OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Enforce or ensure compliance with laws and regulations governing financial and securities institutions and financial and real estate transactions. May examine, verify, or authenticate records.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($96K): Finance
Largest undergraduate program (22.1% of workers): Finance
Explore Pathways
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Financial examiners typically do the following:
- Monitor the condition of banks and other financial institutions
- Review balance sheets, operating income and expense accounts, and loan documentation to confirm an institution's assets and liabilities
- Prepare reports that detail an institution’s safety and soundness
- Examine the minutes of meetings of managers and directors
- Train other examiners in the financial examination process
- Review and analyze new regulations and policies to determine their impact on an institution
- Establish guidelines for procedures and policies that comply with new and revised regulations
Financial examiners typically work in one of two main areas: risk assessment or consumer compliance.
Those working in risk assessment evaluate the health of financial institutions. Their role is to ensure that banks and other financial institutions offer safe loans and that they have enough cash on hand to manage unexpected losses. These procedures help ensure that the financial system as a whole remains stable. These examiners also evaluate the performance of bank managers.
Financial examiners working in consumer compliance monitor lending activity to ensure that borrowers are treated fairly. They ensure that banks extend loans that borrowers are likely to be able to pay back. They help borrowers avoid “predatory loans”—loans that may generate profit for banks through high interest payments but may be costly to borrowers and damage their credit scores. Examiners also ensure that banks do not discriminate against borrowers based on race, ethnicity, or other characteristics.
Salary
Median salary: $81,430 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $59,050 and $113,170.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for financial examiners
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Financial Examiners
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of financial examiners who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (56%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Financial Examiners? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Analytical skills
Financial examiners need to evaluate how well the managers of financial institutions are handling risk and whether the individual loans the institution makes are safe.
Detail oriented
Financial examiners must pay close attention to minutiae when reviewing balance sheets in order to identify risky assets.
Math skills
Financial examiners must do calculations and monitor balance sheets to ensure that a financial institution has available cash.
Writing skills
Financial examiners regularly write reports on the safety and soundness of financial institutions. They must be able to explain technical information clearly.
Injury and Illness
About 4 financial examiners become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, which reflects fewer events than in 57% of other careers.
All injuries and illnesses
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by financial examiners
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), financial examiners typically hold a bachelor's degree.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as financial examiners as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for financial examiners
Financial examiners typically need a bachelor’s degree. Although a specific major is usually not required, examiners generally need some coursework in accounting, business, finance, or a related field.
Details: Licensing and certification recommended for financial examiners
Although it is not required, professional certification indicates competencies for financial examiners who have it. The Society of Financial Examiners (SOFE) offers the Accredited Financial Examiner (AFE) and the Certified Financial Examiner (CFE) designations. Both may be earned after completing extensive requirements and passing a series of examinations. Continuing education is required to maintain these designations.
Some financial examiners become Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). CPAs are licensed by their state’s Board of Accountancy. Becoming a CPA requires passing a national exam and meeting other state requirements.
Education level of Financial Examiners
About 82% of financial examiners have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by financial examiners
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 80% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
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College majors held by financial examiners
This table shows the college majors held by people working as financial examiners. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Major
Select any title to learn more about that degree
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
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Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
Salary for bachelor's-only
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Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
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Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
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Percentage in this career with this major
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The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as financial examiners, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
Expand degrees
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Financial Examiners per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most financial examiners? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as financial examiners. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where financial examiners earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for financial examiners compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for financial examiners.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which financial examiners earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Financial Examiners (ACS)
Employment
3% of Financial examiners are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 3% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 89% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of financial examiners by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Financial examiners and gender
With 49% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 60% of careers.
Gender of Financial examiners
Men (51%)
Women (49%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers
in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%, and the difference
for financial examiners tops that, with the median salary for
men 28% higher than the median
salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Financial examiners
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Financial examiners.
Race/origin of financial examiners
White (74% )
Black (15% )
Asian (6% )
Multiracial (2% )
Other (1% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
