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// DIAGNOSTICS / RISK, COMPLIANCE AND AUDIT
5 QUESTIONS · 7 MINUTES · NO SIGNUP

Interview Quiz: Risk, Compliance and Audit

FIVE QUESTIONS · FOUR ANSWERS EACH

Five questions a panel for a second- or third-line seat is likely to ask: credit risk, compliance, financial crime, operational risk and internal audit. Each has four answers, and most of them are defensible. What the panel is listening for underneath is one temperament — independence without obstruction, and the ability to say no with a reason a business person can act on. Pick the answer closest to yours; the senior interviewer's read follows each one.

Market and liquidity risk and model validation are not in this quiz. Their rounds test quantitative disciplines that this site names and does not teach.

5 questions · ~7 minutes · No signup, no email required

// FOUR BLOCKS, FOUR QUIZZES

A bank hires in four blocks, and each block's panel asks different questions. This one is yours.

// THE FIVE QUESTIONS IN THIS ROUND

The four answers to each, and the senior interviewer's read of every one, open when you start.

  1. 01 · Losses are lower than the model predicted. Is that good news?

    A panel for a credit risk seat puts a portfolio in front of you instead of a file. For the second year running, losses in one lending segment have come in well under what the bank's model expected, and the business is asking for more appetite in that segment on the strength of it. The question comes from the head of the portfolio team, and it is not rhetorical.

    ASKED FOR · Credit risk analyst

  2. 02 · The business wants to launch on Friday and you are not comfortable. What do you do?

    A product team has a new lending product ready for Friday, and the marketing is booked. In your review you found that the way the product's cost is shown to customers could leave some of them believing it is cheaper than it is. The product owner says every competitor shows it the same way, and that the wording is legal. It is Wednesday.

    ASKED FOR · Compliance officer

  3. 03 · This customer's transactions do not match its stated business. Where do you start?

    An alert has come up on a business customer that describes itself as a small wholesaler of building supplies. Over three months, most of the money coming into its account has arrived in round amounts from a handful of individuals, and most of it has left again within days for a company overseas. There are almost no payments to anyone who looks like a supplier. You have the account history and the customer's onboarding file.

    ASKED FOR · Financial crime analyst

  4. 04 · The business disagrees with your finding. What now?

    You have audited how a lending team watches its borrowers after the money is out. In a sample of files, annual reviews were signed off without the financial information the bank's own standard requires. The head of the team says the finding is unfair: the borrowers are long-standing, none of them has defaulted, and the information was “known” even if it was not on the file. They want the finding taken out before the report goes to the audit committee.

    ASKED FOR · Internal auditor

  5. 05 · How would you tell whether a control is real or decorative?

    A lending operations team shows you its control for making sure the security on every new loan is registered before the money goes out. There is a policy, a checklist with a box for it, and a monthly sign-off by the team leader. The last internal review rated the control effective. You have a day with the team.

    ASKED FOR · Operational risk analyst