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.