Offer withdrawn and looking for feedback

[MrMarkyMark]

My question is: is this type of onboarding requirement standard now?

Getting there, in my experience, in the last couple of years.
I also had the same with a certain Spanish high street bank quite a number of years ago now.
If most investments banks don't yet do it, they will be.

Best to keep everything together and ship shape, to use in your next banking role.

[billybiro]

One of the prime purposes of the IT systems is to show the traders positions, without that the bank is blind to rogue trading. In other words IT plays a pretty vital role in preventing all the abuses.

IT has in the past albeit unwittingly, helped rogue traders hide their positions.

The risk is that a trader gets someone in IT to put some "changes" in for him, eg fake positions and gets a back hander.

Nick Leeson got IT to set up his infamous 8888 account.

Entire banks ended up with losses almost as big their country's GDP in the 2000's so there's now a whole load of regulation.

Understood, although it sounds very much to me like they need to increase the level of vetting of the traders moreso than IT given that they're the root cause of any potential problems in this area.

For the reasons you mention, I can understand CRB/police checks etc however, declining to offer you a contract on the basis that (all else being in good standing) you were out of work for 1 month of the last 3 years - and don't have a letter from God to prove it - sounds pretty asinine.

[LondonManc]

Understood, although it sounds very much to me like they need to increase the level of vetting of the traders moreso than IT given that they're the root cause of any potential problems in this area.

For the reasons you mention, I can understand CRB/police checks etc however, declining to offer you a contract on the basis that (all else being in good standing) you were out of work for 1 month of the last 3 years - and don't have a letter from God to prove it - sounds pretty asinine.

Agreed. Claiming a degree that you haven't got is one thing but claiming that you didn't do a job that you never had is something else!

[czakky]

Agents hate it as they lose roles all the time when contractors fail these tests & the client fills it elsewhere but agents also fail to mention in the job ad as they know they will get a smaller response due to many candidates CBAing to go through all of this again & again.

This is so, so true. Early in my career, I had the "privilege" of recruiting in this sector, and it was nothing short of torturous. Add to this my North East accent - very fun in London banking!

From what I can gather on the recruitment grapevine as well, it has got a lot harder the last few years, with the amount of checks getting totally out of hand - which I think this thread shows quite well.

[uk contractor]

Is this a norm for permanent roles as well ?

Unsure but I know they usually do check all references provided either with HR or the head of HR as well as the police & credit vetting checks.

You can take all that as a given & in addition for some contracts you need the extra documentation I mentioned everytime even on renewals where nothing else has changed some insist on the whole onboarding process (which is slightly quicker the 2nd time).

RBS (5-6 week average onboarding process)
RBC (2 month average onboarding process)
Credit Suisse (2 month average onboarding process)
Morgan Stanley (2 month average onboarding process)
Lloyds (5-6 week average onboarding process)
Citigroup (5-6 week average onboarding process)
UBS
Goldman Sachs
JP Morgan

All require the full monty checks & documentation. Some financial services companies have such undeveloped compliance departments the checks are not mandatory but most of the Tier 1+2 Inv Banks want it all for contractors & most of it for perm roles. There are always exceptions of course I know of one chap who was hired as the head of IT for a well known bank then when they checked him out he failed some of the tests (undischarged bankrupt was one ) & got booted from site a few days after starting!

The requirements are getting way harder but still these same banks do not necessarily check their existing staff which is even worse as its more likely an existing staff member will cause issues & be above suspicion until the financial damage is done

[LondonManc]

Credit Suisse 4 weeks - know someone who has started there recently.

[stek]

My recent experience is Coop Bank zero weeks, Bank of Ireland zero weeks.

[darrylmg]

... its more likely an existing staff member will cause issues & be above suspicion until the financial damage is done

It's always a disgruntled employee, never a contractor.
Probably because we're already disgruntled by the processes before we even get the contract. We're effectively numb to disgruntlement.

[pr1]

must be really easy to invoke your substitution clause in these places

[MrMarkyMark]

RBS (5-6 week average onboarding process)
RBC (2 month average onboarding process)
Credit Suisse (2 month average onboarding process)
Morgan Stanley (2 month average onboarding process)
Lloyds (5-6 week average onboarding process)
Citigroup (5-6 week average onboarding process)
UBS
Goldman Sachs
JP Morgan

My experience is if you have everything in order, it is around 4 weeks for most places.
If you have gaps etc. or if they have to follow up, with regards to missing documentation, it takes longer.

must be really easy to invoke your substitution clause in these places

Perfectly doable, depends on your relationship with the client, also, it can help further if you have a true specialist skill set.