The Financial Management Scholars Program (FMSP) is a paid internship that may lead to a post-graduation employment offer as a Financial Institution Specialist, a three and a half year training program leading to professional certification as a commissioned Financial Institution Examiner.
Additional selections may be made from this vacancy announcement to fill identical vacancies that occur subsequent to this announcement.
Financial Management Scholars (FMS) will be assigned to the Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection (DCP). Scholars will work directly on teams of experienced FDIC employees to evaluate bank operations, business planning, and consumer protection practices. These teams are responsible for assessing financial institutions to determine whether they are following safe and sound banking practices, maintaining effective internal controls and procedures, managing their institutions effectively, and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, including those relating to consumer protection, privacy, community reinvestment, and fair lending. Under the direction and supervision of an Examiner or Assistant examiner of higher grade, FMS will also:
- Examine initial disclosures, periodic statements, advertisements, and other information to evaluate procedures and reviews for compliance with applicable regulations.
- Examine closed-end non-real estate credit transactions for compliance with applicable regulations.
- Review the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act loan application register for accuracy and assesses the bank’s overall reporting procedures.
- Review adverse action notices for compliance, and to gain a cursory exposure to applicable lending-related regulations.
- Examine a sample of residential, consumer, commercial and agricultural files to determine compliance.
- Review applicable regulations and examination manual to become informed about the Community Reinvestment Act.
- Participate in discussing the overall examination process including evaluating the bank’s Compliance Management System (senior management oversight; compliance program, including the elements of polices, monitoring, and training; and audit procedures). Asks questions to gain clarification and understanding of examination policies and procedures.
- Observe the interaction between the FDIC and Bank personnel.
- Respond to questions from other examiners regarding their section of the Report of Examination.
- Review the Community Reinvestment Act of an institution and participates in discussions for assigning the institution's rating.
- Prepare a summary of each performance factor describing why rating was assigned.
- With the assistance of an experienced examiner, participate in meetings as appropriate.
- Prepare a written summary of what was observed during the meeting/interview for input into the report or memo.
Qualifying experience may be obtained in the private or public sector. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic, religious spiritual; community; student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
To be qualified, you must be enrolled at least half-time in a bachelor's degree program at an accredited college or university; and must have completed your junior year of college prior to entering the program, have a current overall GPA of at least 3.25, with a planned graduation date between December 2025 and December 2026.
You must be majoring in accounting, banking, commercial or banking law, economics, business administration, marketing, finance, or other fields related to the position.
To be eligible for conversion to the Financial Institution Specialist (FIS) position, interns must complete 480 hours of work experience (up to 160 hours may be waived based on exceptional job performance in the position and a 3.5 overall GPA or better on a 4.0 scale; or top 10 percent standing in graduating class; or membership in a national honor society; or a letter of recommendation attesting to the student’s outstanding program performance from an instructor or program administrator); meet the OPM qualification standards for the FIS position, which includes six (6) semester hours in accounting coursework; meet the requirements of the FDIC Pathways Internship Program Participant Agreement; and successfully complete various skills assessments. Service in the FMSP confers no right to further employment. The promotion potential if converted is CG-12.
The competencies/knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) you will be assessed on are listed below:
- Basic knowledge of compliance and related concepts.
- Ability to research, analyze and interpret findings.
- Ability to obtain and analyze information and data from various sources and develop conclusions and recommendations.
- Ability to work as a member of a team.
See qualifications for educational requirements.