# VBA / Access work for a bank?



## poiu (Apr 27, 2012)

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here has ever worked for a bank using Access/VBA? I come from a commercial cost centre reporting / MIS background and was wondering how different working for a bank would be?

Many thanks if anyone could shed some light.

Poiu


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## TinaP (Apr 27, 2012)

I work in a bank, but never use Access.  Because of Microsoft's price structure, it was too expensive to get Access for everyone, so most users (about 95%) ended up with Office Basic.  Any database stuff was either maintained on our AS/400 or in an Excel spreadsheet.  For more advanced stuff, I write Excel VBA macros to give the users what they need.  Most of my duties now involve downloading raw data from the AS/400 and manipulating it in Excel via VBA and pivot tables.

I don't know if I answered all your questions or not, but I'll gladly answer any additional questions you may have.


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## Hermanito (Apr 27, 2012)

Sticks hand up and waves 

At the moment I am also working in/for a bank. I create reporting solutions with a variety of software, mainly Excel as frontend for end-users because everyone in the bank has Excel. Like TinaP said, here also not everyone gets access to Access (hehe, nerdy pun alert ), so I work around that by using DAO or ADO or ODBC to connect to the backend Access database from within Excel. No extra Access licenses needed for that.
For the rest I get to use other databases like SQL Server and Oracle, and some frontend reporting solutions like Business Objects and SAS (kind of a hybrid between database and reporting solution). I never directly connect to the mainframe though.

So, what questions do you have?


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## Smitty (Apr 27, 2012)

Tina, you'd love how easy it is to use Access to manage AS/400 data.  I used to download millions of records a week into Access, then further query the data into Excel.  And now that you have PowerPivot, you could link directly to the AS/400 from Excel.


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## alansidman (Apr 27, 2012)

I am currently on a consulting assignment at a bank.  I am using Access everyday to analyze, parse, sort etc.  data.  Most of the regular bank employees do not have Access.  What we (the consultants) have done is create  links from Access to Excel with the query results.  So a few with Access can make data easily available to the masses.  Lots of Pivot tables with slicers (new in Excel 2010) makes it easy for the Excel masses.

Alan


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## poiu (Apr 27, 2012)

Thanks everyone,

So is most of the work you do in a bank analysing the savings/loan book or is it reporting commercial expenditure much like any other industry (i.e. payroll, advertising, marketing, overheads etc)?

Thanks,

Poiu


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## alansidman (Apr 28, 2012)

Analyzing Loan Portfolio.  Primarily those that are in Bankruptcy.  US Bankruptcy law is very specific in how you handle these and they need to be monitored closely.


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## poiu (Apr 28, 2012)

Thanks Alan,

Sounds like my ideal job - in finance but directly linked to the bricks and mortar customers.

Are there any books you would recommend for this kind of practical bank work?

(I've found http://www.amazon.co.uk/Credit-Mode...r_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335653842&sr=1-12 and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Implementin...r_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335654068&sr=1-13 but they both seem to be focussed on trading rather than the banking side of finance)

Many thanks,

Poiu


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## alansidman (Apr 29, 2012)

I don't know of any books specializing in this area.  Most of it is just plain common sense business analysis.  For example, if a customer is in bankruptcy, all contact must be through the customer's attorney.  If this is the case, why is the client coded as a contact by phone?  And you found this out by running queries using different criteria.

Alan


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## poiu (Apr 29, 2012)

Thanks Alan


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## TinaP (Apr 30, 2012)

poiu said:


> So is most of the work you do in a bank analysing the savings/loan book or is it reporting commercial expenditure much like any other industry (i.e. payroll, advertising, marketing, overheads etc)


Mostly I analyze savings and loan data, but occasionally I'm called upon to prepare reports much like any other business. Analyze payroll costs, branch profitability, etc.

I don't know of any books out there other than textbooks. While in college, I took some business and finance courses and they've helped me, but most of my banking knowledge comes from asking lots of questions of the end-users and listening very intently.


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## TinaP (Apr 30, 2012)

Smitty said:


> Tina, you'd love how easy it is to use Access to manage AS/400 data. I used to download millions of records a week into Access, then further query the data into Excel. And now that you have PowerPivot, you could link directly to the AS/400 from Excel.


I know enough about Access to salivate over the possibilities, but it really isn't practical since only three others have it in the bank.  I'm in the IT department, so I don't analyze the data so much as put it in a meaningful format for others.


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