Appointed by Financecommunity.it among the 50 most influential professionals in the financial sector, Anna Tavano, currently Head of Global Banking for HSBC Italy, commented on the transformations occurred in this field, highlighting the value of diversity, inclusion, work ethic, and the respect of codes of conduct.

Financecommunity Week: Anna Tavano participated in the round table discussion “Finance and human resources”

What do banks look for? Which professional figures? Today “people with a strong work ethic, who pay attention to compliance with the rules and corporate culture” make the difference, according to Anna Tavano, Head of Global Banking for HSBC Italy: they are professionals who are “sensitive to the issues of diversity, inclusion, and sustainability”. Invited to intervene on November 13th at the meeting on “Finance and human resources”, organized as part of the Financecommunity Week, the manager underlined that today, also in the banking and financial sector, it has become quite common to hear about diversity, inclusion, and sustainability, but it hasn’t always been this way. Analyzing the transformations that occurred in the sector, Anna Tavano, who has been recently listed by Financecommunity.it among the 50 most influential professionals in the financial field, highlighted that the banking industry has changed drastically during the last 30 years. The turning point came after the 2008 crisis and the collapse of Lehman. “The 1990s and the early 2000s were characterized by very ambitious, highly motivated bankers, who were able to work under pressure for long hours, giving up their personal lives” said the Head of Global Banking for HSBC Italy. In this perspective, diversity, inclusion, work ethic, and the respect of codes of conduct were values “not very considered”.

Anna Tavano: the four key words for the future of financial sector professionals

“After 2008, the combined effects of three major events completely changed banks’ approach to human resources,” noted Anna Tavano during her speech at the Financecommunity Week. The first was a greater regulation, which allowed “the consolidation of a culture based on a greater attention to ethics and to risk awareness”. Secondly, the advent of technology “transformed business models, especially in the retail banking and asset management areas, and to a lesser extent into investment banking”. Finally, the entry of millennials to the world of work changed the rules again: “They are workers who pay great attention to issues such as development, transparency, and work life balance. They are attentive to ethics, conduct, sustainability in finance and investments”. This is a combination of factors “which gave rise to the need for new professional skills and which transformed the approach to human resources”. Anna Tavano, Head of Global Banking for HSBC Italy, concluded her speech by recalling the four key words for the future of financial sector professionals. The key words are the famous four Cs: creativity, curiosity, communication, collaboration. And, according to the manager, the concept of “emotional intelligence” is equally important: “For many years we have used the intelligence quotient as the sole factor in assessing human resources. Recent statistics showed that the best teams and leaders are those with high emotional and social skills, including perseverance, self-control, empathy, and attention to others”.