Fireside chat #2: Rutger Schellens (CEO)

How did ABN AMRO Clearing master the perfect storm, as one might call 2020, and how have the tumultuous events set the tone for the coming year?

A perfect storm is an unusual combination of events, sometimes unpredictably mixed with other situations that aggravate certain events even further and that is indeed what 2020 feels like to me.

The storm will definitely pass, the question remains however, when. I believe that the experiences have made us even more resilient as a business than ever before. In addition, this resilience has always been at the heart of our company – remember we have been around for a few decades already – and it will surely allow for a steady return to our business as usual. We will again be able to focus on our strategy, as we are committed to building a future proof bank, reinventing the customer experience and supporting our client’s transition to sustainability.

Where there is a storm, there is always collateral, how is Clearing coming out of it all?

We are steadily finalizing the last risk-repair action items. Weathering through the market turbulence in February and March, incurring a default of one our clients, our primary focus was – rightfully – on the repair of our risk reputation. It resulted in a lot of work to strengthen risk metrics, automation of procedures, deepening existing policies and so much more. We have done so with the ambition to get the maximum out of this experience, aiming to restore our “best in class” reputation. I personally feel this is the only way one can react to a year like this, and I am very proud of how we have mastered this with all our teams, as a group.

Can you elaborate on how the perfect storm affected your clients?

We do not intend to stay in repair modus for too long, as we understand that our industry is changing rapidly and we have to keep up, in regulatory items and for business development initiatives and innovation.

At ABN AMRO Clearing, we strive for a culture of transparency and we are equally open for bold conversations with our clients. For instance, last week, when meeting with a longstanding client, they shared with me that they were struggling with our ability to join them in new initiatives. I answered, confessed is maybe a better word, that particularly because of the event in March, we have been more inward looking in the past months. Consequently, the stamina to surprise our clients with new initiatives, services or products had temporarily found work to do in building a robust repair strategy.

Fortunately, given this highly regarded and astute client, in addition to their loyalty towards ABN AMRO Clearing, we found a great sense of mutual understanding as we both realized we would have preferred 2020 to be different.

Expanding on the transparency enjoyed during client meetings, can you share something exciting that is new for everyone?

Let me share that in our first Global Management Team meeting of this year we agreed to take a clear next step for Sustainability. As you can imagine, having mentioned our commitment to our strategy and how we take pleasure in building new initiatives with our clients, I am very happy about this.

As a company, we already aim to contribute to safe and transparent markets. We now want to take a step forward, and support our clients in their transition to sustainability. Our global scale puts us in the position to “sense” what is happening in the financial markets. We can sense what is being facilitated in our industry and what the impact is on our clients and ourselves. This intelligence should allow us to increase the effectiveness of the influence we have in the industry, and should facilitate information provisioning. This will enable our clients to pinpoint opportunities to scale their sustainability impact and as a result spark a greater contribution to more sustainable markets.

We have a role to play here, and I feel confident that we can make an even more valuable contribution this way.In addition, ABN AMRO Clearing, as a company, has also the ambition to becoming at a minimum carbon neutral by 2030, whereby we offset for example our carbon emissions of own global data center. Our Climate Impact Program contributes to large-scale reforestation in Spain and Australia and directly engages employees in all our offices globally via local tree planting events.

By switching to renewable energy sources, reducing C02 emissions and ongoing tree planting, ABN AMRO Clearing has the potential to become carbon negative – removing more CO2 than it emits every year.

Anything more to share or to wish for 2021?

Primarily, I hope that we conquer Covid-19 globally and stay safe. We will remember 2020 as the Covid-year. It has been amazing how flexible we have proven to be. Working from home was something the majority of us had to cope with for the first time. This did not result in material hick-ups or problems, neither in the industry at large nor for our company; I have to say that I find this remarkably impressive!

I sincerely believe that the return of face-to-face contact with clients, colleagues, business partners and other stakeholders; a meeting, a meal or a drink, will be beneficial for us all in both business as well as humanity at large. Actual human presence makes our lives so much more interesting and energizing. I am sure that this will be possible to some extent in 2021, perhaps in the second half of the year.

From a business perspective, I hope it will be a ‘normal’ year in terms of ‘financials’. A year in which we prove again that we have one of the best risk capabilities, operational capabilities and that we keep proving that we are solid partners for our clients and are able to surprise them positively!

A belated Happy and Healthy New Year,

Rutger Schellens

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