bunq Flashcards
What’s the history of the bank?
Bunq is a Dutch, internationally active neobank, headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The company was founded in 2015 by Ali Niknam.
In September 2014, Bunq obtained its official banking permit with DNB.
In September 2015, Bunq raised €16.7 million in seed funds.
in November 2015, the app was available to the public.
- Tell me a little about yourself
My name is Dragos Iorga. I am 26 years old. I’m from Bucharest, Romania. I’ve been living in The Netherlands for 6 years. I have a bachelor degree in Economics from Utrecht University and a master degree in Actuarial Science from University of Amsterdam. I’ve worked as a Risk Consultant for the Dutch banking sector in Amsterdam for 2 years.
- Tell me about your experience at ING
S: My internship at ING was my first experience in a corporate environment. I was extremely motivated to prove myself and do a good job. When I started the software development center was at its inception. They’ve also just suffered some restructuring among the teams. They had large expansion plans, namely to reach 500 FTEs from 100 FTEs within two years. Given that the center was in a continuous change, things were a bit messy. The CEO of the hub complained that the accounting department was having issues with building their financial statements, because the center was not their only responsibility, they also had to build statements for the bank itself and that was a higher priority for them
T: So the CEO asked me to start fresh and re-check all the data.
A: I’ve received the journal of accounts with payments and receivables and I’ve rebuilt the financial statements from scratch, and was asked to extract as much information from the data as possible
R: I’ve realized the importance of work ethics, because I knew the CEO needed reliable numbers in order to justify a budget to his management, and I’ve also learned how to be pro-active and take action; I was given a task to do, but of course questions and mis-matches appeared, and I couldn’t bother the CEO all the time with my questions. I took the initiative and got in contact with the accounting department to clarify any concerns I had. I got along very well with the accountants. One of the senior accountant invited me to build the monthly statement together with her.
- Tell me about your experience at NN
S: NN Investment Partner needed an intern for their Reporting and Performance Measurement team.
T: We were producing various reports about the investment funds under the management of NN where we would present key investment figures, comparisons with the benchmark fund, performance indicators, fund asset composition etc.
A:
R: This time I’ve learned how to work in a team, because there were a lot of knowledge-transfer sessions, we would have meetings together, we would work under the 4-eye principle, we would ask each other to fill in someone’s place in case someone would have to leave earlier from work etc.
I’ve also learned the importance of detail and high-quality work, since I was in contact with the clients directly. I was given full responsibility of some clients very soon. I was responsible for the Asian clients who were very demanding: they asked a lot of questions, they had late minute requests.
By the end of the internship I was building new reports from scratch, based on the client’s requirements. I’ve also simplified the production of some reports, by taking a step back and thinking about what exactly is the process and what do we need to present. I was trying to look pass the technical steps presented in the working procedure. I was able to reduce the production of some reports from 3h to 1h.
- Tell me about your experience at Avantage Reply. What did you like most about this position?
S: Avantage Reply is a mid-sized consultancy company with a unique selling point. It was due to this selling point that I’ve decided to work for them. Avantage Reply is part of larger group called Reply, an Italian company, very famous in Italy, which is a technology company. Reply has a network of around 80 companies specialized in a specific domain but mostly related to technology. Given this vast network of companies, Reply can meet the needs of any client no matter the technology. For delivering a project, multiple companies work together to combine their knowledge and skills. And this is how Avantage Reply was working: by leveraging the technological capabilities of Reply, whether it was related to cloud computing, data warehouse development or app development. So you had finance and risk professionals working together with developers.
T: My tasks mainly involved working for the client. In addition I was also responsible for hiring junior consultants and for marketing across Dutch universities.
A: I’ve been on 5 client projects in total. I’ve conducted several interviews and was in contact with the student unions.
R: My contract got extended in almost every project that I was part of. We’ve successfully hired two new junior consultants. I’ve rebuilt the marketing strategy of the company, by increasing our exposure in fewer universities, rather than having little exposure in more universities. I’ve learned how to be organized and schedule my time in an efficient manner.
- Tell me about your Master studies
S: As I started my bachelor program we had the liberty of choosing our courses based on our interests. I decided to pursue courses that were more related to finance rather than economics. The more and more I progressed in my studies, the more I realized that mathematics sits at the core of finance and that the next step for finance is technology and quantitative analysis.
T:
A: After taking all financial mathematics courses provided by Utrecht University, I decided to pursue for my master, Actuarial Science and Mathematical Finance.
R:
- What are your biggest weaknesses?
I’m a perfectionist. I tend to spend more time on a deliverable than most people have patience. But this is something that I am working at. I am trying to be more practical and less pedantic.
- What are your biggest strengths?
I’m a hard worker. I’m patient. I’m very creative
- Why do you want this job?
The area of activity is in a domain that I am interested in. I love risk management. I love it because it as an extensive topic where there is always something new to learn. I also like it because it applies mathematics and statistics for managing a bank. It has become essential to business decision making. It has changed the way banks function.
- Why do you want to work at this company?
Because bunq is a special bank. Is one of the first fintech/neobanks, having been established in 2015. This shows me that bunq understands the banking system and understands where the banking environment is heading. I would like to be part of that.
Also I like the environment that it portrays. Seems like a place where one can be himself.
- Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership skills.
It was during a Data Warehouse development project. When we decided that we will develop a data model instead of running the project the classical way where you organize workshops and collect data from all the different systems, we had this major issue that there was no one to validate the work that I was doing. And the project manager and project supervisor started to worry that they should give up on the data model. But I insisted that they should let me continue and asked them to trust me and my work. Finally they managed to find a database developer and we went through the data model together and he was very happy with it. Two months later the database was developed.
- What’s a time you disagreed with a decision that was made at work.
It was spring and we started the hiring process of new junior consultants. We’ve interviewed all the candidates, one was a hell yes and there was a second spot that needed to be filled in. My manager decided not to choose any one of the remaining, but I made a case for hiring one of the juniors as I thought he was very intelligent and creative. After my insistences, I’ve convinced the partner to hire him, and it turned out that he became the partner’s favorite consultant, after me of course
- Can you tell me about a difficult work situation and how you overcame it.
It was during a Data Warehouse development project. I was overloaded with work and had a few small pieces of work that needed to be done but for which I had no time. So I decided to ask for helm from my colleagues. I explained to them how the tool works. I thought that the time needed for me to explain to them what needs to be done and them doing it would be smaller than if I would have done it by myself. So the moral of the story is to always ask for help when you needed because otherwise it might be too late.
- What do you consider to be your biggest professional achievement?
A project that we had with a Dutch investment bank. They wanted a presentation on FRTB. I told my manager we need to understand the concepts, and then simplify it for the presentation. My manager wanted the presentation in two weeks. I said ok. Second week arrived I was still only half-way. He was a bit furious but I said to him, if we want the client to get out of the presentation with something to remember I need more time for the presentation. He finally agreed. In the meantime I prepared a portfolio of some vanilla and exotic derivatives, as the investment bank was trading a lot with exotic derivatives. Finally, the client said that they do not want a presentation, they want our help understanding the regulation. Luckily enough, I was extremely prepared and we had three 4-hour sessions. I consider it my biggest success, because of the treatment we received from the client. They took us to the top floor, served us drinks. They were extremely pleased with my work.
- Why do you want to leave your current job?
I did not want to leave but the office closed down. We had two juniors and a partner that haven’t had a project for almost a full year. Management first cut the funding for the office space, everyone had to work from home. I was at the client so I wasn’t impacted that much. And in August I found out that the partner is leaving the company and that the office will close down in November. I received a permanent contract and would have been under the supervision of our UK and Luxembourg office, but for two years I had a very unhealthy work-life balance so I decided to go on a sabbatical and travel for 1 year and rest.
