Profile: Monica Ellis

Position:  Head of Credit Analysis

I joined the BIS over 14 years ago, having been drawn here by my husband-to-be who, for a short period, also worked for the BIS. I am a New Zealander but had been working in London for five years prior to moving to Switzerland. During my time in London I worked as a credit analyst for various institutions including an investment bank. I focused mainly on bank analysis, so when a position opened up for a bank analyst in the BIS credit risk unit it was a perfect match for me.

After nearly three years in the credit risk area I had an opportunity to take up a line manager position in the Banking Department's back office. This was at a time when the unit was undergoing some significant changes to its business processes and systems. These experiences really helped shape me as a line manager and greatly enhanced my knowledge of the business activities of the Bank.

Having now returned to the risk area, I have something of a dual role, being head of the 12-strong Credit Analysis team and, at the same time, deputy head of the Risk Control Group. This means I'm involved in both specialist and generalist risk management activity, which I really enjoy. Much of my time is spent shaping and reviewing the credit policies surrounding our investment activities, meaning we safeguard our clients' assets whilst ensuring adequate returns.

My job gives me a fair amount of contact with senior management, partly because my line manager reports directly to the Deputy General Manager. This proximity allows me a good insight into the strategic direction of the Bank, which is important for our work, and I contribute directly to discussions on policies related to financial risk management. The BIS is a relatively small institution, and one advantage of this is that, as a staff member, you can gain a good sense of how your work fits into the bigger picture. After seven years in my current position, I still feel I'm learning new things every day. I've also enjoyed getting involved in some other projects, such as chairing a working group looking at how we can improve career management. The senior managers were very receptive to our findings.

My days are fairly busy and can be quite long. Luckily for me, I can walk home in 20 minutes - quite a different story to London, and one of the benefits of living in Basel. This allows me to enjoy family life and time with my eight-year-old daughter as well as my very full-time job. That's a balance I'm really happy with.