Sample cover letter for Internship position at HSBC

1. What has motivated you to apply to your chosen role and why Barclays? (300 words maximum)

I am applying for a position of analyst in the Personal and Corporate Banking & Barclaycard division because of my current interest regarding the technology of handling securities’ prices, computing strategies, commercially packing the financials in order to fulfill customer centricity, interest kindled by my recent work experience from two internships bounded with the knowledge I gained from university so far.

I am motivated to apply to Barclays since it promotes respects inside organization by building trust and proactively collaborate in the relationship between colleagues, by increasing diversity in the organization or putting shared interest ahead of individuals. Also, I believe that Barclays is the right fit for me because it promotes integrity by sustaining the courage to do and say the right thing and letting people to challenge things they believe are wrong. On the other hand, I consider that customers have to be the main focus for a company like Barclays, and I discovered the same commitment from their side, creating new solutions to serve clients according their expectations.

1. Describe a recent global event. What implications might this development have for the Finance Industry? (300 words maximum)

In my opinion a significant recent global event is the decreasing trend in the oil price. At first glance, declining in oil prices will benefit the global economy: transport and goods become cheaper for the people, overall businesses increase the profit margins due to lower expenses with goods and services related to oil price, citizens achieve more purchasing power.

On the other hand there are also drawbacks of the decline of oil price. Decreasing the purchasing consumer price implies either a slower wage growth in companies’ policies, or lower inflation in the affected states which also triggers interest rates decrease. As far as financial markets are concerned, the most immediate effect is dropping the prices of stocks for oil and gas companies such as BP, ExonMobile, or Shell.

There are also other implications in the actual market conditions. Oil importers will benefit from a falling oil price which will reduce their current account deficit. This implication has a major effect for a country with high current account deficit like India which is 75% oil import dependent. For exporters such as Russia, or Venezuela, the effect is opposite, increasing budget deficit and conditions for social strains.

Last but not least, investing into alternative “greener” forms of energy such as electric cars will suffer a delay. Reversing to the recent decreasing trend in car usage, negative effects will arise (traffic and environmental costs increase).