Phil Cotter, Managing Director, Risk interviewed Laura Ahto Chief Executive Officer of BNY Mellon European Bank with the room at capacity with our 60 guests.
This was the second event in Zurich hosted by Debra Walton, Managing Director, Proposition and Product and there were many takeaways shared by Laura during the lunch.
Phil summarised the discussion with a few points. Regulation is clearly not going away and it is imperative that banks & other FI’s engage with the regulators in a constructive way to ensure that regulation is appropriate and proportionate. Laura stressed that everyone had responsibility for maintaining a stable financial system. We then moved to Fintech/Regtech and cloud and other potentially disruptive technologies however ones that will play a part in lowering the cost of compliance for banks as well as creating new service models. Understanding which technologies work for your business is important. Regulators position on how they would regulate these technologies is still evolving and we need to work together. Some discussion was around concerns regarding privacy & cybercrime and the view that this would mean that they and the industry will move with caution.
Laura made 3 key points around skills for the future of Compliance & Risk professionals…
- Really understand the business that you are part of so that you can better understand the Risks and Regulatory landscape and therefore support it more effectively
- Don’t be afraid to speak up about risks you have identified that others might not have
- Play your part in supporting efforts by the executive leadership to create a culture across the organisation that embeds good risk management practices