I was an account manager who had worked in commercial banks for more\nthan ten years. Because of this decade of work, I have re-acquainted myself.\nGraduated in 2006, I studied social sciences and from the study of post-war\nSoutheast Asia, I learned that authoritarian may be more effective than\ndemocratic voting for economic development, although this knowledge has nothing\nto do with my career, and my boss or customers were not concerned. The reason\nfor my choice of banking career is very simple \u2013 the high pay, especially the management\ntrainee position for some major banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, once said that the pigs can fly with the wind (opportunities). This example is also applicable to working apart from entrepreneurship. When I worked in a bank, I saw a lot of people who were smart and capable, but there was more mediocrity. For more than a decade, commercial banks have experienced a lot of opportunities, such as selling structural equity-linked investment products before the financial tsunami, on the surface placing high-interest deposits with the chance to covert in shares at discount, but in fact shorting equity options. After the tsunami, the government supported small and medium-sized enterprises to provide guarantee for commercial loans. Bank staff leveraged to cross-sell keyman insurance to bundle with SME loans. The continued Renminbi appreciation from 2009 to 2015 led to a large number of arbitrage products, including the 3-in-1 L\/C loans, structured RMB contracts, etc., all of which were lucrative products to banks. As a result, a generation of account managers put a lot of emphasis on cross-selling products but less efforts on traditional commercial credit and trade finance, making less bankers who truly treasure the long-term interests of their clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Before 2000, the banks and corporate customers were going hand-in-hand, from the establishment of company to the evolving into large enterprises. \u00a0Even during the economic difficulties and financial turmoil, banks would not easily give up customers, and customers would not change their bankers given small price differences. Therefore, when I first entered the bank in mid 2000s, I still enjoyed the old good tradition of customer relationship and I consider my career as a long-term profession rather than a simple job. At that time, I remember when I first entered the bank, I heard that the bank’s CEO had said that since the front-line account manager had to deal with the customer’s credit, in order to maintain the credit quality and avoid conflicts of interest, it was not suitable to tie the bonus with their performance. However, how many bankers still have this idea today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commercial banks have always been long-term\npartners of enterprises. The most ideal scenario is of course the sustainable\nrevenue or loan growth of 5-10% a year but not 30% in first year and\nsubstantially drop afterwards. However, in the near-zero age after the\nfinancial tsunami, banks seem to be unable to resist huge short-term benefits.\nAbout eight or nine years ago, when USD\/CNY was still around 6.50, there was a 3-in-1\narbitrage business that was very popular among cross-border traders. The reason\nis that there was purely arbitrate for profit. The principle is that the\ndomestic RMB deposits rate was 4-5% while offshore USD loans was 1-2%. Shorting\nof future RMB would guarantee thousands basis points return (the expected\nappreciation of the RMB), and the combined one-year return was about 3% less\ntransaction fee. The return would increase if there was a way to U-turn fund\nback to China for another route of arbitrate business. Banks were excited with\nthis kind of business. First, this type of business involved high volume\ntransaction with meaningful profits and little paperwork. However, the biggest challenge\nwas that the business itself depended on the market trend. Once the market\nconditions changed, for example, RMB no longer appreciated or the interest rate\nwent reverse direction, and the business needs would completely vanish.\nMoreover, the renminbi was not freely circulated and this type of business was\ndoing as if it were genuine trade transaction which was subject to compliance\nrisks. Meanwhile, Chinese government did not encourage people to arbitrage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, an innovative structural treasury\nproduct was also launched, which was more attractive to some customers. As long\nas the renminbi continued to appreciate, customers could receive a cash rebate\non a monthly basis, on the conditions that the customer would have to purchase\nlarge amount of RMB at pre-agreed price if RMB depreciated. In 2015, I heard\nthat a commodity trader had lost more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars from\nthe renminbi contracts while he only earned ten to twenty millions from related\ncontracts before. The hidden risks were actually higher than what customer\nperceived originally. Like many product cycles, we were dubious at the\nbeginning when it first launched, and then generally promoted to different\ncustomers in one or two years until the bubble burst. Customer lost, bank management\ncut ties and then a group of aggressive salespeople quitted the job leaving the\nmess to the newcomer for settlement. Over my banking career, I have experienced\ndifferent similar cycles. I have looked back at the many businesses that I have\nhandled, and wonder how many of them have been completed because of satisfying for\ncross-selling requirement from banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sales pressure culture of the group has a huge\ninfluence on a young bank staff. When you try to forgo the long-term\nrelationship and hard-sell the products, it is actually very easy to achieve the\ngoal. The appreciation from the boss and outperforming the senior staff who\nfailed to deliver the results were actually very fascinating. With my own hard\nwork and a little trick, I have experienced a relatively fast career growth\nover the past few years, but this mentality has changed over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have heard the speech at a senior banker\nretirement, saying that his client manager has gone through three stages of\ncareer. When a young man just debuted, he has no customer base, and he struggles\nto get new business but to work very hard. Customers appreciated the hard work\nof this young man and willing to offer business opportunities to him, given the\nprice was best in market. Then, after several years, this young man has become\na senior relationship manager, accumulating a lot of business networks. Customers\nare willing to take his offers as long as the loan conditions and pricing are\nreasonable. As time goes by, he is not only a relationship manager but also an\nadvisor to many clients. He is not only doing business, but also caring about\nthe long-term development and interests of customers. When customer has major\ndevelopment decisions, such as M&A projects, customer cares about his analysis\nof the pros and cons, and the bankers are never hard-selling the business. Such\ncustomers will always be friends of bankers and will not change banks for little\ncost saving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having said that, in the past ten years, I have\nfound that some colleagues and friends who have a good performance at the\nbeginning of their careers may not eventually able to gain much respect from\ntheir customers because interests of their customers are not always ahead of\nthe short-term bank\u2019s profits. For me, the work experience has sharpened my\nmentality and let me recognize my weaknesses in early 30s. In any case, if time\ncan be recalled, I hope that I would have more customers, not just business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was an account manager who had worked in commercial banks for more than ten years. Because of this decade of work, I have re-acquainted myself. Graduated in 2006, I studied social sciences and Read more……<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1305],"tags":[469,243],"yoast_head":"\n