Retail banking has faced a number of challenges in recent years, including competition from e-banking and the encroachment of other players – such as supermarket chains – on the personal finance sector. In the face of these challenges, retail banking has modernised; there are now fewer branches and a greater number of automated services.

Despite the changing face of commercial banking, maintaining, managing and extending both existing and new customer relationships in a competitive market is a higher priority for banks than ever before. Consequently, graduate career prospects remain good in the industry, with more project- and staff-management roles available.

Graduate job roles in retail banking

The role of branch manager remains a popular choice, but there are a large number of other areas and roles to explore too. There’s online and digital TV banking, as well as credit and debit card services, offering roles in various areas.

• Strategy and marketing: developing promotional campaigns for banking services, researching the market and identifying gaps in that market.
• Credit and risk: assessing the risk factors of loan requests, and approving or denying them.
• Human resources / personnel: staff recruitment, training and development.
• Operations management: researching and developing new operational methods and processes to increase or diversify company services and efficiency.

Retail banking job descriptions

• Bankers
• Building society managers
• Credit risk analysts
• Independent financial advisers
• Tied financial advisers

Entry requirements

In just about all cases, you’ll need (or be predicted to achieve) a 2.1 or above. Although a degree in just about any discipline is acceptable for entry onto a retail-banking graduate-training scheme, graduates in the following areas may have an advantage:

• economics
• business studies
• banking and finance
• financial services
• computing.

However, because retail banking is a customer-facing, customer-driven sector, having highly developed interpersonal and communication skills tends to be more important to graduate recruiters than degree subject.