10 MYTHS ABOUT BANKING THAT IS UNTRUE

 

10. MYTHS ABOUT BANKING THAT TURNED OUT TO BE FALSE

1. BANKERS CLOSE LATE. This may be true in Lagos/ Head Office. Definitely not the case in Port Harcourt. Heck in my career History, Banking is the sector where I close earliest. 

2. BANKING IS ALL ABOUT OPERATIONS OR MARKETING:- Not true. I’ve never worked in either departments. Banks are businesses. They have IT, HR, Finance, Compliance, Audit etc. I work in Internal Controls. 

3. BANKERS DON’T EARN AS MUCH AS WE THINK:- Trust me, this is not true. There are very very few careers that pay as much as banking. Don’t focus on the pay of contract/outsourced staff (mostly tellers, customer service, sales agents etc). Focus on the remuneration of core staff (operations managers, branch business managers, auditors, control officers, HR, Legal, Finance, Credit etc). 

4. YOU NEED TO STUDY ACCOUNTANCY TO WORK IN A BANK:- There’s no connection between Accountancy and banking practice. Unfortunately, the lay public does not appreciate this fact. That said, any degree is welcome in most banks but Accounting degrees may be preferred for some departments such as Finance, Audit, Internal Controls and Tax.

5. EVERY STAFF IS GIVEN FINANCIAL TARGETS TO MEET:- Again, this is false. Sure marketing/sales staff have to meet various financial targets, but other departments don’t have this as a KPI. My unit is evaluated based on the effectiveness of risk management in all branches under our coverage. The profitablity of these branches is not necessarily tied to audit/controls officers. 

6. BANKING WORK WILL BE COMPLETELY AUTOMATED IN FUTURE WITH NO NEED FOR HUMAN STAFF:- This is actually a ridiculous belief. Sure the work of tellers and customer service agents may be affected very significantly by AI in future (it already is!), this does not mean units like Audit, Legal, HR, Controls, Credit, Finance, IT Applications support etc will be fully automated. We will always need human beings. 

7. BANKERS HAVE EASY ACCESS TO THE CASH IN THE BRANCHES:- Not true. The controls over the storage of cash in the strong room/vaults are so strong, it would be easier to break out of a maximum security prison than steal bank monies from the vaults/strong room. 

8. BANKS CAN NEVER RUN OUT OF CASH/ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL:- This is the assumption of a lay person. An Accountant understands that the cash deposits received by banks from customers are liabilities to the bank and not assets. Banks give loans from these funds. Some of these loans can go bad. Banks also have operational and administrative costs to settle. They can go broke with careless management. 

9. YOU CAN ONLY WORK IN A COMMERCIAL BANK IF YOU “KNOW SOMEBODY” IN THE SYSTEM:- Not true. Pass the graduate/experience hire interviews and you will he given employment. Banks have some of the fairest recruitment practices across all sectors. 

10. BANKERS NEVER REST. THEY DON’T TAKE LEAVES. THE WORK, WORK AND WORK:- False. In fact, bankers may even be taking more leaves than you! The average bank in Nigeria gives as much as 22 days paid leave to core staff in addition to pensions and full health insurance coverage.