This is called Personal Banking or Individual Banking in some banks. The primary role of this division is to mobilize deposits for the Bank. You may have heard of terms like savings accounts, fixed deposits etc. 
When you as individuals open an account, apply for a credit card, issue a demand draft etc, you are interacting with the Retail banking arm of the bank.

So what are the main products and services offered here?
► Deposit products
► Savings Accounts
► Current Accounts
► Term Deposits
► Deposit products for Non-Resident Indians(NRIs)
► Services – Cheques, Demand Drafts, Locker facility for all your gold that your parents gave you!

These deposit products are all liabilities for the bank, as they have to be repaid to the depositors.Let’s now move on to the asset side.
Even though Retail Bank’s primary role is to mobilize deposits, they also give out loans to individuals and small businesses. You need a loan to buy a house, buy a car, or set up a doctor’s clinic, you approach the Retail Bank. 
The different categories of loan or asset products offered by the Retail bank are:

► Credit Cards
► Home Loans
► Auto Loans
► Other Personal Loans

Remember, credit card is also a loan, as you buy now and pay later. The bank actually immediately pays the merchant from where you have got your stuff. So, given this, the first thing you must understand when someone asks you for the role in Retail Banking – is that you either work on the liabilities side or on the asset side.

The various roles (Product Managers, Branch Managers, Risk Officers etc) within each are mapped, based on your qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience.If you are a graduate or even a post graduate like a Bcom, Bsc or Mcom, Msc you will be taken in the following roles such as Cashier/Tellers, Customer Service officers, Loan Officer, Officer-Clearing, Officer-Remittances etc.If you are a management graduate from a premier business school, typically after some training across various departments you may become a relationship manager in one of the branches. This will be a client facing role. You will have aggressive targets in terms of deposits and other loan products of the bank. It is a very challenging role as it requires some sales skills, knowledge of operations – to satisfy customer queries etc.

If you are lucky, you may also become the branch manager of a small branch or the assistant branch manager of a larger branch. This will be the most interesting as you will be in charge of the entire branch and have a number of people reporting in to you. You may also become the product manager of one of the asset products such as credit cards, or home loans. The career progression is to typically become a branch manager of larger and larger branches. Typically, in about 8-10 years you can become the head of all liability products of a region and then nationally.

On the asset side, you may pursue a career along a product line – such as regional head credit cards, and then national head and so on. The final point is that Retail Banking is the largest recruiting area for the bank and is of prime importance.

This is the lending arm of the bank, and the target segment is corporates – large and mid sized corporates. 

The products and services offered by this division are:
q Loan Products
► Short Term Loans – Working Capital
► Long Term Loans – Term Loans
q Services – Transaction Banking
► Trade Finance – Letter of Credit, Bills discounting, factoring
► Cash Management – Managing corporate receipts and payments.

The roles in the Corporate Banking division are as follows:
► Relationship Managers
► Product Managers
► Transaction banking Officers – in-charge of product delivery like in IT companies
► Credit Officer

Typically, your career will start as a credit officer, or a Transaction Banking officer. As a credit officer, you will be involved in preparing credit notes - key documents for credit evaluation – i.e. to evaluate if the company should be given the loan or not.As a transaction banking officer in trade services– you will be involved in processing the trade documents, like Letters of credit etc, to ensure its correctness. You will also have to communicate and interact with your client and the other banks involved in this process.

As an officer in cash management – your responsibility will be to manage the receipts and payments for corporate clients. Here, you will have to ensure that these payments and receipts are processed in a timely manner; there are sufficient funds in the customer’s account etc.

You may then continue with a career in credit, or an operations role in Trade Finance or Cash Management.
If you have a flair for customer interaction, you can graduate into a Product Manager or a Relationship Manager’s role. That will typically happen after 2-3 years in operations or credit.

This is a personalized form of banking service for the very wealthy – called High Net worth Individuals or HNIs in market jargon. 
It involves both
► Traditional banking services offered by the Retail Bank like fund transfer etc. 
► Advisory services – investment, real estate, art etc.

The roles in the Private Banking division are as follows:
► Relationship Managers 
► Investment Advisors
► Operation managers

As Private Banking handles high net-worth and sensitive clients, you will not join this division directly. People tend to move either from the Retail Bank or from the Capital Markets division.
As a management graduate, you will typically be a Relationship manager handling one or more clients, depending on the size of the portfolio. 
If it is Mr.Azim Premji, then it may be just one client.

This is the division where financial products such as equities, bonds, currencies, and other exotic products are traded. These transactions can be on behalf of customers, or on the institution’s own behalf.

Institutions that deal in these markets are:
Equities – Banks, Brokerage firms, Mutual Funds etc.
Bonds – Banks, Mutual Funds
Currencies and Exotic products – Banks

The roles in these institutions are as follows
► Trader
► Sales
► Research Analysts
► Risk Managers
► Back office operations 

Depending on your skills and temperament you will move into a sales or a trading role.
Trading involves taking quick decisions, analytical capabilities, ability to bear losses etc.
Sales involves communication and customer interaction skills.
In case you are good in mathematical modeling, you may even join the middle office in the risk management division. Given the increasing focus of on managing risk (Basel norms etc.), this division is a key responsibility in an institutions.

Finally, if you are in operations in the back office, you will be involved in the entire process after a stock, bond or currency transaction is done.
This will involve trade confirmations, making payments, reconciliation etc.

This caters to niche, high-end client requirements. Activities that are covered under I-banking are:
► Corporate Finance – M&As
► Issue Management  – also called Merchant Banking 
► Loan syndication – international fund raising

The roles in the Investment Banking division are as follows:
► Valuation Managers 
► Research Analysts
► Relationship Managers

As these tend to be highly skilled jobs, you will typically find management graduates from premier business schools being offered these positions.
However, if you have the necessary skills, there is nothing stopping anyone entering this sometimes over-rated space.
The structure is quite flat here. You will be Relationship Managers identifying and sourcing these deals, or you could be valuation managers, who help provide the necessary inputs to implement the deal.

e.g. In case a company wants to take over another company – Tata Steel taking over Corus.
Tata Steel would approach their investment bankers – an RM in the investment bank would initiate the conversation and understand their requirements.
The Research Analysts would investigate the synergies of doing such a deal – evaluate the financials etc.
The Valuation managers would perform a detailed valuation of Corus and determine a good price to be paid for the Company.
In case, Tata Steel needs to raise money to fund the acquisition, the Relationship Manager would advise the client on the mode of raising money and help them raise the same. This is typically through a Loan syndication program – i.e. involving many banks.

This division has gained a lot of significance since the frauds of Nick Leeson and Jerome Kerveil.
Further, given the implementation of Basel committee norms across the globe, the role of risk management has also come under the radar of the RBI.
From an organization perspective, it is a middle office activity and encompasses all parts of the bank.
From a career perspective, risk management requires knowledge of statistics, and quantitative modelling skills. So if maths and stats bother you, forget about being here.
On a more regular basis, your role would be to monitor the risk constraints or ‘risk limits’ defined by the organization across divisions.

Any excesses need to be highlighted to senior management. It is also important to keep the system flexible and practical given the business requirements.
In most banks there is s centralized Risk Committee that consists of senior management. You will join as a risk officer for any of the above verticals – Retail Banking,Corporate Banking etc., and work your way up.

If you were part of the Retail bank, you will be involved in managing the credit scoring models for credit cards – to measure credit risk across these products.

If you were part of Treasury/Capital markets – the focus will be more on managing market risk besides credit risk for the division.
You will have an independent reporting line to the Risk committee and not to the division head. 
An interesting and challenging role given the current environment.

The above roles or careers that we have discussed apply to a bank or a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC).

This section describes a finance role in a company.The functions or roles are quite different, and in most small corporates, it is just the accounting function – i.e. preparing the financial statements of the company.

However, in larger corporates, the roles are more diverse and are listed as under
► Managing the Working Capital cycle
► Inventory Management
► Receivables and payables management
► Interpretation of Financial statements
► Management and Cost accounting
► Budgeting and Forecasting
► Financing – Short term and Long term

The typical roles in the finance department of a corporate will be:
► Accounting & MIS – preparing the financial statements and managing the database of the internal information coming from various divisions within the company. 
► Purchase - procuring raw material, ensuring just the right amount of  raw material inventory – especially if it is scarce and not easily available.
► Sales – meeting sales targets, ensuring just the right amount of finished goods inventory etc.
► Treasury – Managing currency and interest rate exposures of the organization. It involves managing the financing requirements of the organization.
The treasury function requires some experience, and is typically managed by the CFO and a small group of executives.