Risk Analyst

Risk analysts identify and analyse risks in accordance with a bank’s legal obligations and interests. Analysts generally specialise in one type of risk early in their career (perhaps counterparty risk, market risk, liquidity risk or operational risk).

Sectors: auditing, finance, management

Monthly gross salary for a junior risk analyst: €2,900 - €3,750

Synonyms: financial risk analyst, risk controller, operational risk manager, banking risk officer, risk manager, operational risk officer, risk and liability analyst

The life of a risk analyst...

Analysing funding applications (credit risk)

Risk analysts may spend their days investigating funding applications submitted by account managers and customer advisers. Once they’ve analysed the risk involved, they’ll take a position on the feasibility of the application and pass on their opinion on the related level of risk.

Anticipating and preventing potential risks

To determine the ratio of risk against potential profit, risk analysts have to update, optimise and work with a wide range of different indicators, including risk mapping within their specific fields, working with sensitive risk monitoring lists, running mathematical modelling simulations, reading research papers, quantified analyses, using scoring techniques, and so on. They also have to carry out checks to verify that procedures are being followed and that any amounts of credit authorised are entirely correct.

Monitoring standards and procedures

Analysts oversee a range of existing procedures that need to be updated regularly. They also draft new procedures designed to protect banks from various risks. Another key part of their role is drafting incident management procedures.

Reporting duties

Finally, analysts are responsible for developing dashboards and writing internal reports whilst monitoring the progress of banking operations and any corrective actions that have been put in place. These tasks are far from exhaustive and the scope of activity risk analysts are involved in will vary greatly according to their specialisms and place of work.

Required skills

Meticulous and precise

Good knowledge of banking products

Comfortable using mathematical models and statistical tools

Able to analyse financial risks

Understanding of a bank’s accounting procedures and the International Financial Reporting Standards

Typical educational background

Masters in mathematics, statistics, banking, auditing or finance

Business studies background with a focus on auditing or finance

Statistics and finance experience

Studies related to banking