Internship in Product Control

At the end of my penultimate year at university, I completed an internship rotating through a number of departments and I was delighted to receive a graduate offer from the Line P&L team within Product Control.

What is Product Control? The Product Control team at MUFG is divided into two sub-departments: Line P&L and Valuations.

The Line P&L team are responsible for the daily P&L reporting for each business area. We provide key financial information by explaining profit and loss in depth with respect to attribution of risk parameter movements, deal activity and market linked commentary. The team is engaged in the launch of new products which are to be traded by the firm in order to evaluate the controls implemented for its P&L reporting. Additionally, on a monthly and quarterly basis, we evaluate the performance of business units by detailing market events and key activity that has driven P&L, in which such commentary is distributed internally.

On a monthly basis, for each of the trading desks, the Valuations team prepare independent price valuation reports and analyse the specific risk parameters which may be driving differences in pricing. These documents provide the relevant financial information to governance forums that are contained within internal reporting packages. The team also run balance sheet and trade population reconciliations to ensure completeness and accuracy of trade valuations.

My fascination to join Product Control stems from a number of reasons, particularly the plethora of opportunity you are given even as a graduate. In the short space of a few months into joining the desk, I was given tremendous responsibility of reporting P&L for multiple business units. This experience enabled me to ascertain the fundamentals of different business functions within an organisation, and vastly broadened my technical understanding, which were facets of a graduate job I was looking for.

In addition to developing my technical competencies, I was also able to hone my interpersonal skills as I regularly had the opportunity to interact with other teams across the business including traders and sales reps. This gives me the ease of developing my network and personal brand within the firm, and the gravity of networking is constantly placed at the forefront within the working world.

Furthermore, working in Line P&L within Product Control, you are given more than just the opportunity of working on different asset classes, but you are able to partake in various projects outside your day-to-day role, transition into the Valuations team if this fits your personal interests and you are able to complete the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam.

Product Control takes great pride in providing its team members with opportunities that will accelerate both their professional and personal development, and it is for these many reasons why I decided to join this team.