Areas of the investment bank

There are several different areas of an investment bank where graduates might find jobs.

There are usually three areas within an investment bank – the front, middle and back – although not all banks will use these terms.

The front office

This is the area of the bank that traditionally provides banking and strategic advisory services for clients. Research also takes place in the front office to produce financial product reports.

The middle office

This is the office involved with risk management and analysis of the possible pitfalls that traders may face when conducting their daily trades.

The back office

This area is also known as operations and involves data-checking the trades that have been undertaken and making sure that they are correct. The back office is also home to the IT (technology) divisions.

In many other areas of finance you may hear the terms front office, usually referring to the revenue-producing functions, and the back office referring to the services that support it.