A. We got opinions on this from ten recruitment agents working at three different firms. The consensus of opinion is that a big credit issue, like bankruptcy, would stop most banks employing you, but beyond that, it depends on the bank and on the job you are going to do.

The other thing that everyone agreed on is that you should declare your credit problem upfront. Here are some of the most salient pieces of advice from IT specialists at recruitment company McGregor-Boyall:

“If you are working on systems that hold clients’ money, it will be harder than if you are dealing with middle or back office systems. Some banks will be put off by a County Court Judgement, others won’t. The most important thing is to declare the issue up front, before interview.”

“If a candidate has been declared bankrupt before it can be very difficult for them find employment with a bank. If, however, they have things like County Court Judgements – and as long as HR know about them before an HR interview – this shouldn’t really be an issue. It also depends on the role – if it is a back/middle office role with little interaction with systems that can hold money then again they should be fine. If such candidates are looking to work in a front office environment they would struggle to be employed. I had a candidate have his offer of employment rescinded because he had been declared bankrupt several years before. He was working in front office e-trading systems development.”

“A lot of banks now do credit checks through independent companies such as Kroll. Some will reject a candidate outright for any failures that come back regardless of the severity. This is especially the case for front office roles. However, in some cases, if a candidate has got particularly specialised skills, a bank may request further details on the credit check and take this into consideration. It is then down to the bank’s discretion as to whether they make an offer or not.”

“It depends on why your credit record is poor. Some people’s record dives because of a divorce, others still have bad student debt. Some run up debts because of poor financial management or unpaid parking fines! Some of these circumstances are acceptable, others are not. If it was a long time ago, any poor credit record will probably be fine. In general if the bailiffs have been notified, or County Court Judgement has been passed, it is considered very serious and some banks are stricter than others.”

We hope that answers your question. And we’d certainly like to hear any other opinions on this subject.

Next week’s question: My employment contract stipulates that if I bring in two to three times my salary in revenue I will be eligible to “start talking about bonuses”. I bring in six to seven times my salary but whenever I raise the question of a pay rise or bonus with my head of desk he finds excuses not to answer. I’ve started looking at other brokerage houses where I can take my customers, but still I feel I am owed something for the past two years. Worse still, this house recently hired three guys who produce less than 20% of my revenue but get twice my salary. How should I proceed?

expertadmin@efinancialcareers.com
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