Pros
Bonuses are competitive compared to other Banks even for junior staff. High turnover means plenty of opportunity for career advancement if you can handle a high pressure environment. Also plenty of opportunities around the globe with are well advertised internally. Great if you want to travel however the market is africa & asia so opportunities are more in those countries then more developed ones. If you can justify the rationale for a professional qualification, the Bank will pay for it. Got better in later years where it was less important to justify it against your current responsibilities but instead more your career goals. International clientele can make for interesting relationships management. Has strict requirements for clients, never had a concern that clients we were servicing were criminals. Robust compliance culture meant suspicious activity was dealt with appropriately.
Cons
It felt like there was disjointed leadership all the time, stated aim was to grow however actions were to team sizes and costs. Core systems were outdated and planned improvements were years away. Processes were patched together to try manage and resulted in mistakes being made which would quickly be blamed on the staff. It was difficult to get pay rises, even just by inflation, many colleagues would leave and return 1-2 years later in order to get better pay rises then those who stay, Caused high staff turnover, loss of skills and increased pressure on remaining staff. Despite that leadership would do surveys on how to keep retention up, never seemed to change anything. Always felt that being liked by your boss would be the main impact on your compensation. Bonuses were tied to performance management reviews which were done by the line managers. Bonusses were cut due to "mistakes" but poorly explained so looked like boss just did not like you. No local HR to manage disagreements. Just felt as if management was not interested in maintaining staff morale or relationships as was cheaper to replace. Work was sent oversees to save on costs which complicated processes and would have to deal with complaints from customers about the offshored services. This offshoring also meant that many colleagues were unsure if they were going to be laid off or not. Messaging from senior leadership was also inconsistent on this. You could be told on month that there were no more planned redundancies but then 2-3 months later another 5 people would be made redundant. Either management were lying or they cannot plan 3 months into the future, not sure which one is better. Often you will need to work more than the usual 9-5 due to work loads. No overtime pay offered. Take lunch breaks at your peril as often not enough time in work day to address all tasks that come in. Many days I had to work past 8pm to prepare work load for next day. It was a culture of fear/apathy. Either staff were afraid/paranoid that they would be made redundant or have bonuses slashed. Or they were so low morale they did not care and would happily take the redundancy pay just to get out.