A Day in the Life of a Market and Liquidity Risk Manager

I work at the Superintendencia de Bancos de Panama as a Market and Liquidity Risk Manager. I am responsible for the team that evaluates all banks in the Panamanian Banking System in relation to their practices for measurement and management of market risk, liquidity risk, and interest rate risk in the banking book. In this role I have to attend many meetings with other departments, such as the Supervision, Financial Stability, and Regulation Departments, as well as meetings with other banks and local and international organizations. In this role, I have had the opportunity to participate in the development and implementation of rules for the banking sector such as capital requirements for market risk, investment management, financial derivatives, liquidity risk management, and the liquidity coverage ratio, among others.

The typical day in my job may vary a lot depending on the month of the year, meetings, and other factors; however, below is what it commonly looks like.

8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

I start my day logging into Bloomberg and Refinitiv to catch up with the most important market news in Panama and the rest of the world, especially news related to the banking industry and its regulators. I also look for a summary of the behavior of the main market indicators such as stock indexes, interest rates, etc. Then I check my emails (I usually have a lot) starting from oldest to newest and reply to the most urgent.

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

At this time, I usually meet with my team members individually to discuss ongoing projects. This gives me the chance to ensure I know what they are working on and can support them with any areas of difficulty that need to be addressed promptly so as not to compromise delivery dates. These projects may be of a diverse nature, from bank inspections and evaluations, to the development of regulatory requirements and standards, to the implementation of risk metrics or models and their automation. 

11:00 AM – 13:00 PM

I usually spend about two hours a day reviewing the work done by the department’s risk analysts and inspectors. This work is generally reflected in bank inspection reports consisting of around 40 to 50 pages each. These contain a comprehensive analysis of the bank’s models and practices to assess its risks and value its investments, as well as the findings of the inspection.

A very important aspect to focus on when evaluating each report is understanding the models used by the bank. I must determine if the analysts have a deep understanding of the model, its assumptions, inputs, and any possible recommendations that they have issued to the bank.

13:00 PM – 14:00 PM

It’s lunch time. I usually eat lunch at the cafeteria or at my desk while I read the news. A couple of times a month I go out for lunch with friends or colleagues in restaurants located within the banking area. This is a good opportunity to breathe fresh air.

14:00 PM – 16:00 PM

During this time of the day, I often work on automation projects which aim to implement indicators and models to monitor risks across all banks. For this task I use SQL to query information from the databases. I also use Python to process and transform the data, as well as build risk monitoring dashboards in a web-based application.

It is also very common to have meetings with the risk and treasury departments of banks at this time. During these meetings, my team and I have technical discussions about the mathematical and statistical methodologies that the bank uses to measure its risks and value its investments and derivatives positions. Other issues related to risk management are also addressed, such as controls, limits and exceptions, risk appetite, compliance with risk regulations, among many others. This is also the moment to present to the bank any opportunities for improvement that were detected during the inspection.

16:00 PM – 17:00 PM

I catch up with my boss on any matter of relevance to the department and to find out if there is anything that needs to be addressed. I brief the analyst team on the highest priority issues and invite them to discuss any improvement initiatives or recommendations they may have.

I also take advantage of this time in the day to research and study any technical topics that I need to understand to solve a problem or face a new challenge at work.

17:00 PM – 18:00 PM

My working day usually ends by this time. Before I leave the office, I go through my emails and to-dos and make note of the most important things for the next day. Then I turn off my computer and go home to spend the evening with my family.