How the desk works

The desk is a terminal. A status strip with the vitals, a command line, two panes and a queue of decisions. You type a function code, or pick it from the bar: eight departments (BANK, LENDING, FUNDING, CONTROL, OPERATIONS, GROWTH, MARKETS, DESK) with the active department’s functions beneath, and a pinned row of HOME, MAIL and the four you use most. The pane shows the function; the queue holds what needs an answer and when. Nothing blinks.

The functions, by code

Code	What it shows
HOME	The close of the period, ranked by what moved most; the CFO's paragraph; what is on your desk.
BS, PL	The balance sheet and the results, with the annual reports.
ALCO, LIQ, FUND, SEC, DEP	The asset and liability pack, the liquidity ratios and the facility, the issuance desk and the placement book, the securities book by class and level, the deposit products and the rivals' rate table.
CRED, WORK, DEAL	Products, the desk and its authorities, the book; the recoveries desk; securitisation and the register.
CAP, REG, RISK	The capital stack against the requirement; the supervisor and the letter; credit quality, stress and hedges.
RATE, MKT, IR, BOARD, MNA	The agencies; the macro calendar; the market, the call and the rights issue; the board pack and the meeting; change of control.
OPS, TAL, ORG, BR, MKTG, SEG	Staff as people; leadership and culture; departments; the branch network and licences; brand; segments.
NEWS, MAIL, HB, MAND	The Ledger; correspondence; the Handbook; the mandates and the exams.
LAYOUT, HELP	Toggle the workstation layout; list the functions.

Type ALCO B to open a function in the right pane. Tab moves between the panes, / focuses the command line, Esc returns to HOME. A code with a lock beside it waits on a mandate; it still opens, and the pane says what the board wants to see first. In the guided first year only the functions you have reached are on the bar; the command line opens the rest when the mentor says so.

The clock

The bank's economics close monthly; the clock runs by the day. Pause, 1×, 3× and 10× are on the strip; Space pauses, + and − change the speed, and holding B runs at thirty times for as long as it is held. A decision with a deadline stops the clock, so nothing expires while you fast-forward. Placement books, tenders and the agencies' committees answer over days.

The first year

Sign with a guided first year and the CFO, the Treasurer and the Chief Risk Officer walk you through seven lessons over twelve months: the spread on CRED, the deposits on DEP, the officers on OPS, the buffer on LIQ, the two numbers the supervisor reads on CAP and REG, the first losses, and the first mandate exam. Each lesson is on the desk, not only in the post: a rail under the bar says which lesson this is and what to do, the lesson’s function opens on the left with the letter on the right, and its code is lit on the bar. Functions open as the lessons land. Sign without it and everything is open from the first morning, with a credit file already waiting and one line on the rail saying where to look.

The mandates

The board lets you do what your record supports. Seven mandates gate the dangerous functions: wholesale funding, interest-rate hedging, securitisation, cross-border expansion, the AT1 programme, internal models and share buybacks. Each has requirement cards measured on the bank's own history, with "at this rate, {date}" projected from the last twelve months; a card can be pinned to the strip. When every card is met the exam opens: eight four-option questions drawn from a pool, open book, each pointing at its Handbook chapter. Six pass. A mandate once granted is remembered on the device, so the next appointment starts with what was earned.

The Handbook

HB holds one article per mechanic, written the way a bank's own treasury and risk handbook is written, with a worked example from your own numbers and, where it helps, a sandbox: liquidity coverage, a loan's cost, a loan's life, the tranche split, the till against a run. Every cross-reference shows its first sentence on hover. Every exam question points at the article that answers it.

How it ends

The board dismisses below twenty at the January review, or at zero any time. The supervisor's ladder runs call, direction, memorandum, warnings; three months below the floor and the bank is closed. From 2016 in Europe and 2010 in the United States a failing bank is resolved: its own capital and debt are written down. A rival may bid for the bank the month you look weak. Or, after the crown or twenty-five years, you announce your retirement with a successor in place. The notice is on paper and it says which.

Saves and accounts

As a guest the career saves in this browser. Sign in and it saves to your account and follows you. The old game, SejrBank, stays at sejrbank.com/banking for anyone with a career running there.