Bank personnel are employed at two levels:

CLERICAL: 

Where the main tasks are to maintain account books and documents; and attend to customers at the counter.

MANAGERIAL: 

Which involves organizing, controlling and supervising banking activities; or holding overall charge of one or more departments or branches. This chapter deals only with work at the managerial level.

Nature of Work

Bank postings can be at:

HEAD OFFICE: 

Where activities center around banking development and control. Officers here devise and implement new schemes to expand business. They are also responsible for domestic operations, which involves keeping in touch with the bank's branches.

BRANCH: 

Postings are for field officer or accountant. A field officer's work is aimed at increasing business and includes general management. Accountants are concerned with internal accounting procedures.
Officers at all levels deal with people as well as money and figures. Great emphasis is therefore laid on their ability to relate to customers, identify their needs and promote the bank's services. Specific tasks include loan approvals customer interactions; branch management; and marketing, of services and `products'. A career with a bank can also develop into non-banking functions like personnel and public relations.

Major Banking Activities

RETAIL/PERSONAL BANKING: 

This division provides a range of financial services to individual customers and small companies. It operates mainly through branch networks, and may function as two separate departments or a single one. Retail Banking: Implies routine transactions like deposits and withdrawals; money transfer; foreign currency exchange and travelers' cheque encashment. Personal Banking: Deals with loans, credit and mortgages; insurance policies; investment schemes; pension funds; and advice to customers on various financial matters.

CORPORATE BANKING: 

Interactions here are mainly with large companies and government agencies. They could start at the local branch manager level though more complex dealings are routed through corporate divisions of clearing banks and their merchant banking subsidiaries. In this area:
Banking: Involves receiving deposits; transferring funds and provision of loan and credit facilities.
Corporate Finance: Includes credit risk assessment; and advice to clients on matters such as corporate mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, and business strategy regarding competitors and outside factors.

MERCHANT BANKING: 

Investment management is the primary activity of this division. It could be on behalf of corporate clients or institutional investors-like pension funds, investment trusts or those in the securities business. Merchant banking departments also deal in international financing; public issue management and the buying and selling of shares.

TREASURY: 

This section takes care of foreign exchange reserves. Responsibilities include dealings in foreign currency as well as portfolio management.

RURAL BANKING: 

Deals with the banking and credit needs of people in the rural sector. The banking activities of rural
banks are quite the same as those of other banks, the only difference being that the bank deals with the rural sector.