Investment banking is a field which require certain nuances though difficult to quantify yet

important for success. The utmost important one is the intellectual curiosity to understand not only
your silo of work but also need to branch out to understand fellow-mate work and fit it into whole
puzzle. It is a field which always requires one to be innovative, creative, diligent and self-disciplined.
This field requires intangible characteristic that compels individuals to approach a situation from a
different angle, and while this may be reinforced by academics, it is often instinctive. So this
dynamism and ever-changing scenario of investment banking compels me to be innovative, flexible
and bring 100% success to the board hence drives me to join this field.
Barclays is recognised as a pioneer and one of the market leaders in this field. The culture and values
that organisation inculcates which is of integrity, respect of employees, excellence and providing
flexibility to be innovative is something which constantly attracts me to this organisation. Its belief in
its core values and its implementation is commendable and because of such hard line believe in its
values, I always look forward to join this organisation.
One of the biggest development that have occurred in the banking industry is the tightening of
regulations and imposing restrictions on banks while lending money like imposition of Basel-III
norms and aligning strictly to various norms and rules, non-adherence of which will attract penalties
and heavy fines.

Owing to this, investment banks have changed a lot. They have realised importance of diversification
to reduce risks and have imposed stringent control measures. They have gone to the basics and have
realised what they are good at, which business market they should be in or not leading to a renewed
focus on giving financial advice and selling loans. Owing to regulatory controls, Banks are holding
more capital and more liquid assets. Theyve become much more thoughtful and rigorous in their
risk management and stress testing for example, by recording losses made in their accounting
systems as soon as possible so that these accounts accurately reflect the banks financial position.
Regulatory forces are shaping the competitive dynamics of the industry. Compliance and capital
pressures are pushing large banks to rethink the businesses they want to be in and the customers
they serve. Large banks are specializing in their core competencies and geographies where they
believe the return on capital is justified.
Additionally, regulatory pressure is trickling down to smaller banks. On addition high compliance and
governance costs are consuming a sizable share of their resources, hurting their competitive position
and hence the pressure of these regulatory compliances might force them to sell capital intensive
businesses.
Barclay's values are something that an organisation always expects its employees to adopt,
inculcate, practise, assimilate and breathe. These are the building blocks and fundamentals making
an employee competent enough to achieve long-term success and these represents the set of
standards under against which the performance of every employee will be assessed and rewarded.
The objective of these values is to define the way of thinking, work and act so as to ensure that
employees deliver against the very purpose of helping people to achieve their ambitions in the
right way. The main values of Barclays are Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship
which focuses on innovation and doing the right things in different way.

One of the instances in my life that I can clearly relate to Barclays values is Excellence. This story
goes back to last year when our director asked us to organise INFRABLAZE in which we'll attract the
construction giants to the campus for improving the industry interaction and opening the new
avenues to understand this sector requirements and difficulties in terms of managerial, regulatory
and human resource constraints. We were in December and we have to organise it in February. Just
two months and given a mammoth task. Then we formed a team of five which did all the initial
works in terms of finalizing the concept, event name, agenda , list of invitees, brochure design and
content. This requires a lot of team-effort and we made sure of hassle-less communication channel
so that the information flows easily and maintain the trust amongst us. After which we start
delegating the work to other class fellows so as to pitch to various corporates in different parts of
the country.
When the confirmation starts coming in, then we made all the stay arrangements, transport
facilities, food etc. and finally on the event day it was made sure the conference is fruitful to all the
delegates and speakers and the feedback that we got is exactly the same.
So I think this is the perfect example of trust, integrity and excellence