What is a clerk?

A bank clerk, sometimes also referred to as a teller, works behind the counter at a financial institution, greeting customers and handling routine financial transactions. Some post offices also employ counter clerks responsible for banking and currency exchange. Clerks mostly perform day-to-day customer services.

• Depositing money into accounts
• Assisting customers with withdrawals
• Opening new accounts
• Cashing cheques
• Answering questions about accounts
• Resolving account problems
• Ordering cheque books
• Recording transactions
• Counting money in the drawer
• Exchanging currency

What is a banker?

Bankers also process financial transactions, but their work typically involves more complex tasks and a greater focus on customer relationships. Sometimes called private bankers or relationship bankers, they often meet one-on-one with clients to understand their needs and recommend suitable financial products or services. Common duties of a banker include:

• Explaining and recommending financial products
• Opening new accounts
• Selling financial products
• Investigating complex issues or complaints
• Offering tailored solutions for customers
• Maintaining and updating account information

Banker vs clerk: similarities

Both clerks and bankers handle financial transactions for customers, and there is some overlap in their responsibilities. For example, both may set up new accounts, resolve routine issues and use customer service skills to ensure a positive client experience.

Banker vs clerk: differences 

The main distinction is that bankers typically have more advanced duties and work more closely with customers than clerks. Bankers often provide tailored financial advice and recommend products, while clerks focus on processing day-to-day transactions. By identifying the specific qualifications and skills for the role you want to fill, you can write a clearer, more targeted job description.

Job qualifications for a banker vs a clerk

The qualifications for bankers and clerks differ depending on the level of responsibility and type of institution. Here is a breakdown of what you might look for in each position.

Bank clerk qualifications

Bank clerk roles usually don’t require a university degree or formal training, but employers may ask for a minimum requirement of GCSE education. Most clerks learn on the job, but previous customer service or cash-handling experience is often preferred.

Post office clerk qualifications 

If recruiting for a post office clerk, the skill set may differ slightly. Experience in post handling or currency exchange can be useful in addition to customer service, cash handling, financial transaction processing and data entry. 

Banker qualifications

Banker jobs don’t typically have a standard educational requirement, but many employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree in business, finance or a related field. It is also possible to access a banking position following an apprenticeship. A strong knowledge of financial products is important for advising clients effectively.

Specialist banking qualifications 

Some specialist banking roles may be more competitive and require higher-level qualifications. Employers trying to fill investment banker positions might ask for a bachelor’s degree with at least a 2:1 classification, alongside relevant industry experience. Employers often offer summer internships to graduates, giving them the chance to gain in-depth, on-the-job experience relevant to a specialist banking role.

Skills for a banker vs a clerk

In this next section, we explore which hard and soft skills might be useful to look for when recruiting either a banker or a clerk. 

Shared skills for bankers and clerks

Both bankers and clerks rely heavily on customer service skills. Strong communication, active listening and emotional intelligence help them understand consumer needs, enabling them to provide a positive experience.

Bank clerk skills

Clerks benefit from well-developed hard and soft skills. Because their work is public-facing, soft skills such as empathy, patience and teamwork are usually sought after. The basic hard skills required may include:

• Cash handling and accuracy
• Financial and maths skills
• Data entry
• Familiarity with banking software

Banker skills

Bankers need a broader range of hard and soft skills due to the complexity of their work. Alongside customer service, useful skills include:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Sales and persuasion
• Knowledge of interest, investments and financial products
• Financial and maths skills to support sound advice

How to assess banker vs clerk candidates

You can use situational and behavioural interview questions to discover how clerk candidates use hard and soft skills to provide excellent customer service. This may involve basic skills assessments or pre-employment tests to screen for hard skills such as previous cash handling or computer experience. 

Once you are familiar with the skills needed for each role, here are the steps you can take to identify them during the recruitment phase:

Assessing clerk candidates

• Interviews: use situational and behavioural questions to uncover problem-solving, teamwork and customer service skills
• Tests: implement basic skills assessments to evaluate cash handling, accuracy, computer use and attention to detail
• Screeners: with Indeed’s advanced screening tools, you can add customised questions to filter applicants before interviews, saving time to focus only on qualified candidates

Assessing banker candidates

Because banker roles require more advanced skills, you may need additional assessments, such as:

• Psychometric screening tests
• Banking aptitude test simulations
• Software aptitude tests
• Interactive scenarios

As with clerk roles, customised screener questions may help you identify suitable banker candidates more quickly before moving on to in-depth interviews.

Salaries for a banker vs a clerk

According to data on Indeed Salaries at the time of writing this article, the average bank clerk salary is £25,051 per year. Banker salaries tend to be higher on average, at £33,435 per year. Pay rates can vary based on the financial institution’s location and the role’s scope.

Work location

While both bankers and bank clerks work in a bank, their physical locations within the branch are usually different. Clerks typically work behind the main counter and are the first point of contact for customers.

Bankers often have their own cubicles or offices within the bank to provide privacy for scheduled appointments. Meetings with bankers typically take longer than a basic transaction with a clerk, so the office space creates more comfort to discuss sensitive financial matters in greater depth.

Scope of responsibilities

There is a significant difference in the complexity of the tasks carried out by clerks vs bankers. Clerks process routine, simple transactions that follow standardised procedures, such as opening accounts or cashing cheques.

Bankers handle more complex responsibilities, including assessing a person’s financial situation to make customised product recommendations. They often work with advanced financial products beyond basic savings and current accounts. Bankers generally have greater authority to resolve issues with clients’ accounts and frequently collaborate with other financial professionals, such as loan officers.

Relationships with customers

Clerks are often the first to greet customers, even if they have an appointment scheduled with a banker. They focus on providing quick assistance to consumers.

Bankers, by contrast, focus on building long-term relationships. They may proactively contact clients to set up appointments or discuss new financial products. Customers often reach out to their banker for additional, personalised support and advice.

Clerk vs banker: which to hire?

If you are trying to expand your team but aren’t sure which role you need, consider these factors:

• Current staffing: assess how well your existing bankers and clerks manage the workload. If one area is consistently short-staffed, focus your recruitment efforts there.
• Goals: consider whether your priority is to serve customers quickly and efficiently or to build long-term relationships.
• Customer needs: the preferences of your clients may be a decisive factor. If walk-in clients face long wait times, additional clerks may be needed. If customers show a preference for personalised service or solid financial advice, hiring a banker could be more effective.

The current financial industry landscape

As a bank or financial institution, you may need to hire a combination of bankers and clerks. How many of each you hire can depend on the size of your branch and whether you serve your customers mainly in person or online. 

Bank clerks may be in less demand due to banks moving their services online. This has led some businesses to reevaluate customer-facing positions and invest more heavily in their online customer service support. 

Bankers may continue to be in demand with employers due to their ability to provide specialist expertise to customers online as well as in person. When recruiting for these positions, employers may seek candidates with more technical, investment and fintech experience alongside traditional financial acumen and customer relationship management experience.

Where to find a bank clerk or banker

Potential sources for finding candidates include:

• Networking and referrals
• Financial industry conferences
• Specific and relevant job descriptions
• Industry-specific job sites
• General online hiring sites
• Internal recruitment
• Professional financial associations

When to hire a clerk

Consider hiring a clerk if:

• Wait times for walk-in customers are long
• Your branch is frequently short-staffed on clerks
• You experience consistently high volumes of foot traffic

When to hire a banker

Hiring a banker may be the right solution if:

• You want to increase sales of financial products
• Your current bankers’ schedules are consistently full
• You want to strengthen long-term relationships with your customers
• You need an employee with knowledge of advanced financial products
• You don’t currently have any bankers on staff

Banks and financial institutions can benefit from hiring both bankers and tellers (or clerks). However, tellers may be more important to actively hire if you operate branches frequently visited by customers. Hiring more bankers could be right if you want to build relationships with customers and increase sales of your financial products.