Financial Examiners

US occupation · SOC 13-2061

Job titles people report: Bank Examiner, Bank Secrecy Act Anti-Money Laundering Officer (BSA/AML Officer), Community Reinvestment Act Officer (CRA Officer), Compliance Analyst, Compliance Specialist, Credit Union Examiner, Credit Union Field Examiner, Examining Officer, Internal Auditor

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$94,160
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$70,660 – $129,600
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
67,830
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
+9.3%
Growing at twice the all-jobs rate or more (7%+)
Openings a year (projected)
4,500
New jobs plus replacing people who leave
Typical education to enter
Bachelor's degree
BLS
  • All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
  • Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
  • Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

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.

Main tasks

  • 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.
  • Plan, supervise, and review work of assigned subordinates.
  • Review audit reports of internal and external auditors to monitor adequacy of scope of reports or to discover specific weaknesses in internal routines.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Bachelor's degree
Training once hired: long-term on-the-job training
O*NET Job Zone 4
Considerable preparation
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Interests it suits

The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.

  • Conventional: organising information, records and procedures
  • Enterprising: leading, persuading and making business decisions
  • Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 5 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Business

  • Accounting
  • Auditing
  • Taxation

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Business at the Major step.

Where many students take business

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Criminal Justice

  • Suspension and Debarment Investigation
  • Financial Forensics and Fraud Investigation

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Criminal Justice at the Major step.

Where many students take criminal justice

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

← All careers

Sources

This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0

Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk