Essay About Trade Economics And Credit Suisse Operations

Experience as a Credit Suisse Operations (settlements) Intern
Experience as a Credit Suisse Operations (settlements) Intern
Being recruited as an intern at CS was something I was looking forward to. For
one, I have always envisioned working in a bank upon graduation. Interning at
CS was thus a big step towards fulfilling my goal. At the same time, it was a real
test to determine if the notorious hours of banking would be suitable for me.
All Credit Suisse interns were given a one day orientation on their first day of
work. CS’s human resource manager, Carolyne Philips, gave a comprehensive overview of the
organization, the behaviour expected of an intern, and the attitude to bring forth
during the internship. We were briefed on the dress code suitable for CS’s
corporate culture, (which was mainly business casual), and how to get the most
out of this internship, (by asking questions to clear your doubts during
appropriate times).
Upon the move to One Raffles Quay, it was all work proper. There was initially a
steep learning curve. I was introduced to various computer systems that the
settlements department used, namely RTE, POETSSAM, Swarm, MQS, MERVA
and RATv2. Each of the systems mentioned perform different functions, and I
was expected to learn their functions to aid me in my work.
At the settlements department, we are expected to liaise with other departments
in order to get work done. For example, I have to pre-match transactions with
external clients, confirm trade economics and settlement details with external
counterparties, liaise with front and middle office to resolve any pricing or rate
differences and communicate with the custodian to understand the current status
of my trades. All the above entails navigating from one computer system to the
next seamlessly in order to extract the exact trade information required of my
work.
To add on to my initial clumsiness with the computer systems, I also had to make
overseas phone calls and liaise with people of various nationalities, and in turn
make myself understandable to them, different accents not withstanding. To be
truthful, all these were very daunting at the beginning. As my mentor said during
internship evaluation later on, I was practically thrown to the deep end of the
pool and had to learn to swim on my own. Through liaising with external clients,
I have acquired a valuable skill of expressing myself concisely and with
confidence. It was important to be succinct as most clients treasure their time.
Hence, it was important to hit the right notes and put across the problem with the
trade in the shortest time possible – so that they can act on it and trade could be
matched as soon as possible. Also, I have to be clear and confident of myself to
convince the other parties of my professionalism.
As my ability to comprehend and utilize the systems improved over the weeks, I
was eventually assigned 2 markets to take care of: Indonesia and Philippines. For
these 2 markets, the basic problem I faced was communicating with CS’s
custodians in the respective markets. Initially, communication was difficult as I
was not familiar with the trade terms used and I took more time than normal to
understand the reason for unmatched trades. However, as time went by and I
became more accustomed to my job, the custodians gradually opened up to me
and we became real good working partners despite different countries of
employment.