HSBC Quantitative Developer reviews

Corporate red tape is worst I've ever seen, cannot do even the most simple task without months of approval processes. Company perks are sub-standard (no gym membership, limited private healthcare (BUPA, but no private GP!), no subsidised food or cycle schemes).

Total lack of process (investment process, risk analysis, etc) - as a result you have to constantly watch you back. I worked as a quant analyst. Was constantly asked (verbally rather than in writing) to tweak models so that they output what the senior management wanted to tell clients, rather than telling clients what the model said and overlaying that with their own expectations & views. If something goes wrong somewhere down the line, this back fires because you made the changes to the model. This is not in writing so you can't prove your innocence. Eventually i resigned. This was something many people across the board complained about. White papers written with no clear guidance on who the intended audience is, so you cannot really gauge what to write. most of the time papers sit in somebody's outbox - very demoralising. Its a big, old company, with a lot of old, political people. If you are good at playing politics its a good place. During my time there, i saw all the good people left very soon, hangers on hun on in the hope of a good severance package...