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“The work/fun balance is spot on” – meet our FFPs in Middle Office

26-07-2022 13:40

(FFP #4) Hello from the middle office at Nordea in Helsinki! Here, we are four FFPs, all working on ensuring that business is conducted according to guidelines. Also, we're involved in developing more efficient processes to help Nordea stay ahead of the curve - and much more. See what our FFP life is like in our blog.

By Pauliina, Anssi, Susanna and Jukka-Pekka

Pauliina Kinos - Traded Financial Instruments (TFI) Finance Development

I'm studying my last year at Turku School of Economics, majoring Supply Chain Management. I have a few minors, including Economics, Investment and Finance Study module & Management. Previous related job experience; auditing and asset accounting.

My personal interest areas are on the field of finance which is why my tasks are defined more on business knowledge areas than IT. Changes in Trade Book hierarchies, taking care of Bloomberg admin tasks and searching some information and making analysis for various data requests from Trading Data Warehouse (TDW) are part of my daily tasks. In this team it is possible to deepen technical skills. For example, SQL is in daily use when working with TDW.  

Besides the daily tasks, it is possible to attend some projects in Finance Development based on your own profession and interest areas. As there are only a few routines to do, active work attitude is needed to raise knowledge and to get on track with development projects. Luckily there are many friendly colleagues ready to help in Middle Office.   

Being part of the FFP program gives you more than just learning opportunities and work experience. Having a great group of fellow FFPs, you’ll never have to eat your lunch alone and have great friends to go afterwork with too. Also sharing experiences with others widens understanding of the functions in Middle Office and Nordea Markets.  

Anssi Peltola - Business Risk Control (BRC)

I major in economics at the Turku School of Economics and about to finish my master’s thesis.

I currently work as an Assistant Controller in the Business Risk Control team. I have not previously worked in risk control but I believe my experience in other analytical positions has helped me a lot. 

My team is responsible for the management of non-financial risks. We perform various controls in different risk areas to enhance Nordea’s compliance with regulatory requirements. We do this to ensure that other employees do what they should be doing and refrain from doing what they should not do.

We follow many things in the trading floor and thanks to this, we get a good overview of various functions at Nordea. Our team operates on a Nordic level, which means that we are responsible for the business risk control of operations at other Nordic countries also. Currently three of my team members work at Helsinki and six at Copenhagen. So, we often have Teams meetings and the language spoken in our team is English.

My typical day is 9­­–17 but my hours are not fixed. This means that I can sometimes start my days earlier or end them a bit later. My daily work consists of performing daily, monthly, and quarterly controls. My work is never the same, but varies from day to day which I like. The controls I perform make for example sure that orders sent to Nordea are handled correctly, and that trades are only done at correct times and in the correct places. I also participate in improving our controls which means that I get to be innovative and to improve our performance instead of just performing the controls.

I have worked here at Nordea almost two months now, and I have learned a lot about for instance derivatives, regulation, order handling and execution processes, and the activities at Nordea Markets in general. I have really enjoyed my time here, and I am looking forward to spending the next months here, learning more and having fun with the other FFPs and my colleagues.

Susanna Peltonen - Counterparty Credit Risk Control (CCRC)

I'm finishing my studies at the University of Vaasa where I study finance as my major.

In the FFP program, I am working in Counterparty Credit Risk Control (CCRC) team as an Assistant Controller in Financial & Risk Control. Our team safeguards the business across Markets and Treasury by controlling, analysing and reporting Counterparty credit risk in derivatives from different angles.

My daily tasks include investigating different excesses and violations, which might have been caused for instance by derivatives trades exceeding allowed limits, as well as escalating and reporting the findings. Part of my tasks is also providing business support to CRUs related to counterparty credit risk exposures as well as systems and limits.

I have always been interested in working within risk control. Also, my interest towards different derivatives has grown during my studies. Therefore, it is fulfilling to work here among such a professional, talented and warm environment where a trainee like me gets a lot of responsibility and challenging tasks. The amount of new information is at times overwhelming but it also motivates and increases the desire to learn more.

The best thing about being a FFP trainee is gaining a comprehensive understanding about financial markets in practise, and not only within your own team but also by learning about other teams and how different teams’ tasks are linked to each other. Besides, there is a great team spirit among FFPs and, of course, it is fun to meet other trainees outside work also.

Jukka-Pekka Pesonen - Financial Reporting Tools

I am starting my last year of studies in LUT University towards M.Sc. in Strategic Finance and Business Analytics. I also studied Computer Science as my minor, which has been a considerable asset in my current position at Nordea as Assistant Controller.

I currently work as Assistant Controller within a team called Financial Reporting Tools. I had no previous working experience from financial reporting, but I had advised small and medium sized businesses with their banking needs previously.

My team’s main functions are ensuring data flow to data end users and explaining daily Profit & Loss. We also participate in monthly and quarterly reporting for Markets and Treasury. My focus is automating and streamlining Notes & Disclosures processes to get back valuable time to my team members and other stakeholders. My role is purely technical and the ability to understand and combine multiple programming languages and data sources is essential to be able to thrive here. This team is a perfect crossover between business and technology, which also describes me well

In this position, there is a steep learning curve and a lot of responsibility, but you are also trusted with a lot of freedom. It really pays off to be resilient and curious of solving various tasks at hand, since the job is so independent. Thankfully, other team members and even people across the organization are easily approachable and offer a strong knowledge base to learn from.

This really is a wonderful place to grow and learn, since your projects do make a difference, and you get to know a lot of people from diverse backgrounds. And of course, the culture outside of the workplace is great too, thanks to the close community created among my FFP colleagues. The work-fun balance is also spot on when attending this trainee-program.

Stay tuned for the next blog in our FFP series zooming in on some of the fun as they tell about the recent social event they've enjoyed.

Meanwhile, have a look at some of the previous FFP blogs or see what the interns are up to in Norway, Denmark and Sweden

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