Operational Insights and Risk Analysis in Commercial Banking: An Internship Experience at City Bank PLC

Abstract

The current internship report entails a detailed consideration of the learning experience obtained during the professional capacity of being attached to City Bank PLC which is considered to be one of the major private commercial banks in Bangladesh. Carried out during the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) course, the internship sought to fill the gap between theoretical knowledge and actual processes in a bank by offering the intern exposure to the Legal Department and other important service divisions such as Card Division Customer Service, Customer Maintenance and Operations. The report starts by giving out the justification of internship programs in corporate education and how they are instrumental in preparing the students about the realities of organizational life. The internship experience of the Legal Division of City Bank provided a practical experience at the regulatory work that included cheque dishonour, loan defaults, and credit card disputes. Also, the efforts with documentation, data, and case files allowed accessing the information about compliance requirements in the banking sector. The City Bank PLC was chosen owing to its well-established heritage, modernised portfolio of services and its strategic position in the financial sector of Bangladesh. Since it was founded in 1983, the bank has taken the vertically integrated approach and developed technological platforms like CityTouch and City Wallet and broadened its services into e.g., Islamic banking, retail and SME banking and digital financial services. The use of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to measure the risk-prone areas in the operations of the bank is a key factor of the report. Vulnerabilities like failures of the ATM cash, delays in solving customer problems, poor data entry and online banking freezes were some of the situations analyzed as critical. Study was proposed to implement mitigation strategies such as automation, artificial intelligence, cyber security and predictive maintenance. The results highlight the essence of operational resilience and pro-active risk management in financial services sector. Although there are certain drawbacks to this internship experience e.g. the internship did not allow access to sensitive data, there were limitations of time and exposure within the department, the experience yielded great learning. It gave the intern an opportunity to work with the processes of banking, understand how the service works and to combine its classroom experience with difficult practical problems. The report comes to the conclusion that the internship in the City Bank PLC was a crucial landmark toward making the intern ready to work in the financial sector. The experience, competences and contacts gained in the course of the internship will provide a start to a prospective career in banking, in the field of financial services or in corporate compliance.