Accounting/Finance Overview
Egyirba Walker-Arthur
Senior Program Manager, Career Program

Purpose of the Accounting
Department at an Investment Bank
• Enhance the company's competitive leadership position and strategic flexibility and to ensure the accuracy of critical financial information
• Responsibilities Include:
– Market and credit risk management
– Treasury
– Financial & regulatory reporting and controls
– Corporate and strategic planning
– Internal audit
– Tax policy
– Regulatory supervision on a global basis
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What’s the difference?
Public vs. Private Accounting
Private or corporate accountants perform the same types of tasks of public accountants, yet these tasks are specific to the companies for which they work.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTING (BIG FOUR)
• Public accountants work for a particular accounting firm and serve various clients in ranging fields
• Involved in the collecting and external reporting of financial information
PRIVATE ACCOUNTING (SEO)
• Private accountants work as internal accountants for one company
• Involved in the internal use of financial information to and help managers within the company make more effective business decisions
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Accounting Departments at
Investment Banks
• Business Unit Finance
Opportunity to merge other business interests with accounting by working with Business
Units like Human Resources, Marketing, etc.
• Controllers
Great department if SEC and other regulatory reporting interests you – you will be on the frontline of interaction with investors
• Corporate Tax
If you like having input into creative tax strategies and reporting, tax may be the best fit for you
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Accounting Departments at
Investment Banks
• Corporate Treasury
Be involved in the cash transaction and the actual movement of money to and from the firm
• Internal Audit
A chance to travel and interact with business unit management all over the firm
• Risk Monitoring
A role that is constantly redefined with the proliferation of new credit and equity products in the market every day
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SEO Accounting/Finance interns have worked on:
• Calculating daily or weekly P&L for specific products or trading desks
• Preparing budgets and forecasts for business units
• Analyzing trends in expenses and revenues
• Reconciling accounts
• Preparing and posting journal entries to the general ledger
• Preparing ad hoc reports and financial statements
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Internship Requirements & Partner
Firms
• Minimum cumulative G.P.A of 3.0
• Minimum of three accounting courses with a grade of B or better in each by the time the summer begins
• Broad knowledge of the finance industry
• Excellent quantitative and analytical skills
• Open to sophomores and juniors. Seniors who will have one semester to complete at the time of the internship may be considered
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Selling Points – Why Accounting at an
Investment Bank?
• Learn the business of running an Investment Bank
– Opportunity to gain a broad and deep knowledge of various areas of a bank (Rotational Programs)
– Private accountants get to know a business more intimately than their colleagues in public accounting who are only able to obtain a high-level view
– Help execute strategic goals, drive disciplined growth, and enhance operational efficiencies
• More Doors Opened
– Working in private accounting opens up career paths outside of the specific disciplines of audit and tax which are the main staples of public accounting
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Selling Points – Why Accounting at an
Investment Bank?
• Less Stressful Environment than Public Accounting
– Private accountants work with the same group of colleagues and tend to have a more relaxed lifestyle. Public accounts deal with a wide variety of people and demands, thus their work is inevitably more stressful
• Work/Life Balance
– Other than the account-closing month, private accountants have more or less a 9-5 job
• Exposure to Senior Management
– Have the opportunity to work with industry leaders on developing cutting-edge products, processes, policies and infrastructures
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Intern Perspective: What attracted you to Accounting/Finance?
“What attracted me most to the SEO
Accounting/Finance Program was the fact that it consists of extensive on-line and in-person training, which made it so that I was far ahead of the curve at the start of my internship. Furthermore, SEO exposes its interns to top executives from all over Wall Street; exposure that one will not likely obtain in any other program.” – Ariel Solomon,
Carnegie Mellon University,
Accounting/Finance Class of 2011,
J. P. Morgan
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