Financial Examiners
Enforce or ensure compliance with laws and regulations governing financial and securities institutions and financial and real estate transactions. May examine, verify, or authenticate records.
What it pays
Financial Examiners earn a median of $45.27/hr — about $94,000 a year. The lowest-paid 10% earn $27.04/hr; the top 10% earn $83.75/hr. (Annual figures are approximate: hourly × 2,080.)
Financial Examiners earn a median of $45.27/hr — about $94,000 a year. The lowest-paid 10% earn $27.04/hr; the top 10% earn $83.75/hr. (Annual figures are approximate: hourly × 2,080.)
What you'd actually do
- Direct and participate in formal and informal meetings with bank directors, trustees, senior management, counsels, outside accountants, and consultants to gather information and discuss findings.
- Recommend actions to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, or to protect solvency of institutions.
- Prepare reports, exhibits, and other supporting schedules that detail an institution's safety and soundness, compliance with laws and regulations, and recommended solutions to questionable financial conditions.
- Resolve problems concerning the overall financial integrity of banking institutions including loan investment portfolios, capital, earnings, and specific or large troubled accounts.
- Investigate activities of institutions to enforce laws and regulations and to ensure legality of transactions and operations or financial solvency.
- Review balance sheets, operating income and expense accounts, and loan documentation to confirm institution assets and liabilities.
How you get there
Typical entry-level education: Bachelor's degree. Overall preparation: considerable preparation (Job Zone 4 of 5).
The feel of the work
The work is mostly indoors. (Compared against the other 818 careers in the guide.)
Working for yourself
About 0.4% of financial examiners are self-employed.
Who it tends to fit
This work tends to fit people who are organized and detail-focused, take-charge and analytical.
Work a simulated shift in this job — freeMake the real decisions this job involves, then see what your choices say about you.Related careers
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Quick questions
- How much does a financial examiner make?
- The median pay is $45.27 per hour — roughly $94,000 a year, with the real range running from about $27.04/hr (10th percentile) to $83.75/hr (90th percentile). Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Do you need a degree to be a financial examiner?
- The typical entry-level education is: Bachelor's degree. Overall preparation level: considerable preparation (Job Zone 4 of 5).
- What does a financial examiner actually do all day?
- Direct and participate in formal and informal meetings with bank directors, trustees, senior management, counsels, outside accountants, and consultants to gather information and discuss findings. Recommend actions to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, or to protect solvency of institutions. Prepare reports, exhibits, and other supporting schedules that detail an institution's safety and soundness, compliance with laws and regulations, and recommended solutions to questionable financial conditions.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS. Tasks & interests: O*NET. Career pathways shown in the app are draft archetypes — verify before relying on them. Trailhead is a free career guide for students — honest numbers, no hype.
Trailhead is operated by FLEXVermont LLC. It is intended for high-school students age 13 and older, and the educators and families who support them, and is not directed to children under 13. Trailhead is provided for general informational and educational purposes only. It does not offer professional, financial, or career advice, and its wage figures and pathways are estimates that may not fit your situation — they should not be relied on as the sole basis for any decision.
Trailhead is operated by FLEXVermont LLC. It is intended for high-school students age 13 and older, and the educators and families who support them, and is not directed to children under 13. Trailhead is provided for general informational and educational purposes only. It does not offer professional, financial, or career advice, and its wage figures and pathways are estimates that may not fit your situation — they should not be relied on as the sole basis for any decision.