What do Financial Examiners Do

Financial Examiners

Work Environment

Financial examiners held about 70,800 jobs in 2020. The largest employers of financial examiners were as follows:

  • Credit intermediation and related activities - 42%
  • Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities - 15%
  • Federal government - 10%
  • Management of companies and enterprises - 9%
  • State government, excluding education and hospitals - 7%

Financial examiners typically work in offices. They frequently have to travel to inspect a bank onsite.

Work Schedules

Most financial examiners work full time.

Job Outlook

Employment of financial examiners is projected to grow 18 percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations.

About 6,900 openings for financial examiners are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.

Employment

Demand for these workers has risen, particularly in the financial industry, because of the need for banking institutions to comply with federal regulation. More of these institutions are hiring financial examiners to help navigate the regulatory environment and reduce the cost of compliance.

At the federal level, budget constraints may limit employment growth in agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Earnings

The median annual wage for financial examiners was $81,410 in May 2021. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $48,830, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $160,850.

In May 2021, the median annual wages for financial examiners in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

  • Federal government - $125,840
  • Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities - $101,770
  • Management of companies and enterprises - $90,010
  • State government, excluding education and hospitals - $81,220
  • Credit intermediation and related activities - $77,030

Most financial examiners work full time.

Academic Programs of Interest


Bachelor of Business Administration
The Bachelor of Business Administration is a bachelor's degree in business studies. In most universities, the degree is conferred upon a student after four years of full-time study (120 credit hours) in one or more areas of business concentrations. The BBA program usually includes general business courses and advanced courses for specific concentrations. Some colleges and universities call the BBA a BSBA (Bachelor of Science... more
Finance
Finance studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses, and organizations raise, allocate, and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects. With a finance education you will be equipped with tools for understanding the function and applications of financial markets, the acquisition and allocation of funds for public and private sectors in domestic and international organizations, and... more
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out scientific approaches to management. The MBA degree has since achieved worldwide recognition. Accreditation bodies exist specifically for MBA programs to... more
Risk Management
Risk management is simply a practice of systematically selecting cost effective approaches for minimizing the effect of threat realization to the organization. All risks can never be fully avoided or mitigated simply because of financial and practical limitations. Therefore all organizations have to accept some level of residual risks. Risk management is the human activity which integrates recognition of risk, risk assessment, developing strategies to... more