Level 3 Senior Financial Services Customer Advise Review

I am a portfolio and relationship management apprentice at NatWest. I work in the Real Estate Finance team within the London corporates division, where I oversee portfolios and assist in maintaining key relationships in the UK real estate finance sector. My role involves managing a portfolio of major residential customers and handling tasks such as credit submissions, risk assessment, structuring, finding funding solutions, client relationship management and overall portfolio oversight.

Portfolio Management: Experience with large corporate real estate portfolios including house builders, purpose-built student accommodations and build to rent schemes. Relationship Management: Exceptional communication skills and the ability to build strong relationship with customers, stakeholders, lawyers, valuers and suppliers via email, phone calls and meetings ensuring customer service excellence.

I love my apprenticeship because it allows me to understand work in this field as well as manage my studies which has improved my time management skills. I am able to deliver in tight timelines and competing demands by managing my coursework and manage work in a timely manner, under tight time conditions.

It is very well structures , I have got my own responsibilities which makes me feel valued. My role includes handling securities, invoicing, and covenant monitoring . I contribute to Credit applications by assisting in the analysis of customers’ financial information and analysing risk. I also manage admin tasks such as facility and security set up and contribute to day-to-day relationship management for customers and suppliers by solving queries and ensuring high level of customer satisfaction.

I receive a lot of support with NatWest within my team and from the early careers team which have drop in calls for us where we can discuss queries related to work , apprenticeships and future opportunities.

I have received a lot of support from BPP. I had monthly check in calls with my coach and line manager who were also available on email. I also had BPP training meetings and learning materials available that helped me with my qualification and end point assessment.

I somewhat believe that the qualification helps me with the day to day role. I am in the large corporate real estate portfolio management team which has some relationship management however, the apprenticeship and the learning material was mostly based on personal banking and customer service which did not directly link to my role but helped me understand basic financial services.

Yes there are a lot of activities to get involved in for example, charity walks, creating newsletters for the team, networking events like conferences or drinks after work.

Yes

Plenty of opportunities and support for apprentices from different teams. A lot roles and courses available for level 3 apprentices which can help apprentices understand work and with their professional growth.

Understand basic banking and financing from a bank's perspective. Make sure to go over NatWest's CPCs that will highly help you understand the skills you need for the role and tackle interviews.