Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Rules & Regulations: Extreme or Essential?

One of the main projects that the interns worked on during my internship was biweekly presentations on UBS’ policies and procedures. These presentations were created under the guidance of the management team, mainly the compliance and risk officer of our branch. The presentations had 2 goals:

  1. To educate the interns not only about the various external regulations that govern the finance Industry but also, the internal policies established by companies like UBS in response to FINRA, SEC (securities & exchange commission) etc. regulations.
  2. Remind the financial advisors and client service associates about the existence of such regulations and reemphasize the necessity to abide by them.

The nature of our presentations changed from week to week. Each intern covered a specific topic during the first few weeks. Somewhere in the middle of our internship, we all started working together on more complex projects that dissected new laws. We worked on a broad range of topics like non-cash compensation, FINRA regulations, rules of the road, branch audits, international tax laws etc.

Moreover, as a part of our on-boarding process, we also completed multiple training modules that better prepared us for our workplace expectations. With the help of such training modules and thorough research on the above listed subject matters, we were able to grasp the global functions of a big organization like UBS. As we delved deeper into the organization, we realized that there are so many delicate intricacies the management team has to deal with. They have the responsibility to manage the satisfaction of financial advisor while paying full adherence to rules.

All in all, it was interesting to see how the branch as a whole navigates these roadblocks (regulations) in the process of providing the best investment advice/client service possible. While some of the regulations may seem extreme and obstructive to business, their presence is essential for the smoothness of day to day operations.