I am a risk and regulations manager in a private bank. I moved into this job from an investment banking risk position and it is far, far more stressful.
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People who work in investment banking often presume that they have it worse, but it is nothing compared to the stress of working in private banking.
Private banking is simply much harder to deal with.
In investment banking, you have the stress of deals and the long hours, weekends and late nights that this entails. But the job itself is not difficult – it just sucks a lot of your time.
In private banking the stress isn’t just from working long hours (mine reduced substantially) but the fact that you have to learn so many investment, compliance and trading rules.
This is why most private bankers are CFA Charterholders or have advanced degrees in economics and statistics, plus substantial investment management portfolio knowledge. It’s also why it’s not easy for junior investment bankers to move into private banking, unless they’re willing to put the time in to passing the CFA exams.
Most of all, though, private banking is stressful simply because of the sensitive nature of dealing with a wealthy client’s portfolio. Any little mistake is magnified. As well as the endless rules and reporting, private bankers have to handle angry clients unhappy with the way they’re running their portfolio. It’s far more intense managing someone’s wealth than running a deal.
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