Hi Everyone,
First, many thanks for taking time out to read my SOP. I have redone this multiple times over last 2 months so this is sort of final one.
It is 1600 words now and I would like to remove some portion to make it concise, flowing and structured.
Please advise on overall structure, para formation, essay flow, English grammar(British English) and anything that doesn't add value to my SOP.
Personal Statement Letter: MSc Regulation, LSE
Regulation is a double edged sword. In the financial industry, strong regulation can stifle innovation, reduce lending and stagnate the economic growth. On the other hand, weaker regulation allows monopolistic tendencies, unfettered capitalism and unequal distribution of income. The quest to understand these aspects in more depth has brought me to LSE.
Over the last few years, my education and experiences have been life changing in every way. After completing high school in Nepal, I moved to India to pursue higher education. I had an opportunity to study accounting at SRCC, Delhi University which is Asia's top college. Later I completed my Chartered Accountancy in first attempt and started my career in auditing. My strong education in accounting and business management has given me solid foundation in my career. Further six years of work experience in the financial industry has given me exposure to various domains of international finance and people management nuances. I have worked for diverse business environment and regulatory scenarios for companies based in US, Europe and other parts of Asia. I have understood by now that a sound understanding of finance, management, law and soft skills will help me achieve leadership position in the industry.
My interest towards finance started when I was at high school. I became interested in the subject by the teaching style of our accounts teacher who gave practical examples in every topic. Around the same time, I had opportunities to see Annual reports of companies that my father has invested in. This developed my curiosity towards finance and was instrumental in my decision to pursue undergraduate study in Accounting and Chartered Accountancy course. In my undergraduate study, I found accounting, taxation and corporate laws to be most interesting subjects. Through my undergraduate study and Chartered Accountancy course, I gained strong technical knowledge in accounting, taxation and business management. This has definitely helped me in my career progression to achieve promotions from finance executive to assistant manager and later as Manager in short time.
Driven by the eagerness to understand international business, I studied part time executive MBA in International Business. It was very interesting to study topics under "Strategic management", "International Business laws", "Global Financial Markets and Foreign Trade Policy". These subjects and my final year dissertation on "Global Accounting Framework under IFRS, Challenges and Opportunities" have helped me understand the international business environment much better. Recently, I cleared CPA Australia in first attempt. CPA qualification has helped me consolidate my learning of Financial Reporting, Strategic Management and Governance. These courses have given me international exposure to understand complex financial situations. It has also taught me time management and work life balance skills. My education and work experiences have given me confidence and inspiration to be in a leadership position. I believe LSE will provide me an environment to polish these skills and pursue leadership roles in the financial industry.
Although I have sound understanding of accounting and business, sometime I struggle to understand the bigger picture. There have been few instances in my career when I have felt that an understanding the creation of laws would have helped me deliver even more value to clients and business. I started my career with one of the world's best accounting firms, BDO Consulting. When I was working on a SOX compliance project, I was surprised to find that the process of implementing a single Act can be so complex and costly. Although companies with existing strong controls may not get economic value out of such an exercise, there is still need for such a legislation to avoid financial impropriety. Similarly, when I was working as reporting manager at HSBC finance department for US business, I struggled many times to understand management decisions. Many of these decisions had underlying regulatory compulsion. For instance, in 2010, management decided to sell mortgage, credit card, and branch banking business when they were still making profit. With much curiosity, I followed the story and found that the primary reason was to improve Risk Weighted Assets. This in turn was directed by new capital adequacy regulation Basel-III. I felt the knowledge of regulation and understanding its impact on management strategic decisions would have helped me absorb the changes much better. These experiences during my career and financial crisis of 2007 have made me more interested in understanding the world of regulation in depth.
I have observed that the financial industry and the economy are directly impacted by any changes in regulations. I had opportunity to observe this first hand during my 6 years of career in the financial services industry. Because of these events and experiences, I have developed deep interest in this field. Being a part of these change processes, I have gained strong experience in the field of regulatory reporting. I would like to take this knowledge base to a higher level by further studying in this field and understanding the complete process from drafting to implementation of laws. An academic study through a course like MSc in Regulation will definitely help me become expert in this field.
Currently in my role of Manager for financial and regulatory reporting, I am managing one of the largest branches outside Paris Headquarters for Societe Generale Bank. I have to collaborate with accounting policy, risk, product control and IT teams to manage the process and propose solutions at subsystem, accounting and reporting processes. It has been huge challenge on our resource and strain on capacity to manage the process with so many frequent regulatory changes. I have learnt that understanding the requirement of regulations and building a robust platform is critical to making the process strong. At LSE, I would like to share the challenges and brainstorm with fellow students to find best solutions which can be implemented by banks at a global level.
Despite the demanding work environment, I keep an eye on latest news and economic trends by reading blogs, online news and actively participating on knowledge sharing forums at work and outside. My recent interest is focused on dissecting the over 2000 page US-Dodd Frank Act which I think this is one of the most comprehensive piece of regulation ever drafted.
The interplay of politics, economics, policymakers and lobbyist is fascinating to explore and understand. This course will definitely help me connect the dots to understand the larger picture. After the 2007 financial crisis, the attitude of government towards banking has changed and new regulations have emerged. There is definitely a need to assess the impact of new regulations in depth and establishing sound regulation framework. The focus on stronger regulations and higher capital requirement will continue till 2020 as banks will continue to find workarounds to implement Basel-III and other local regulatory reforms. The concepts like "too big to fail", "systemically important banks" and "proprietary trading" will evolve in these times. It will be interesting to study how financial industry adapts to these new regulations. My primary areas of interest are regulation formulation, cost of implementation, adaptation by industry and impacts of excessive or low regulation in the society.
I initially shortlisted few courses on economics and policy in various Universities but when I got to see the course curriculum of MSc in Regulation at LSE, it looked like a tailor made course for me. The course content had instant appeal to me and I felt the subject matter is very strong and aptly designed. I want to learn more on how politics, economics and law come together to impact the financial industry or the society. I am interested to study the subjects "Laws and politics of Regulation", "Risk and Economic Life" and "Corporate and Financial Crime". Through these subjects, I want to understand what role does politics and economics play in regulation formulation. Further, I am particularly excited with the opportunity to attend lectures from professors like Julia Black, Mark Thatcher and Jonathan Fisher who are experts in the field. I strongly believe that given an opportunity to study MSc in Regulation at your esteemed LSE, I would excel with my strong quantitative, analytical and accounting skills to contribute in the field of financial regulation. I know regulation is a complex subject and my skills will help me to analyze the key trends and merge the business information with my accounting expertise. As London is financial capital of the world, my one year study in this city will help me understand the global regulatory reform process and get skills to formulate, communicate, implement policies and interact tactfully with all stakeholders.
Apart from my education and work, I actively engage with local community and participate in volunteer activities. Currently I am working with our employee engagement work-group as department lead for CSR activities and editor for monthly newsletter. I am a volunteer social media manager for an international non profit organization, The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) which primarily runs "Peace Education Programme" and "Food for People". I manage the official twitter account "TPRF", where I edit news related to our programmes and interact with followers. This has helped me develop my social marketing and communication skills. In my free time, I like to go on trekking, photography or cook pasta for my friends.
As the motto of LSE is "Know the causes of things", I will spend my 12 months in understanding the global financial regulatory framework and developing strong network. I will use this opportunity to build relationship among my diverse fellow classmates and professors. We will work together in solving some of the regulatory challenges that we are currently facing. I believe that LSE experience will broaden my career horizons and enable me to get an inter-disciplinary perspective of finance, economics and regulation.