Financial Services

An effective Financial Services industry is critical to the success of any economy and affects us all. Clients turn to us when they need expert advisors who understand the complexities of the sector, the changing expectations of regulators and the needs of broader stakeholders and society. We support them in identifying and addressing complex issues whilst enabling them to achieve cost efficiency and to implement enduring commercial solutions.

We have extensive experience working on complex issues and multi-faceted assignments, providing expertise in relation to four key areas:

• Financial crime
• Governance
• Conduct
• Regulation

We work with boards, senior executives and risk and compliance leaders across a range of financial services firms, helping them to respond to difficult questions, such as:

• Do you have appropriate controls to prevent financial crime?
• Is your board effectively overseeing the risks in the business?
• Are your customers seeing the outcomes they expect?
• Are you ready for incoming regulation?

As a Consultant in the Financial Services team, you’ll be involved in challenging client engagements and business development activities from the outset.

Project delivery: You will work as a core member of the delivery team for client projects. Your input will vary from project to project but will typically involve assisting with project management, stakeholder engagement, document reviews, client interviews, process walk-throughs, developing solutions and drafting reports.

Proposals: By researching prospective clients and supporting the proposal writing process, you will play a key role in winning client engagements.

Team building: You will be encouraged to build internal and external relationships, contributing to an open, collaborative working environment and to the identification and delivery of cross service line engagements.

Thought Leadership: Consultants play a crucial role in building the brand of FTI and the Financial Services team by developing and contributing to interesting and thought-provoking collateral, and by designing, organising and participating in industry events.

Some examples of our work.

Corporate governance review of a major European bank

Confronted with a perfect storm of a national economy in crisis, significant internal upheaval, and wide-ranging regulatory changes, the board of a major European bank turned to FTI to improve its corporate governance mechanisms. Our work included evaluating the effectiveness of the board; running education sessions with senior stakeholders; reviewing the risk management framework; and assessing the three lines of defence model. As a result of the bank’s clear focus on good governance, it emerged safely from the recession without needing bailout support, even winning a national award for its governance arrangements.

Financial crime remediation programme support

We were engaged to assist the UK branch of a Middle Eastern bank in a remediation programme covering thousands of clients. As well as quality assuring a sample of client files, our team provided recommendations for improvements, delivered face-to-face anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and sanctions training to approximately 100 employees and held coaching sessions for the bank’s senior management in preparation for an FCA visit. This helped the client to develop a robust financial crime framework and business as usual processes, resulting in positive feedback from the regulator.

We offer graduates early exposure to a variety of projects carrying huge commercial and reputational significance for our clients. You will work with senior client stakeholders to find solutions for some of the most pressing challenges in the financial services industry whilst benefitting from the support of colleagues with vast experience as former regulators and industry practitioners.

We are committed to developing professionals with outstanding consultancy skills and a strong technical understanding of regulatory matters.

Your Performance Coach will work with you to develop a bespoke training and development plan, supporting you in achieving industry-recognised qualifications. You will also have access to our comprehensive in-house learning and development programme as well as the chance to be part of interesting and challenging projects.

You may also have the opportunity to travel as part of projects or secondments, most commonly to our clients’ offices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Who are we looking for? 

Engaging personalities: Consultants require the ability to build effective working relationships with client stakeholders and colleagues in other FTI teams, so excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills are crucial.

Analytical thinkers: Our team is made up of problem solvers who share a pragmatic approach to client challenges. You’ll need to be comfortable comparing client documentation and data with complex regulation and industry best practice.

Confident communicators: Our Consultants provide timely and accurate information to senior stakeholders verbally and in writing.

Adaptability: You’ll rotate between projects across our service lines, taking on varied roles at different client sites. The ability to deliver in a timely manner whilst maintaining high quality is essential.

Commercial awareness: In order to understand the challenges faced by our clients, Consultants must stay abreast of industry developments and the changing regulatory agenda.

Diverse perspectives: We welcome applications from a range of academic backgrounds. If you have excellent academic qualifications (at least an upper second class degree), we’d like to hear from you. Foreign language skills are also desirable but not essential.