I've now been through three rounds of BNY Mellon interviews over the past two years, two as a candidate and once accompanying a mentee through debrief prep. The behavioral component is more structured than it looks.
BNY's stated values involve things like client focus, innovation, collaboration, and risk management. The behavioral questions map pretty directly to those buckets.
Here's what I heard across my own loops and what my mentee prepped after her experience:
Frequently asked question themes: Tell me about a time you identified a risk in a project and how you handled it. Describe a situation where you had to deliver something under a tight deadline with incomplete information. Tell me about a time you influenced stakeholders who didn't initially agree with your approach. Describe a situation where you had to balance competing priorities across different teams. Walk me through a time you made a mistake and what you did about it.
What they're actually listening for: They want to see structured thinking. STAR format is not just a buzzword here, they're trained interviewers and they notice when you skip the Result part or when your Task and Action are muddled together. Practice out loud.
They also care about accountability. Any story where you deflect blame entirely or make yourself the hero while everyone else was incompetent will land poorly. What did YOU do, and what would you do differently.
The risk-management angle is real and specific to financial services. Think about times you surfaced a risk proactively, even if it slowed something down. That maps to their culture.
On tone: BNY is not a casual-culture firm. The interviewers are professional but formal. Don't try to be overly charming or casual. Clear, structured answers beat witty banter.
Two behavioral rounds in the onsite is typical. One is usually with a senior IC or manager, one with someone more senior, sometimes a director. The questions are often similar across both, so have depth in your stories, not just a single paragraph.
You have more room than you think to ask questions at the end. I always ask about the team's biggest technical challenge and what success looks like in the first 6 months. Shows you're thinking about contribution, not just getting the job.