Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is expanding in this UK financial centre
Birmingham has long been the UK’s second city, but with banks and other financial services organisations clustering there, it’s now challenging to become a major British financial centre. RBS is the latest bank to ramp up its activities in the city.
“Birmingham is a major hub for us, and our plan is to expand the range of services we offer and the geographical reach of the office,” said Alan Heath, Regional Head of Credit at RBS. “The new roles will be focused on credit risk, and will allow our new employees to support our Relationship Teams and clients in the provision of credit facilities across the Midlands and the South of the country.”
Outside of London, Edinburgh has long-been viewed as the second UK financial centre thanks to its strong asset management and securities services presence. But, more recently, Birmingham has started to emerge as a challenger.
As well as RBS, Deutsche Bank and HSBC both have a presence in the city and it’s now being developed as an operational hub where revenue-generating jobs are being created in Birmingham. Far from viewing competitors as a negative, Alan says that it’s helping to create a buzz about the city’s potential as a financial centre.
“The attitude towards Birmingham is changing and banking professionals are viewing it as a great location to develop their career over the long-term,” said Alan. Anyone joining RBS’s Birmingham team will have a wealth of experience to draw off from an experienced team.
“This isn’t just about looking for someone to do a job. We want really talented and professional people who want to build a career and will look at this opportunity for training and development, alongside some mentoring by some long served bankers, as a real chance to move towards their long term career goals” said Alan. “And we really value diversity so I am hoping we’ll see a lot of interest from all backgrounds.’’
Alan says that RBS is keen to develop internal talent and that career paths can be tailored to individuals “depending on their career ambitions”.
RBS is willing to be flexible in the sort of profiles it’s considering. “We’d expect any new recruits to be technically proficient, but that does not mean that they have to come from a traditional credit risk background,” said Alan. “Someone who had a relationship management background or another commercial banking role would be a good fit. What we want to see is an understanding of the principles of credit risk, good decision-making skills, and above all great attitude.”
Candidates can expect an appropriate selection process, which involves a competency-based interview, with technical capability assessed using the support of a case study.
“One of the areas we’ll be testing is their opinion on key issues within a particular credit request. We’ll really be looking for candidates to draw out the critical areas of that particular credit proposition based on their fundamental understanding of credit risk,” he said.
“RBS as a bank is changing and moving forward Birmingham will be an important part of the overall bank and there will be plenty of career opportunities for the right recruit,” he said.
To find out more and apply click here
Photo: lloyd-horgan/iStock/Thinkstock
