Commercial banker career profile (2024)

What is a commercial banker?

Commercial bankers are financial professionals in client-facing advisory roles, particularly for medium to large companies. They can be sales-oriented (i.e. relationship management), support-oriented (e.g. analysts or associates) and being part of a deal team. Bankers delivercommercial bankingsolutions and advice with a tailor-made package ofbanking products and services; the most common are cash management, credit to support working capital and capital investments, and treasury and payment services.

While the conditionscompanybanker andadvertisem*ntbankeroften used interchangeably: commercial bankers usually work with larger companies; revenues on the smaller side can be $5-10 million and on the larger side they can exceed $100 million. Commercial enterprises may have multiple locations and be geographically extensive, often with hundreds of employees; the companies often require several million dollars of fairly complex credit.

Commercial bankers can be found at many banks,credit unionsand private credit institutions. Specific roles and responsibilities will depend on how the company segments its markets, for example by lending to specialist sectors such as car dealers or large corporations.Agricultureactivities. Commercial bankers often work closely with investment bankers and with members ofbusiness bankteam to appropriately transition clients as their needs grow.

Commercial Banking Joboversigt

The job of a commercial banker can be broadly divided into two main functions.

Business development

• Build, maintain and expand existing customer relationships. Bankers anticipate and fulfill their customers' needs through tailored offerings to increase relationships and the value of their portfolios. For example, the banker's customer portfolio can be segmented by loan size (for example, loans of $25 million or less as a loan group). Cross-selling and building on existing customer relationships are a crucial part of a stable portfolio.
• Proactively create opportunities with potential businesses in the community. cocustomers of commercial banks have established banking connections. A replacement proposal must address unmet needs and be considered better than what is available from the incumbent bank. Medium and large companies only change institutions if the benefits far outweigh the significant friction of the change (incentivizing customers to change payment systems, retraining staff in the banking system, etc.). The development of a commercial banking portfolio is therefore often relationship-oriented. Companies value the relationship and trust that their bankers can negotiate and adjust the terms of competing offers (rates, fees,securityetc.) that meet their unique requirements.

Support

• Act as a point of contact for business customer queries and work with a team of internal partners who support the banking functions the business faces (money management, credit, treasury, transaction support, etc.). While commercial bankers are champions for their clients, they must also be peacekeepers when conflict arises, as they are often the “face” of the relationship.
• Monitor transaction activitieslong with their support team, such as account monitoring and credit analysis, activities to complete new and ongoing credit assessments and outreach and investigations due to a variety of risk and fraud management policies.
• Providing sound advice and guidance to companieson a holistic level. Bankers are financial leaders in their communities who support the execution of desirable business strategies (e.g., optimizing liquidity functions, using leverage to improve returns on capital) or overcoming financial challenges (e.g., tight working capital and liquidity cycle stress when customers are growing rapidly ) .

Essential skills for commercial bankers

Both soft skills and technical skills are useful for a successful career as a commercial banker.

• StrongannouncementIninterpersonal skillsis essential for relationship management. Bankers must attract and engage with potential clients and customers, who are actively marketed and often not interested in a change; proven experience in specific sectors and previous commercial banking experience are both attractive to companies looking to fill commercial banking functions externally. Involving, influencing, gaining trust and dealing with conflict through different channels are all useful skills.
• Sales and marketing skillsis linked to the drive and motivation associated with sales-oriented professions. For example, a successful banker must constantly prospect and...close the salewithin their sales pipeline using a disciplined approach, as the cycle can take much longer than less complex portfolios. Commercial bankers establish and maintain referral and relationship networks as part of their marketing efforts and have a deep understanding of the competitive landscape to deliver compelling solutions.
• Organizational andtime administrationskills and attention to detail. Customers have high expectations and want short lead times. It is therefore important to combine changing priorities well and save effort. For example, a banker must manage his time and effort efficiently so that his credit team can complete the risk analysis, structure the deal and obtain a credit approval that meets the customer's expectations.
• Economic and risk assessmentare technical skills that go hand in hand. Customers have a significant amount of financial information about their business. A detailed understanding of the banker and his team is necessary to respond to requests and anticipate future needs. With agreement and analysis experience, bankers makestructuresthat are unique to their customers and acceptable to their credit rating agencies.
• Credit sense and negotiation skillsare beneficial to bankers. Successful bankers are adept at structuring deals that are unique to their clients and their industries, but can sometimes push the boundaries of the firm's risk tolerance (e.g.
• quantitative and qualitative). Proven negotiation skills are reflected in the adjustments to the final agreement, which is itself the result of internal deliberations to obtain approval.

• Communication tools vary as companies have different resources and policies due to security, auditing and recordkeeping requirements. Working from employee-owned devices (phones, tablets, etc.) is a trend that is accelerating.

• Customer relationship management tools (CRMs) help track and maintain customer interactions, which is useful for continuity (e.g., vacation coverage or employee turnover) and sales management (e.g., call activity and pipeline tracking).

• Bank information systemare typically customized and company-specific, although new technologies have helped standardize toward common platforms that are cheaper to develop and maintain as a group than independently. Many companies can compete more effectively with "off-the-shelf" solutions (e.g., record and record keeping systems, credit, spread, valuation, and risk monitoring systems).

A typical day for a commercial banker

Many commercial bankers will tell you that no day is exactly the same, but there are some thematic connections.

• The morning is often spent catching up on administrative tasks and any customer issues that arose during the night, such as excesses andcoatingin the operating accounts. If it's a financing day, they'll likely be on the phone with their client, the middle office, and the client's legal counsel to make sure everything is in order to arrive on time.

• At noon there are often lunches with customers to thank them for their business or to try to create new opportunities. It is also common for there to be many internal meetings with others within the bank (financial planners,mortgage credit institutionsetc.) to look for cross-selling opportunities; the same goes for accountants and lawyers in the community (and other people who have their own business development assignments to fulfill).
• Afternoons withcan be used with customers to monitor equipment or other financed assets. Once or twice a week, many bankers attend networking events, panel discussions or Chamber of Commerce events to obtain relevant industry information or to try to generate new business opportunities. Occasionally, golf tournaments, shows or other sporting events are used to thank customers for their business.

Commercial banking qualifications and experience

• Employers are looking for graduates who have completed post-secondary education in fields such as business administration, accounting or finance, with at least 3-5 years of work experience in the banking or financial sector. Other economics andbank certificatesare also often sought.
• Proven business development and prospecting skills, such as previous experience in sales or service-oriented roles. Portfolio management skills can be proven by managing increasingly complex clients in previous roles.
• Distilling business intelligence to support ongoing customer requirements, gained from courses in accounting, finance or a track record in previous roles.
• Knowledge of computer software (Microsoft Suite, Google Suite, etc.) and systems, as well as the mental agility to learn business-specific systems.

Compensation of commercial bankers

Compensation for commercial bankers varies based on experience, competition within a region or location, and the overall profitability of the company they work for.

The base salary is comparable to that of a manager at a larger full-service facility location due to the value of the portfolio to the company.

Variable compensation includes bonuses andcommitteeslinked to their individual and organizational performance. Meeting or exceeding such performance goals is a factor when considering total compensation and benefits.

Additional Resources

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