Where money gets saved and borrowed: bankers, loan officers and credit experts who fund homes, farms and businesses.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Community Bank or Credit Union CEO: Leads a local bank or credit union that serves a town's families, farmers and small businesses. Typical pay $260k.
Commercial Banker: Lends money to and manages accounts for businesses, from local companies to large corporations. Typical pay $125k.
Chief Lending Officer: Oversees all the loans a bank makes and decides how much risk it's willing to take. Typical pay $190k.
Special Assets Officer: Steps in when a business can't repay its bank loan and works out a plan to recover the money. Typical pay $135k.
Chief Credit Officer: The senior bank executive who sets the rules for which loans the bank will make and watches loan risk. Typical pay $230k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Bank Branch Manager: Runs a bank branch, leading tellers and bankers and growing customer accounts. Typical pay $85k.
Loan Officer: Evaluates and approves loans for people and businesses: cars, homes, businesses or farms. Typical pay $75k.
Mortgage Loan Originator: Finds home buyers and helps them get a mortgage, often working on commission. Typical pay $75k.
Mortgage Underwriter: Reviews home loan applications and decides whether the bank should approve them. Typical pay $75k.
Credit Analyst: Analyzes whether people or companies can repay loans and how risky they are. Typical pay $85k.
Agricultural Lender: Lends money to farmers and ranchers for land, equipment, seed and livestock. Typical pay $85k.
Treasury Management Officer: Sells and sets up banking services (payments, fraud protection, cash tools) for businesses. Typical pay $95k.
Trade Finance Specialist: Handles letters of credit and other bank tools that let companies trade safely across countries. Typical pay $80k.
Community Development Loan Officer: Lends to small businesses and people that regular banks often turn down, at a mission-driven lender. Typical pay $62k.
Loss Mitigation Specialist: Helps homeowners who are behind on their mortgage find a way to keep their home and avoid foreclosure. Typical pay $58k.
SBA Lending Specialist: Helps small businesses get loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Typical pay $85k.
Loan Review Officer: An internal checker who reviews a bank's loans to make sure they were made properly and are rated correctly. Typical pay $92k.
Equipment Finance Originator: Arranges loans and leases so businesses can buy tractors, trucks, machines and medical equipment. Typical pay $95k.
Construction Loan Administrator: Releases money for building projects step by step, making sure the work is actually done before paying. Typical pay $72k.
Bank Operations Manager: Runs the back-office team that processes a bank's deposits, wires, checks and account problems. Typical pay $90k.
Reverse Mortgage Specialist: Helps homeowners 62 and older turn some of the value of their home into cash without monthly payments, and explains the risks to them and their families. Typical pay $80k.
Starter: fastest way in
Loan Processor: Gathers the documents and paperwork needed to close loans. Typical pay $48k.
Bank Teller: Helps customers with deposits, withdrawals and other everyday banking at a branch. Typical pay $43k.
Personal Banker: Opens accounts and helps customers choose banking products like savings accounts, credit cards and loans. Typical pay $46k.
Repossession Agent: Recovers cars, boats and equipment when borrowers stop paying their loans. Typical pay $45k.
Pawnbroker: Lends money using people's valuables (jewelry, tools, guitars) as collateral, and sells unclaimed items. Typical pay $45k.
Loan Servicing Specialist: Handles loans after they are made: payments, escrow for taxes and insurance, payoffs and customer questions. Typical pay $47k.
Mortgage Closer: Prepares the final loan documents and makes sure everything is ready for a home purchase to close. Typical pay $50k.
Floor Plan Auditor: Visits car, boat and RV dealers to check that every vehicle a lender paid for is really on the lot, and that sold ones were paid off. Typical pay $45k.
Cash Vault Processor: Counts, sorts and checks huge amounts of paper money and coins in a bank or Federal Reserve vault, pulling out fakes and worn-out bills. Typical pay $42k.
Check Cashing & Remittance Store Manager: Runs a neighborhood store that cashes paychecks, sells money orders and sends money to families in other countries for people without bank accounts. Typical pay $44k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.