Wholesale banking

Wholesale banking is commonly defined as banking services that are provided between merchant banks and other financial institutions. However, wholesale banking is often used as a term to refer to the wide range of financial services that are provided by financial institutions to various corporations and businesses.

Wholesale banking is different from retail banking. The former focuses on corporate style entities and high value transactions, while the latter is focused on providing financial services to individual consumers. Therefore, a bank will typically engage in both wholesale and retail banking.

The scope of wholesale banking packages that are extended to businesses and government entities can include a range of other financial services as well. Discounted interest rates are commonly included as part of the incentive for entering into a wholesale finance arrangement. Valuable support services are often included with wholesale banking. These include:

■consultation on investments
■help with the details of a merger or acquisition
■various underwriting services

What does the subsector need?

The Skills Bill: Analysis of Skills Needs in UK Financial Services produced by the Financial Sector Skills Council suggests that ‘Wholesale financial services are, by a wide margin, the sector recording the least skills deficiencies in the entire industry.’

However, the skills shortages are identified as those amongst ‘professionals and technical staff, as new products and services give rise to specialisations that the workforce cannot accommodate instantly, and in sales and customer service’.

The report also suggests that there is an ‘overall lack of applicants for managerial positions’ and that these skills are not high up on an employee’s personal development list.