This is a warning to technically or mathematically competent people thinking about working at Suncorp.

I'm a professional quantitative analyst. I've worked at a number of Australia's major banks, and find my career in finance enjoyable and rewarding. However, the time I spent working at Suncorp as a risk modeller was the most disgusting experience of my professional career. This is a warning for everyone, but especially technically competent staff, to avoid Suncorp if you have other options.

Before I quit, I discussed my experience with another member of staff. He said, "This is the worst place I've ever worked. The way they treat people. Fighting with people to get things done."

After I quit, I sent a detailed complaint to Suncorp's most senior management, including the CFO and CEO at the time. I have also made a complaint about Suncorp to the regulator.

Risk Modelling

• Suncorp management have no interest in doing risk modelling. They only want to pretend to do risk modelling to the extent they believe is required to fool the regulator.
• Risk modelling staff are completely undermined and marginalized by technically incompetent, scheming management pushing political agendas.
• The majority of Suncorp's risk models contain very significant mathematical and conceptual errors. Risk modelling staff are prevented by management from fixing these errors.
• Suncorp management believe that the methodology of a risk model is entirely irrelevant.  Their approach to risk modelling consists of repeatedly changing the estimates and inputs to a model and seeing what number the model gives. This process continues until management get the number they prefer.
• Competent risk modelling staff are viewed as contributing no value to the bank. 

People management

• Suncorp management overrule and undermine staff in the staff members' own area of expertise
• In performance reviews, management invent ridiculous criticisms of staff that strain credulity, to justify not paying them appropriately.
• Management try to cut costs by screwing over their own staff, rather than through effective people management

Anecdotes

• Early on in my time at Suncorp I found the the wrong dataset had been used for a risk calculation. Rather than fixing the issue by switching to the correct data set, we were immediately pressured into downplaying the problem and issuing a document stating that we would only "monitor the situation" but take no action. The executive manager panicked about the political implications of the capital numbers changing and had no interest in whether the numbers were correct or not. I remember saying to my manager, "At Suncorp, they don't care about whether the risk models are correct. They only care about the politics of the numbers". His reply: "Yes, one hundred percent".
• I found a critical error in one of the bank's risk models which could actually cause the bank's risk to be infinite. When I tried to fix it, management prevented me from doing so. "The model's just being conservative", they said. Then, they spent the next 12 months trying to make the opposite change which would have made the problem infinitely worse. Why? Who knows!
• When we were required to simplify one of the models, in one morning before lunch I produced a model which was just as accurate but 80% simpler. Management prevented me from taking it to the meeting - "I just don't feel it gets us where we want to be", he said. At the meeting he announced his own idea using a spreadsheet which was mathematically erroneous. He spent the next three months running in circles like a dog chasing its tail trying to come up with his own model in a spreadsheet. Not incidentally, this kind of modelling required computer code and couldn't be done in a spreadsheet. Now, Suncorp management don't understand computer code. This particular manager only understood spreadsheets. I think what was going on here was that management were scheming to get the model in a spreadsheet so they wouldn't need to replace me if I quit. This kind of cross-purposes scheming is very common at Suncorp.
• Towards the end of my time at Suncorp, management were refreshing a risk calculation with new loss estimates. I immediately saw that the calculation was erroneous, to the point of producing random, meaningless numbers. Furthermore, this erroneous calculation grossly underestimated the bank's risk exposure based on their own loss estimates. I could have easily corrected the calculation. They prevented me from doing so. Instead, they fiddled with the model inputs until it gave the same number as last year and then off they went to the board.
• At my performance review I was accused of being "too focused on academic accuracy", while two highly paid idiots took a fake model and completely made up numbers to the board. Furthermore, these people who ignored everything I ever told them accused me of having "poor communication". 
• To give you an example of the kind of contempt that Suncorp have for technical staff, in my performance review I mentioned that I had reduced the runtime of one of the bank's models from all day to 30 minutes. This dramatically improved our productivity, reducing from weeks to hours the time required to sensitivity test the model. "The bank has to determine what it's prepared to pay for your skills and abilities", he said dismissively. If you're someone with moral standards and integrity, this kind of antagonistic environment is intolerable.

Salary

• Some businesses endeavor to pay staff fair and appropriate salaries, and reward and encourage their contributions. Suncorp is not such a business. They have a high staff turnover (they are always hiring), and treating staff unfairly is part of their strategy. Make sure you show them no loyalty and start looking for your next job before you're even in the building. Many a person has joined Suncorp, done a great job, and been given nothing. What makes this so hard to swallow is the unbelievable incompetence of the management team. 
• A typical conversation with management about your salary goes something like this: Q: "My salary is well below what other people are paid at Suncorp in similar roles" A: "They came in when we needed someone. We can't bring their salaries down, and we're trying to cut costs." Q: "My salary is below what the market pays in this kind of role" A:"Maybe we can find someone on [insert even lower salary here]."

Suncorp management simply don't have the competence, intelligence or integrity required to run a business. They are not only incompetent at risk modelling, they're incompetent at managing people.

I'm enjoying my career in finance, but will never work at Suncorp again for the rest of my career. I would make the same recommendation to you.

You can hear more Suncorp reviews and learn more about working at Suncorp at my youtube channel. In particular, you can find an audio version of my Suncorp Glassdoor review, check out my video on Suncorp Salaries, or learn about the appalling way Suncorp treats staff in quantitative analyst and risk modelling roles.