Certifications and licensure required to become investment banker :

• Those seeking to become investment bankers must prefer majors in finance, economics and accounting from their undergraduate level.
• Having a Master’s in Business administration is always an added advantage for advanced positions in this field.
• Mostly investment bankers are provided on-the-job training by many employers who teach sales techniques and make presentations to the interested clients.

The main certification needed for investment bankers are:

Certifications:

• After completing master’s degree it is required that investment bankers get certified called Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) which can benefit their career.
• This certification is given to those who have at least bachelor’s degree and four years of experience in financial works.
• They will be eligible for certification after passing three examinations which covers economics, corporate finance, and security analysis.
• It requires 300 hours of study to get this examination to get certified.

Licensure:

• Investment bankers are guided by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA certifications which is a general securities exam for investment banking candidates and they must have four months of relevant experience.
• This is termed as series 7 exam which consists of 250 multiple choice questions and the applicants will be given six hours to finish the exam and the passing score is seventy percent.
• Those bankers who pass the test are eligible to buy and sell all security products which also include investment products.

What are the Educational requirements to become investment banker?

Investment bankers usually arrange and negotiate the large financial transaction of the companies which plan to merge or acquire auxiliaries. They are employed by investment banking firms like large commercial banksmainly to advice client companies and to initiate money making ventures for their own banking firms .they serve for both small and large firms.

Education:

• Main qualification required to become investment banker is getting a bachelor’s degree in an accredited college or university with majors in finance related subjects like business administration, economics, marketing and math.
• And master’s degree in business administration preferably from top schools.
• As investment bankers make frequent presentations they need to have strong oral communication so they need to do a course in speech or broader communication classes and take specialization classes in proposal writing which are important for them to make proposals to outline business progress deals.
• Always need to keep updated by daily reading newspapers and journals and follow the trends in investment banking which will also help in finding current job positions.
• Some companies look for candidates who are from arts and train them to become analysts but many of them transfer from other related fields like finance, law and banking.

Internship:

• Internship for investment bankers opens door for many career paths those who are pursuing degree in business.
• Having an internship will help candidates develop their financial expertise and can get valuable career skills in this internship program.
• For this they need to get information about information and finance careers from the United States department of labor and review websites and search for investment industry internship and get the information about the companies which offer internship placements and get academic credit for their internship.
• There are chances that they earn a small amount while completing internship.
• But it is always better if they don’t expect any internship but get good knowledge about the work which will be useful for them for their jobs.

Job outlook:

• Employment for investment bankers is expected to grow about 9 percent through 2008-2018.
• Investment bankers can be promoted to vice president or managing director for a large investing firms where there are forty to eighty managing directors.
• Employment opportunities are expected to grow according to the economy growth.

Who is investment banker and what is the job about?

Who is investment banker?

The general meaning of investment banker is a person who works for a financial institution and assists individuals, corporations in buying and selling trade securities mainly to large corporations and government entities. They help individuals to raise funds in capital markets and give them advice on mergers and acquisitions. They provide services for financial corporations that issue the securities and to the investors who buy the securities. They play a very important role in offering valuable guidance on the right way to buy and sell securities in the open market which is considered a very important activity. There are different types of investment bankers some work corporate finances to help companies get necessary funds while other bankers are involved in handling the finances of mergers and acquisitions. Most of the time they spend with accounting matters so they are expected to have proficiency in accountancy.

What is the job of investment bankers?

Investment banker’smain job is to arrange finance for private companies. They will provide capital for the investors who are willing to buy bonds or stocks. Most often they are sales agents for their clients. Investment bankers who are shortly termed as I–bankers are mostly seen working in the financial industry. They are often found working with companies and also individuals to sell financial products. The financial products or investments sold by investment bankers are stocks and bonds. They are specialized in financial opportunities that are not available on a standard stock exchange. Businesses use the money raised in the form of business equity which are sold in the form of stocks and bonds by investment bankers to expand their operations and become more profitable. They usually keep track of the financial portfolios of their clients and advise them on when to sell and buy stock. They earn salaries along with commissions and bonuses.

What are the important duties and responsibilities of investment bankers:

Investment brokers generally provide financial services like getting and investing funds, managing funds to the companies and government. They frequently give advice about mergers, acquisitions, and investments.

Some of the important responsibilities of investment bankers are:

• Investment bankers are responsible for trading, selling and buying securities.
• They are responsible for managing company’s assets.
• They are responsible for giving financial advices for companies on large projects like acquisitions and mergers.
• They are responsible for matching businesses who require financing with investors and who are willing to provide capital in exchange of bonds and stocks.
• They are responsible for managing investments for their clients or engage in money making ventures for their own companies.
• An investment banker is responsible for negotiating the agreements when a company plans to merge or get another company or sell auxiliaries (subsidiaries).
• Investment banker is responsible to study the situation when a company is facing financial difficulty like failing operations etc…
• They might underwrite when a client company issues new stock they take financial liability for the stock.

Duties of investment banker:

The duties of investment bankers are as follows:

• Investment banker is a portfolio manager or financiers for the clients to arrange and negotiate large financial transactions for businesses.
• They raise money for new ventures or contour the costs of business by identifying the areas of excessive spending.
• They research market trends and decide where to invest capital.
• They guide multiple investments in the portfolio to manage risk of loss against potential profits.
• Their main duty is to handle a portfolio individually or can manage as a part of team with investment professionals.
• They provide assistance to the investment banks which acts as an intermediary between issuer of security and public investment, capital companies and government.

Skill set and abilities needed for the job:

The important skills required to become investment banker are as follows:

Communications – oral and written:

• Communication plays a very important role in the profession of investment banking as they need to give frequent presentation in the companies for the clients to gain their business etc.
• They need to have strong oral and written communication skills.
• Written communication are also very important for them in business to make proposal writings to outline clients business deals

Marketing savvy:

• They should exactly know how to market themselves and their firms.
• The investment banker’s image is more important than the actual capabilities.
• They should impress prospective client in such a way that the client thinks that he is most capable person to offer professional solution for their financial needs.

Finance and economics:

• Investment bankers should have complete knowledge in latest funding strategies, strategic partnership structures, global economic trends and securities market condition.
• He must always be expert in finance and economic to assist clients in identifying opportunities and advise them to maximize their corporate performance using their services.

Strategic thinking:

• Investment bankers are always expected to come up with their ideas which will benefit the company finances.
• As client hardly tells them what they need is. So it is the responsibility of investment bankers to recognize opportunities and develop strategic plans which will mean using their employer’s capabilities.
• For this they must study financial reports of the clients and clearly get the information about their business dealings.
• After getting conclusion from the reports they need to develop an idea and present it to client and convince them to follow the proposal.

Personality:

• Investment bankers must have sales personality combined with detailed oriented mind along with ability to think fast when handling complex mathematical, strategic and legal concepts.
• As this job usually requires a high energy, determination, able to tolerate stress, a good sense of humor and be a dependable team player.

Salary / remuneration for investment bankers:

Salary or remuneration of investment bankers differs on various factors like experience, educational background, certifications, geographical locations and the place where they are working.

The following are the salary details of investment bankers according to their experience and the industry type and the geographic location:

• The median average annual income of investment banker is $95,130 per annum.

• The starting salary of investment banker who is with less than one year of experience is between $35,000 and $48,856 per annum

• Investment bankers who are with one to four years of experience earned an average salary of $48,138 and $52,739 per annum.

• Investment bankers with five to nine years of experience earned $50,957 and $64,318 per annum.

• The income of investment bankers who are with ten to nineteen years of experience in the field earn between $55,356 and $72,395 per annum.

• Investment bankers with more than twenty years of experience will get an average income of$70,267and $100,710 per annum.

Salaries depending on the employer they work:

The salary of investment bankers differs depending on the employer type also. The following are the details of the bankers who work for different employers and their salary details:

• Investment bankers who work for security trading investment bankers earn $65,773 per annum.
• Investment bankers who work for security trading associates earn about $60,820 per annum.
• Investment bankers working for banking analyst’s titles earned $60,777 per annum.
• And those working with financial analyst and as financial advisors earned $58,993 and $46,756 per annum.
• Location also plays an important role in determining salaries as it mostly depends on the cost of living in that particular place and the rules and regulations of that particular state.
• For example in Connecticut the average salary can be $157,640 and New York it could be $129,620.