Richard Williams - Commercial Bank

What attracted you to Barclays?
I was attracted to Barclays for a combination of reasons - both its history and also its ambition. It’s a quintessential British Bank with a long and proud history, yet it sees the world around it changing and it has the strength and the desire to change its business model and adapt and take advantage of the new opportunities.

Why did you choose to join the Commercial Bank?
I chose to join the Commercial Bank because I am interested in businesses and I see that the Commercial Bank provides that exposure to what businesses need and how they fund their growth and their success. I see it as a chance to really understand what a business needs and then to provide the product and services to facilitate that.

What does the Commercial Bank do?
The Commercial Bank provides day-to-day banking products to corporate entities. The team I work on is the multi-national corporate team so we provide all of the day-to-day banking and facilities that a business would need, whether it be overdrafts or credit cards or the whole range of commercial banking.

What have you been doing since you joined?
From when I started in September I first started out in a sales/servicing type role. I would be working alongside large corporate entities and providing their day-to-day banking. This would involve going out to see them, discussing their banking needs and coming back and developing the products and the service to suit their needs. Since then I have started a role which is more in the business development side. Barclays has a large global footprint and I am currently working with UK businesses, whether they’re clients of Barclays or not and feeding cross-border referrals into Africa.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
I enjoy the relationship side of my role. I go out and talk to customers and discuss and analyse their business needs. Then I can go back and work with them to develop the products that they need, and put them in touch with the right people to really facilitate their banking needs.

Can you outline any interesting projects you’ve been involved with?
I am currently working on a project working with all of our different sites around the emerging markets, with the focus on Africa and trying to understand and bring transparency to the documentation required to open up accounts and set up banking services. So on a day-to-day basis I liaise with our clients across Africa and the emerging markets and work with them to develop a list and outline their requirements. It’s a very challenging role because in a lot of instances they’re not familiar themselves so it’s a great educational exercise on both fronts.

What support and training have you had since joining?
I have undertaken an extensive amount of training since joining the bank. Whether it be specific role focused training in terms of the systems or products that I’ll be using, to more general risk and credit exposure, learning about what a bank does and how to lend money and how to develop the risk expertise. Barclays is great in supporting any training ambitions you have. You just have to decide what you want to do and Barclays will be there to support you.

What qualities do you need to succeed in the Commercial Bank?
The primary skill that you need to succeed at Barclays is one of relationship building. You interact with clients on a day-to-day basis. The point of a bank is to support businesses and help them grow and help them succeed, so you need to be able to have a discussion with them and be able to really talk and understand what they need. From there you need to have the intellect and the drive to want to help and to analyse their issues and develop products to support them.