Mike Richards, a corporate treasury recruiter, explains why he focuses exclusively on corporate roles rather than banking treasury. Banking treasury is highly specialized in areas like ALM and VaR, while corporate treasury demands a broader skill set spanning cash management, FX, debt, and leadership. Bankers often underestimate what's needed and may need to accept a lower title or salary to transition.
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I don't do Banking treasury recruitment. And if you're in a bank thinking you can just move into corporate Treasury, I'm sorry, this video will probably annoy you. There you go, Corporate treasury there, Banking treasury there. As you can see, they're different, they go different directions. This is one of the key things that I talked about in this week's newsletter. I've been very clear about it for a long time and why I do corporate treasury recruitment, not banking. But the weird thing was I published the newsletter straight after it. I got a range of different CVs and resumes and messages from Banking treasury guys saying, can you get me a job in Corporate Treasury? It was quite frustrating because I'm trying to give you guys knowledge and say, look, just read my newsletter and I explain why the move is very rarely straightforward and it doesn't work the way that you think it does. You might be in a bank talking to treasury all the time, but you don't do their jobs. But let me explain it because I'm coming from a position of. I used to be a Banking treasury recruiter. My first actual jobs I recruited were heads of ALM for Barclays and then NatWest. I had to go deep down into liquidity, capital risk, Monte Carlo, value at risk, the lot. And I learned a lot along the way. And those Banking treasury roles are very much more specialist than any Corporate treasury role. And lots of Banking treasury roles are. You go up a slide, you become a cash management specialist, which I'll come back to. But corporate treasury is very different. In a corporate role, cash management might be one thing you do alongside FX systems, debt risk management, stakeholder management and leading a team and all sitting under just one function, which is why I love Corporate Treasury. Corporate treasurers aren't necessarily though, just generalists. They're specialists across multiple disciplines and that is what makes the role of a treasurer work. And this is why the move from Banking treasury into Corporate treasury isn't just a sideways step. If you're in a bank and you are cash management specialist or product specialist, I will say to you and say, great, I want to move into cash management in a Treasury. So yeah, but have you ever implemented a Treasury management system or no? Have you negotiated a revolving credit facility, managed FX exposure, broader liquidity? Have you dealt with lots of treasury team members? No, you won't have done any of that stuff. To build that breadth, you have to sometimes step back in title, step back in scope, very often take pay cut to rebuild, so you come back down and go across and Broaden now. One of the people I talked very successfully is one of my upcoming Treasury Career Corner live guest is Keith Gaub at Bristol Myers Squibb. He is an amazing guy. He was in banking and he told we talked very openly on the podcast about how he stepped down in title and compensation at the time to rebuild his experience from banking across into corporate Treasury. And then later on he saw the payoff in terms of his career and he's had a great one and we're going to talk about that live on stage in a month from now. A lot of banks want recruiters who can recruit across the range of positions. Whereas I am a corporate treasury specialist. My decision not to recruit banking treasury professionals isn't a judgment on banking at all. Banks want recruiters who can recruit right the way across the organization from sales to product control, front, middle, back office, right the way across. And there are some excellent Banking treasury recruiters I can refer you to and I'm happy to point you in their direction. But I'm going to stick in my lane of corporate treasury and staying in what my lane is actually what makes me useful to you guys. So if you're in banking and thinking about a move into corporate treasury, you might be able to do it. But what you need to do firstly, number one, is go and speak to real corporate treasurers. Your clients understand what the job actually involves day to day to decide if you want it. Secondly, work out honestly what level you could operate in a corporate treasury team today, what salary, usually a salary cut you're willing to take to rebuild or broaden your career right the way across. If you've done those two things, then send me your CV and we can have a conversation. But you need to know that you're going to need to go really wide with your experience. And if you're not there yet, the right move is probably to speak to a specialist banking recruiter who can help you. And it's not about me being rude or exclusive, it's me trying to be honest, not waste your time help you in your treasury career, whether it's banking, whether it's in corporate. That's what I do. Thanks very much.
