For those in Performance roles, can anyone advise what the route to move into Performance? I have previously worked as Treasury operations (FX/MM) in banks as well as short stint as compliance.
While a direct transition fr Teasury ops -> Performance is impossible, does it work if I start from Securities processing roles in either wholesale or private banking? I have heard views that it might be better if I move into fund accounting instead since fund accounting deals with NAV calculation of funds as well as coporate actions processing. From fund accountant, you can move into a more client reporting roles where you are dealing with performance guys more frequently.
Perhaps anyone previous encountered same career dilemma or in securites processing/fund accountant/client reporting, pls feel free to share your experiences and any advices is greatly appreciated!
I haven’t worked in back office but I do manage a small performance team and get involved with the hiring process (select CVs, interview etc.) so hopefully I can provide some useful information.
Performance is very data driven and having someone who understands the trade-settlement cycle is very useful. It’s particularly useful if the applicant has worked for the same custodian/fund accountant that the performance teams gets its data from. Fund accounting would be useful as well as valuations, trade processing, corporate actions, derivatives, etc. I would get some experience here, learn some basic performance methodology, get your IMC and then apply. Not sure you need the client admin step.
Big custodians with performance teams, such as State Street, BNY Mellon, Northern Trust, JP Morgan are probably your best bet as you can move from back-office to performance within the same company.
I’m a senior perf analyst with a few people reporting to me(though I’m not doing any hiring or firing as my role is more team lead than manager) and I came from a securities processing type role initially. Typical entry level BO job reconciling income payments, finding goofy settlement issues, etc. I’ve had co-workers come from an NAV team, some fund accountants, one from a global settlements team, and a few from various accounting roles at pension outfits.
What mattmania says about moving directly from BO to perf at a large custodian is correct, but it’s also true that those perf roles are still pretty much back office. At my company we’re treated much better than the operations processor types, and I do work closely with a number of PM’s, RM’s, sales/client services people and occasionally even directly with some clients depending on the relationship, but I’d still categorize the underlying functions as back office. Nothing wrong with that, just pointing out that at the firms I’ve been at, and the other perf people I know at other companies, the job is still mostly a back office role.