---
title: "Financial Examiner"
description: "Enforce or ensure compliance with laws and regulations governing financial and securities institutions and financial and real estate transactions. May…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-examiner"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Financial Examiner

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-2061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-2061.00

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.

Also advertised as: 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.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $94,160 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $45.27/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $56,230 to $174,200, with the middle half between $70,660 and $129,600
- **Total US employment:** 67,830
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +9.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 12/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 67,830 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $56,230 |
| 25th | $70,660 |
| 50th (median) | $94,160 |
| 75th | $129,600 |
| 90th | $174,200 |
| Mean (average) | $106,240 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $198,720 | $180,817 | 470 |
| NY | $128,920 | $119,458 | 13,480 |
| CT | $120,530 | $116,330 | Not published by BLS |
| WA | $113,700 | $106,249 | 420 |
| MA | $111,110 | $105,062 | 950 |
| NJ | $106,410 | $97,799 | 2,190 |
| CA | $106,000 | $95,737 | 4,200 |
| MN | $104,260 | $105,718 | 1,280 |
| VA | $104,060 | $102,924 | 1,280 |
| MD | $102,980 | $98,115 | 350 |
| NC | $100,730 | $106,789 | 2,610 |
| CO | $99,610 | $96,660 | 1,910 |
| OR | $94,630 | $91,553 | 820 |
| RI | $94,130 | $92,032 | 320 |
| IL | $93,150 | $93,189 | 4,050 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-examiner/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/financial-examiner.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 70,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 76,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 6,500 jobs, or +9.3%. Much faster than average: 9.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 4,500 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 87.0% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 8.7% |
| Master's Degree | 4.4% |

## What the work involves

- Recommend actions to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, or to protect solvency of institutions.
- 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.
- Examine the minutes of meetings of directors, stockholders, and committees to investigate the specific authority extended at various levels of management.
- Train other examiners in the financial examination process.
- Review and analyze new, proposed, or revised laws, regulations, policies, and procedures to interpret their meaning and determine their impact.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.40 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.63 |
| I — Investigative | 3.60 |
| S — Social | 2.50 |
| R — Realistic | 1.34 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 79.5 |
| ISTJ | 72.5 |
| ESFJ | 69.6 |
| ISFJ | 67.0 |
| ENTJ | 66.0 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Accountant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/accountant) — median $83,680
- [Compliance Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-manager) — median $141,900
- [Fraud Examiner, Investigator and Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fraud-examiner-investigator-and-analyst) — median $81,100
- [Credit Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-analyst) — median $83,510
- [Treasurer and Controller](https://nuecareer.com/careers/treasurer-and-controller) — median $166,570
- [Financial Risk Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-risk-specialist) — median $117,330
- [Financial Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-manager) — median $166,570
- [Financial and Investment Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-and-investment-analyst) — median $102,740
- [Credit Authorizer, Checker, and Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-authorizer-checker-and-clerk) — median $50,080
- [Loan Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/loan-officer) — median $76,690

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank 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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/financial-examiner