Commercial Banking Intern Review
at HSBC
Internship (1 Month+)
Commercial Banking
London
Review Submitted: August 2026
Overall Rating
4.7 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
3/5
-
Overview of Role
5/5
-
Skills Development
4.5/5
-
Support and Guidance
5/5
-
Company Culture
4.5/5
-
Overall Experience
5/5
-
Future Career Prospects
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.
1) Start of day: triage + priorities (30–45 mins)
Check emails/Teams for new asks from your placement manager and associates.
Confirm priorities and deadlines (especially if multiple client deliverables land at once).
Quick admin controls: mandatory training progress, info security hygiene (locking screen, handling client files appropriately).
2) Core delivery work: client monitoring & analysis (2–4 hours, broken up)
You’ll spend a lot of time in Excel and client packs, doing work like:
MI (Management Information) summaries: reading client MI (which varies by client), extracting key movements and drafting a summary and/or table.
Covenant awareness/checking: sense-checking financials against covenant expectations; in your case you described manually calculating covenant requirements as a control before summarising.
FFR analysis: working with Financial Forecast Returns (FFRs) (10-year forecasts), calculating and summarising key metrics and trends.
3) Automation/standardisation projects (1–3 hours depending on the week)
Interns often get a “build something reusable” piece
4) Meetings, reviews and stakeholder management (sprinkled throughout the day)
Expect a steady stream of short interactions:
Check-ins with your placement manager for progress updates and prioritisation.
Reviews with associates/SMEs
Meetings with external clients and colleagues as well
5) Learning + community activity (30–90 mins on some days)
REF fundamentals sessions (online/in-person), e.g. a senior facility agreements session.
Degreed/LinkedIn Learning to close technical gaps (Excel features needed for KPI/covenant work).
Broader intern contributions (e.g., intern video project, “interns and AI” style collaboration, networking events).
Check emails/Teams for new asks from your placement manager and associates.
Confirm priorities and deadlines (especially if multiple client deliverables land at once).
Quick admin controls: mandatory training progress, info security hygiene (locking screen, handling client files appropriately).
2) Core delivery work: client monitoring & analysis (2–4 hours, broken up)
You’ll spend a lot of time in Excel and client packs, doing work like:
MI (Management Information) summaries: reading client MI (which varies by client), extracting key movements and drafting a summary and/or table.
Covenant awareness/checking: sense-checking financials against covenant expectations; in your case you described manually calculating covenant requirements as a control before summarising.
FFR analysis: working with Financial Forecast Returns (FFRs) (10-year forecasts), calculating and summarising key metrics and trends.
3) Automation/standardisation projects (1–3 hours depending on the week)
Interns often get a “build something reusable” piece
4) Meetings, reviews and stakeholder management (sprinkled throughout the day)
Expect a steady stream of short interactions:
Check-ins with your placement manager for progress updates and prioritisation.
Reviews with associates/SMEs
Meetings with external clients and colleagues as well
5) Learning + community activity (30–90 mins on some days)
REF fundamentals sessions (online/in-person), e.g. a senior facility agreements session.
Degreed/LinkedIn Learning to close technical gaps (Excel features needed for KPI/covenant work).
Broader intern contributions (e.g., intern video project, “interns and AI” style collaboration, networking events).
Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?
Yes but not because it was handed to me but because I sought it out.
Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was
3/5
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?
Yes
How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
5/5
How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
5/5
How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?
5/5
Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development
5/5
Support and Guidance
How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?
As much as I requested.
How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?
4/5
How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?
5/5
Company Culture
What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?
Very positive, friendly and inclusive culture.
How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
5/5
How would you rate the social opportunities?
5/5
How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
5/5
How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
5/5
Overall Experience
To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?
Never a dull day in my personal opinion.
Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship
4/5
Please rate how your experience met your expectations
5/5
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend HSBC to a friend?
Yes
What advice would you give to others applying to HSBC
You need to be extroverted in order to find yourself involved with as many opportunities as possible.
Future Career Prospects
Please rate the future employment prospects at HSBC
5/5
Did you receive an offer to return as a graduate?
Waiting to hear
