OUR LATEST

The 23rd World Conference of Banking Institutes is being held this year in London for the first time since 1979. BSB CEO Alison Cottrell will be taking part in a panel on 16 September exploring what has changed since the financial crisis.

You can catch BSB CEO Alison Cottrell talking about leadership and culture in banking at the Westminster Business Forum policy conference on September 5: Culture and conduct in financial services – the impact of new regulation, developing healthy work cultures and the role of senior managers.

The BSB Member Forum convenes twice a year and brings together 12 senior representatives from the BSB membership over a two-year period. The forum shares some of the thinking and obtains feedback about the BSB’s key areas of work and, importantly, create a sustained mechanism to facilitate dialogue and debate.

This is event is by invitation and for BSB members only. To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

BSB Board members Dame Susan Rice and Saker Nusseibeh will both be contributing to Ethical Finance 2019 in October. Organised by the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) this event will bring together business, political, civic and social leaders of society in Edinburgh to network, share, co-develop and shape a fairer, more sustainable financial system.

Managing organisational culture is an important board and senior management responsibility, and Internal Audit has a key role to play in providing boards with the assurance that measures put in place to manage behaviour and culture are working.

In 2017 we brought together Internal Audit professionals from across our member firms to explore how they were considering or responding to this challenge.

Two years on, it seems an appropriate time to revisit this theme and see what has been learned and what has changed. In a BSB-facilitated knowledge-sharing seminar under Chatham House Rule, three senior speakers from Internal Audit at BSB member firms will lead the discussion and share the different approaches that they have been pioneering within their teams.They will be joined by Dr Ian Peters, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors, who will give his perspective on the role of Internal Audit in assessing and reporting on culture.

Areas for discussion will include:

• how the firms’ approaches have evolved two years on;
• case studies on what has worked well and what could have worked better;
• in-house and external tools and resources, such as the BSB Assessment;
• incorporating behavioural science to understand the drivers of culture;
• approaches and challenges to auditing culture globally; and
• effective reporting and making recommendations for intervention.

Speakers:

• David Abbotts, Global Head of Regulatory Compliance, Legal, Conduct and Culture Audit at HSBC
• Nicola Baillie, Senior Audit Manager, People and Culture at Lloyds Banking Group
• Manjyot Bhambra, Manager, Behavioural Risk Team at RBS
• Dr Ian Peters MBE, Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors

This is event is by invitation and for BSB members only. To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

BSB CEO Alison Cottrell and BSB Board Member Saker Nusseibeh will both be speaking at the 5^th Annual Culture and Conduct Forum for the Financial services Industry on 14 November. Alison will be taking part in a panel on who to encourage a culture of Speaking and Listening Up while Saker will be taking part in a panel exploring how to measure culture.

The knowledge-sharing seminar will explore evolving approaches on how to foster a better speak up culture.

The discussion will be led by the BSB Insights team, made up of behavioural and data scientists, and three senior speakers from BSB member firms, who will share the different approaches that they have been pioneering within their teams. They will be joined by Rowena Russell, Associate Director of Business, The Old Vic, who will share valuable insights from a different industry.

Speakers:

• Catherine Dineley, Group Head of Culture, Lloyd’s Banking Group
• Helen Smith, Senior Manager, People and HR strategy, HSBC
• Thomas Colley, Head of Employee Communications, HSBC
• Rowena Russell, Associate Director of Business, The Old Vic
• Kate Coombs, Senior Behavioural Scientist, BSB

This is event is by invitation and for BSB members only. To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

On 14 January 2020, the BSB, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the London School of Economics will host an event exploring the role of behavioural science in improving organisational culture within financial services firms.

BSB Chair Dame Susan Rice and Federal Reserve Bank of New York President and CEO John C. Williams will participate in a discussion with experts working in behavioural science and associated disciplines, including psychology, law, finance and management.

This event will bring together academics with senior leaders in finance and financial regulation to discuss how behavioural science can be applied within financial services to the benefit of the sector’s clients, customers and society as a whole.

This event is invitation only.To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

BSB Policy Associate and Behavioural Scientist Dr. Jesal Dilip Sheth will be speaking at the Cultural Finance conference at Queen Mary University of London on 28 February 2020.  Dr. Jesal Dilip Sheth’s presentation will be on understanding culture in the UK banking industry.

This virtual knowledge sharing discussion will focus on sharing thoughts about the different challenges presented by Covid-19 and exploring what we can learn from each other’s experience to help us address them, both individually and collectively.  The session will be chaired by BSB CEO Alison Cottrell.

This event is by invitation and for BSB members only. To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

This virtual knowledge sharing discussion, led by Paul Litchfield, Chair of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, will focus on the challenges posed by the Covid-19 crisis to employees’ mental wellbeing, and explore what and how we can learn from each other’s experience – both now and over the coming months – to help us address these and support mental wellbeing and resilience across the financial services sector.

This event is by invitation and for BSB members only. To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

The event will explore three decades of disruption and ask what have we learned and what comes next? As we emerge from the COVID crisis, is this a genuinely disruptive moment or just another tweak to our constant uncertainty? Is there any longer any such thing as “the new normal” or is this just our new every-day?

Panellists Mikael Down, Banking Standards Board; Nikolas Kairinos, Founder, fountech.ai; and Professor Joanna Bryson, Hertie School, Berlin will discuss. The conversation will be led by Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Principal of Jesus College, Oxford; Chair, the Open Data Institute. For further information or to register, click here. 

Employees in financial services, as elsewhere, have had to adapt rapidly to new working environments, and change and uncertainty are likely to continue to characterise the coming months. Workforce resilience has in this context become even more important for employers. Sir Brendan Barber, Chair of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) and Deputy Chair of the BSB, and Susan Clews, CEO of ACAS will draw on their considerable experience to discuss what matters for workforce resilience, and how firms can help their employees adapt to and manage ongoing change.

This event is by invitation and for BSB members only. To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

This virtual event on the morning of 22 July 2020, led by Mikael Down, Executive Director for Assessment and Insights at the BSB, will focus on technology and organisation culture.The BSB has continued to explore the findings from firms who, alongside their participation in the annual BSB Survey in 2019, also took part in our more detailed focus groups on the theme of technology and organisational culture. Insights from interviews and focus groups provided us with a wealth of valuable data that we will share more widely for the first time during the session.

This event is by invitation and for BSB members only. To find out more about BSB membership, please visit Membership or contact membership@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk.

Alison Cottrell, CEO of the BSB, Charles Randell, Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority, Brad Fried, Chair of the Court of Directors at the Bank of England and Poppy Jaman, CEO, City Mental Health Alliance will chair a roundtable discussion on 14 July 2020.

This invitation-only event will be an informal discussion with CEOs from the banking and financial services sector on the health of the workplace post Covid-19.

BSB CEO Alison Cottrell will be speaking at the Culture in Investment Management Forum on 17 September. Alison will be taking part in a panel on the role of leaders, executives and iNEDs in developing, maintaining and measuring culture.

BSB CEO Alison Cottrell will be speaking at the Financial Times Future of Work digital conference series on 6 October. Alison will be taking part in a panel on the diversity in the workplace in the time of COVID-19.

BSB Chairman Dame Susan Rice will be contributing to Ethical Finance 2020 in October. Organised by the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) this event will bring together business, political, civic and social leaders to network, share, co-develop and shape a fairer, more sustainable financial system.

BSB CEO Alison Cottrell speaking on a panel: The role of purpose in driving safe and sustainable cultures at the 6th Annual Culture and Conduct Forum for the financial services industry.

This digital event, organised in partnership between the BSB and the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), will be the first in a series of two events bringing together Chairs, Non-Executive Directors and senior executives to consider what the experience of responding to the pandemic has taught us about our organisational cultures and the role of boards in managing and influencing culture.

Prompted by opening remarks from a distinguished panel, we will have the opportunity to share thoughts and lessons learned from across not only financial services but also a range of sectors and industries; drawing on the experience of the past nine months, to help us address as effectively as possible the challenges still to come.

Our panel for this first event will be:

-Philippa Foster Back CBE, International Advisory Council member, IBE

-David Roberts, Chairman Nationwide and Vice-Chairman, NHS England

-Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive, London First, Independent Non-Executive Director, Standard Chartered PLC and Non-Executive Director, WPP Plc

By invitation only. For more information please contact: bsb.events@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk

BSB CEO Alison Cottrell giving the keynote at the Investing and Saving Alliance’s virtual Culture Conference on 19 November 2020.

The second in this series of two joint BSB/IBE events will again bring together a group of Chairs and Non-Executive Directors to speak to a senior business audience about the role and responsibility of boards in managing organisational culture across different industries, looking in particular at what boards are focusing on in 2021 and how different sectors are looking to influence and shape workplace culture going forward.

Our panel for this second event will be:

• Dame Susan Rice, Chair, BSB and Scottish Water
• Sir Douglas Flint, Chairman, Standard Life Aberdeen, IP Group and Just Finance Foundation
• Sara Weller, Non-Executive Director, Lloyds Banking Group, Trustee, Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales and Independent Non-Executive Director, BT Group

Our invited audience will comprise Chairs, NEDs and senior executives from a variety of sectors and industries. Member event by invitation only.

Join us for a virtual lunch with guest speaker David Bodanis, author of ‘The Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean‘  from 12-1pm on Thursday 11 February. The Art of Fairness is in the words of The Sunday Times a ‘cheering, timely, inspirational reminder that we can succeed without losing our souls’. This uplifting book includes a series of great lessons from history on an inclusive, team-oriented model for successful business, some of which David will share with the audience, as well as taking your questions on how to incorporate techniques that have succeeded in the past into the way we manage people today. We very much hope that you can join us at this BSB guest speaker event. BSB members only.

The evidence is clear; diverse perspectives and inclusive working environments produce better business outcomes. But as evidence also shows, many of us have more to do on this, especially when it comes to ethnic diversity and inclusion. The next BSB members’ event: Ethic Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace will take place on 19 March and feature speakers from Lloyds Bank, NatWest and the FCA.

Speakers include:
– Janet Pope, Chief of Staff and Group Director, Sustainable Business, Lloyds Banking Group

– Helen Cook, Chief HR Officer, Natwest Group

– Sheldon Mills, Executive Director of Consumers and Competition, Financial Conduct Authority

The aim will be to share practical ideas and experience to help us all move further and faster on this important issue, and create the financial services sector we want to see in the future – and now. We will also share with you at this session some of the overall findings on diversity and inclusion from the 2020 BSB Survey. Member event by invitation only.

The FSCB will be hosting a series of virtual events looking at the potential for firms across financial services to both fill skills gaps and help accelerate social mobility. This event will bring together FSCB member firms and a range of other organisations to explore how financial services firms can work with external partners and potentially benefit from employing skilled ex-offenders and those without a fixed address. It will also provide an opportunity for financial services to learn from other sectors who have led the way in recruiting and training in this space.

Speakers will include:

• Jim Taylor, Director of Code4000
• Franky McCarthy, software engineering apprentice at Lloyds Banking Group and former graduate of Code4000.
• Chris Smith, Head of Run, General Insurance, Group Transformation and line manager to Franky, Lloyds Banking Group
• Nina Allard, Global Head of The Pret Foundation

If you have any questions, please contact: events@FSCB.org.uk

The FSCB is pleased to invite bestselling author and Editor-at-Large at the Financial Times, Gillian Tett, to speak to our members, talking and taking questions about her latest book Anthro-Vision, which reveals how anthropology can make sense of people’s behaviour, in business and beyond.

In conversation with Gillian will be Dr Daniel Beunza, whose work features in the book, and who has been working with us to run Change Ambassadors, a programme to equip employees with the skills to practice ethnography (a research method used in anthropology) in order to uncover and tackle cultural barriers to gender equality, diversity and inclusion at their firms.

Gillian will draw out examples from Anthro-Vision, which features stories from Tajik villages and Amazon warehouses, Japanese classrooms and Wall Street trading floors, to illustrate the power of anthropology in action and its applicability across different environments. Daniel will talk about his own complementary work and how in particular, anthropology and the associated technique of ethnography can help firms in financial services to better understand and manage their people. There will also be an opportunity for questions and comments from the audience.

Read an adapted excerpt from Anthro-Vision by Gillian Tett.

Read a piece by Daniel Beunza on the FSCB’s Change Ambassadors Programme.

Gillian Tett is the chairman of the US editorial board and Editor-at-Large (US) at the Financial Times. Perhaps best known for predicting the 2007–8 financial crisis, Tett’s bestselling book Fool’s Gold was one of the definitive books on the crash. Tett holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied marriage rituals in Tajikistan. Her work for the FT has taken her around the world – from Brussels to Tokyo to Moscow to New York– and won her numerous awards, including Columnist, Journalist and Business Journalist of the Year prizes at the British Press Awards.

Daniel Beunza is Associate Professor of Management at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at the Business School (formerly Cass). Beunza’s research explores the ways in which social relations and technology shape financial value. Beunza obtained his PhD from New York University, and has previously taught at Columbia University, the London School of Economics and Copenhagen Business School. His most recent book, Taking the Floor: Models, Morals and Management in a Wall Street Trading Room considers the moral consequences of the use of economic models on Wall Street. He has been working with the FSCB since 2016 to bring the use of ethnography to member firms.

Customers and clients want to be served by employees who take pride in their work; employees want to work for firms they can be proud of; and the UK wants and needs a strong, sustainable and trustworthy financial services sector. Pride and trustworthiness are products not of regulation or marketing, but of the culture within a firm.

From the perspective of mid-2021, what are the key challenges and opportunities facing boards when it comes to creating and maintaining good organisational cultures? Where does and should ‘culture’ sit, among the many priorities competing for board attention? And to what extent are these challenges and opportunities for the sector collectively to address, as well as for firms individually?

Join us for one of our first events under our new name – the Financial Services Culture Board – to consider these and many other aspects of managing organisational cultures in an ever-changing environment. Leading our discussion will be a distinguished group of speakers able to draw on extensive industry and board experience and to offer thoughts from both a regulator and a Government perspective. We also hope that you will bring your own thoughts, experience and questions to the event, and looking forward to seeing and hearing from you.

Date and time:

8:30am-10:00am Thursday 15 July 2021

Speakers include:

• Dame Susan Rice, Chair, FSCB
• John Glen MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister
• Charles Randell, Chair, Financial Conduct Authority
• Alison Cottrell, CEO, FSCB
• Peter Harrison, Group Chief Executive, Schroders
• Stephen O’Connor, Chairman HSBC Bank plc
• Sir Jonathan Symonds, Chair, GlaxoSmithKline plc

Watch:

A message from James Hennessy, SVP, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Prepared for delivery at the FSCB’s 15 July event, our colleague offers congratulatory remarks on expanding our membership remit to welcome all financial services firms operating in the UK.