Career profile · SOC 13-2061

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.

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. The role reports a median annual salary of $90,400 in the US and is projected to grow 18% over the next decade (much faster than average). Entry typically requires a Bachelor's degree, and shows moderate AI exposure (0.68 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include accounting department processes, financial department processes, accounting techniques, economics, financial analysis.

US median pay
$90,400
per year
Growth outlook
Much Faster Than Average
BLS 10-yr
Education
Bachelor's degree
AI exposure
6.8/10
automation risk

Pay in the UK

UK: median £50,330 a year for Finance and investment analysts and advisers (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)

Middle half of full-time jobs: £36,872 to £70,665 a year

UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2422). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)

Pay in India (occupation group)

Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only Financial examiners, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.

Urban India
₹42,717 a month
Rural India
₹30,424 a month
All India
₹38,466 a month

Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report

How to get here in India

No single fixed route is listed for this career. These Indian degrees lead to it, according to the US CIP–SOC education-to-occupation crosswalk; open a degree for its entrance exams and colleges.[1]

  • Accounting — B.Com / B.Com (Hons) with an accounting focus (three or four years)
    Entrance exams: CA Foundation, CUET-UG

Rules change: check the exam body's and regulator's current notice before you apply.

Sources:
  1. CIP 2020 – SOC 2018 crosswalk (NCES / BLS) (read on 2026-09-27)

1 open listing on our jobs board → Recent listings whose job title matches this career. Some jobs in this career are advertised under other titles.

Top skills

accounting department processes financial department processes accounting techniques economics financial analysis accounting entries corporate law accounting inspect tax returns control financial resources

Knowledge you'll build

  • English Language
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Law and Government
  • Mathematics
  • Administration and Management
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Administrative
  • Customer and Personal Service

A day in the life

You start the morning at a bank's head office, where your examination team has taken over a meeting room for the week. You settle in with the balance sheets, income and expense accounts and a stack of loan files, checking that the assets the bank reports are really there and that borrowers look able to repay. Mid-morning you read the internal auditors' reports, noting where their checks were thin, and go through board minutes to see who approved a large loan and whether they had the authority to do so. After lunch you sit down with senior managers and their outside accountants to ask pointed questions about a cluster of risky loans. Their answers are polite but vague, so you request more documents. The afternoon brings the tedious part: cross-checking schedules and writing up findings in careful, formal language. Before leaving you review a junior examiner's work and agree on next steps. The satisfaction comes when your recommendations push the bank to fix a real weakness before it harms depositors.

In India: In India this work is mostly done by officers of the banking and financial regulators, recruited through competitive exams, so it is a public-service career with inspections that rotate across banks and cities.

Illustrative: one typical day, written from the O*NET task statements for this occupation. Real days vary by employer and seniority.

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.

Tools & technology you'd use

Microsoft Excel hot Microsoft Office software hot Microsoft Outlook hot Microsoft PowerPoint hot Microsoft Word hot Microsoft Access hot Microsoft Project hot Microsoft SharePoint hot Microsoft Visio hot Microsoft Windows hot SAP software hot Structured query language SQL hot

Frequently asked questions

What does Financial examiners do?

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 does a typical day look like in Financial examiners?

You start the morning at a bank's head office, where your examination team has taken over a meeting room for the week. You settle in with the balance sheets, income and expense accounts and a stack of loan files, checking that the assets the bank reports are really there and that borrowers look able to repay.

How much does Financial examiners earn?

The median annual salary for Financial examiners in the US is $90,400.

What is the job outlook for Financial examiners?

The role is projected to grow 18% over the next decade (much faster than average). Current US employment is approximately 65,099 workers.

How do I become financial examiners?

The typical entry education is a Bachelor's degree. Building a foundation in the top skills below will strengthen your application.

What skills does Financial examiners need?

The most in-demand skills for this role include accounting department processes, financial department processes, accounting techniques, economics, financial analysis, accounting entries. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Will AI replace Financial examiners?

Our AI-durability model gives Financial examiners a score of 0.68 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.

How hard is it to enter this field?

Financial examiners has moderate barrier to entry — moderately gated — a bachelor's degree or equivalent training is typically required.

Take it further

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