A typical work day for me

The alarm goes off at 7.20am.  I snooze and finally roll out of bed at 7.40am.  I take 20min to get ready which K says is a long time because all he needs is 10min (still trying to figure out how does he do that).  I usually decide on what to wear the night before so I don't waste any time.  Make up is done within 5min.. and he is usually at sitting at the stairs hurrying me "it's 8am!  Quick, let's go!"  Sometimes it sounds like a threat "Quick!  I'm gonna go first!  Don't want to miss the train!"  We take the 8.04am train so yes we are cutting it very fine.  We are lucky enough to live 2min from the train station.  In fact, where our garden ends is the station carpark and then the train platform. (We seriously considered putting a gate at the end of the garden to make the morning walk more bearable.)

I arrive at work about 8.45am where my team is usually in by then.  Everyone works hard in the team even though official working hours starts at 9am.  We sit on the "trading floor", a term used loosely but in reality, they are not traders but the capital markets bankers.  The team I'm in supports these bankers and work closely with the heads of the businesses.  Who are these people you might ask?  These are the bankers who work with clients if the clients want to raise debt by issuing bonds in the primary market (we also call them the origination team), or if a company wants to raise money by doing an IPO or a rights issue.  Or, if company A wants to buy company B, they approach us to do the financing structure for them, and in the process, be part of their financing (i.e. lend them money).  It can be a friendly or a hostile takeover.  Many times, we are privy to the information before it is announced to the public.  We are therefore considered as the "private side" and we are not allowed to discuss any work information with anyone outside work - yep my lips are sealed :X  It is a very interesting and highly stressful environment as you can imagine.  With the movers and shakers of the finance industry, these are a bunch of highly competent people.

My main responsibility is to look at the loans which we lend to clients across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and help bankers get approval from a committee made up of very senior heads of businesses.  Every Tuesday I reach office at 7.40am to sit in a meeting which starts at 8am where primarily the bankers would present to this committee and discuss the business case for each of their client who needs to borrow money from the bank.  It is interesting to see how the bankers think and talk about future business opportunities.  I need to be aware of the current regulatory environment to know how the rules (ever evolving) affects the way we lend money to clients.  My manager and I often get asked to give trainings to new joiners, or even a refresher talk for the existing bankers so they know how that capital is a constrained resource for the bank.  I do feel privileged to be in this role because I work with so many teams and people across many countries as far as Russia to the east, and South Africa in the south.  My day is demanding because bankers are often after me to review their loans and at the same time, our CFO might send through requests asking about exposures on our loan book, and if loan x or y are rolling off soon.  I can't say how much our total loan book exposure is, but it is in tens of billions of dollars.

Last year, my manager also asked me to be the cover for the debt capital markets business so I started to know the bankers on the floor more.  Every Monday I do a "floor walk", speaking with them asking them about the deals they are working on (i.e. the bonds they are working with clients on).  I love interacting with them, and finding out what's going on in the market.  Currently the Greek crisis is causing a lot of uncertainties and tension in the market so last week the bond market was literally dead. I compile a weekly bond activity email and for the first time, there were only 2 bonds issued.  Once a bond is announced and priced, we need to keep track of the fees we are due to receive from each client, and in which month do we recognise the fees.  Every month we do a simple (well ok relatively) deck for the head of DCM to show him how his business has performed: the deals his teams have done, the fees, and also lost deals which is always useful to know.

Lunch is always a quick affair for everyone.  The local work culture does not promote long lunches like in Asia, and it's usually a quick sandwich or salad at the desk.  I feel guilty if I do have a full hour lunch break.  Once in a while, our team might go for a drink after work before heading home.  My manager does love his beer.  I try to leave work between 7-730pm where I will be rushing for the train and praying that my train will not be delayed (it always does btw).  Between K and me, whoever reaches home first will start cooking dinner.  We usually finish dinner and washing up around 9pm.  And we would both be exhausted.  We talk about our day but we have different ideas of unwinding after a day's work.  He loves to watch American Dad or the Simpsons on TV whereas I love to lie in our bed with music playing in the background whilst surfing the net or blogging… before sleeping at close to midnight.

And then another day starts again.