasury is definitely not where my heart lies, at all, and I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't doing this for any other reason than to get my foot in the door and make some money near term. I know exit opportunities are poor, and I know the most common thing is to simply advance within the system either at the firm you started with or at other firms. However, I have an extremely strong desire to jump to the buy side, specifically HF, and I'm wondering if there's any roundabout way that this might be at all feasible. Multiple steps, doesn't matter. I just am trying to connect the dots. If anybody, including OP has any tips on this, I would greatly appreciate it.

"When you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead."
 

Hi quijibo

Can you please tell me about the desks in Treasury that are more about capital markets/executions/trading. Also what desks are driven by P&L? I am interested in making a move to Trading in the future so would like to be at a desk that is as closer as possible

 

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