Can you tell me about your journey into the securities finance industry?
As I knew that I wanted to pursue a career within the financial industry, I studied international business and management at university. Importantly, the study programme included an international placement year which proved to be a crucial first step in my career journey. During my third year of university, I joined Morgan Stanley as an intern in their Frankfurt office working within the operations division. More specifically, I worked in the international tax utility team, and I also had the opportunity to support the Position Service Group. This was an important first insight into the world of finance, enabling me to better understand the dynamic nature of business practices, clients, and financials.
After I graduated from university, I moved to Glasgow where I completed the Operations Analyst Graduate Scheme at Morgan Stanley. In that role, I performed daily operational responsibilities within financing and collateral operations, specifically working in the credit repo fixed income space. Following this, I moved to London and was promoted to an operations associate, working within the Commodities Trade Support Group, helping to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the firm’s books and records by monitoring, booking, and amending trade activity and lifecycle events in the firm’s risk systems.
Thanks to those diverse experiences, I had managed to gain a strong understanding of how the lifecycle of a trade works, and the work experience during my graduate scheme provided me with a particular passion for the fixed income market and specifically the repo product.
Joining the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), the trade association at the heart of the fixed income market, was therefore a very interesting opportunity for me. I am now an associate within the Market Practice and Regulatory Policy team, focusing specifically on repo, collateral, and secondary markets. As part of my role, I focus on market practice, public policy, and advocacy, ensuring that financial regulation supports stable and efficient capital markets.
As a young professional, what aspects of your role or the industry do you find most exciting?
At ICMA, we are at the centre of the bond and specifically the repo market, which means that I get to interact on a daily basis with a variety of stakeholders in those markets, including the sell side, buy side, as well as market infrastructures. The exposure to those different views is certainly one of the most exciting parts of my current role. It is really interesting to get their different perspectives on current market developments and other matters that are keeping members busy, to learn from them, as well as using these interactions to seek out ways in which ICMA can help.
Working at ICMA has taught me an incredible amount about repo and its important roles, providing liquidity to the market, but also how it serves as the ‘plumbing’ of the financial system. I have also gained further knowledge on fixed income secondary markets and the regulatory policies within this area. There is a high degree of commonality and synergies between the repo market and secondary markets, which means that the two teams at ICMA work extremely closely together in promoting best practices and regulatory engagement.
Many companies offer various training and development opportunities for their employees. How has your company supported your growth?
I am fortunate to work at an organisation that runs its own education and training courses. Since joining ICMA, I have had the opportunity to complete a variety of courses that are relevant to my areas of work. For example, I recently attended the ‘ICMA Professional Repo & Collateral Workshop’. In addition to this, I have attended both the ‘Repo & Securities Lending under the GMRA – GMSLA’ course, as well as the ‘Prudential Regulation & Fixed Income Markets’ course.
Beyond this, working at ICMA has allowed me to travel across Europe and attend insightful conferences within the fixed income space, which has given me the chance to expand my own network as well as meeting many ICMA members in-person. A final point to note is that a core aspect of my work is to be able to effectively communicate with our members in a clear and concise manner on the various topics. ICMA has given me the opportunity to further develop my public speaking skills, and this is an area in which I lacked expertise prior to working at ICMA.
What misconceptions about working in the financial industry have you encountered, and how do you address these challenges?
A common misconception about a career within the financial industry is that it is often assumed that one must have obtained a finance-related degree. Despite studying international business and management at university and selecting finance-related modules to study, I have met many individuals in the industry who came from a humanities or science background and are now excelling in their careers within the world of finance.
The industry is becoming more diverse and dynamic, which is also shown by the increasing numbers of women in senior positions, as well as those from minority backgrounds. Being a female from an ethnic minority background, I have first-hand experience in the fact that the industry is making stronger efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion.
What advice do you have for other young professionals aspiring to pursue a career in your industry?
My biggest piece of advice for other young professionals aspiring to pursue a career in finance is to never underestimate the power of networking. Networking with individuals can support you in your career development and can broaden your knowledge even further. It can also give rise to opportunities, and it is important to say yes to those opportunities even if you are outside of your comfort zone, it is crucial to broaden your horizons in order to progress in your career.
Looking ahead, where do you see yourself in the next five years in terms of your career goals and aspirations?
In the next five years, I aim to become more of a subject-matter expert in my areas of work, broadening my repo expertise as well as my secondary markets knowledge. I will also continue to enhance my public speaking skills and put this into practice as much as possible by leading more meetings with members and by speaking at conferences.
I would love to eventually act as a mentor to those more junior in the market and help to support them in their career with the intention to eventually become a manager myself. In addition to this, at ICMA we have the ICMA Women’s Network which I am already a part of. I hope to continue to help this network grow even further as it aims to inspire women and promote gender equality within the bond markets, which I am very passionate about.
Aman Gill Bio
Aman Gill is an associate in ICMA’s Market Practice and Regulatory Policy team in London. She joined the trade association in 2024, focusing specifically on repo, collateral, and secondary markets. She supports a number of the related working groups, including as secretary to the ERCC Operations Group, and ICMA’s Electronic Trading Working Group. Key areas of focus include market practice, as well as public policy and advocacy, ensuring that financial regulation supports stable and efficient capital markets.
Prior to ICMA, Aman successfully completed her operations graduate scheme at Morgan Stanley working in their Glasgow and London offices. Aman holds a BSc (Hons) International Business and Management degree from Aston University. As part of the study programme, Aman completed an international placement year at Morgan Stanley in Frankfurt. In her spare time, Aman likes to go to the gym, read novels, and travel.
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