Katarina Melvan is Branch Manager at BNY Mellon Germany and also Head of Asset Servicing Germany. Fondsfraue Anke Dembowski talks to her about what exactly lies behind these jobs and how BNY Mellon focuses on digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence. BNY Mellon, by the way, won the Fondsfrauen Award this year in the "Company of the Year" category. In another interview, Katarina Melvan talks to us about what the financial industry can do to get young women in particular more excited about finance.
Ms. Melvan, you are Branch Manager BNY Mellon Germany & Head of Asset Servicing Germany. What exactly do you do in your job?
I am responsible for the asset servicing business in Germany. From Germany, I manage everything to do with asset servicing in the German-speaking region.
What exactly is asset servicing?
This includes everything related to the securities business: custody of assets, fund administration, fund accounting, reporting, tax services, regulatory reporting to the supervisory authorities, calculation of the fund price, and all administrative and operational activities. Our customers are broadly diversified. Custodians need our data, but so do pension funds, other banks, insurance companies, corporates and asset managers.
In Germany, the distribution of women and men is about 50:50. Together with our relationship team, I am responsible for customer service and for the strategic development of our business.
The German branch is part of our bank, which has its headquarters in Belgium. So we have to comply with all the legal and regulatory requirements: German, Belgian, European, and of course those of our parent company in the USA.
You took over the German branch of BNY Mellon in July 2022. What was that like?
Nice! I've been with BNY Mellon for over 16 years, and have had many different roles here. But I haven't been bored for a second and have never regretted being here. There have been many projects - some bank-driven, some client-driven. For a while, I was responsible for the depository business in Germany and Europe. In the course of a takeover of parts of the business of another bank (editor's note: the BHF Bank), I took over responsibility for the custody business for a while and drove the integration forward.
After working for 10 years in the management of our KVG, which is our hub for administration and fund accounting, I moved to the management of the bank, where I had worked before. But of course it's a different feeling to now be responsible for the branch. Fortunately, many colleagues were still there with whom I had previously worked closely at the bank. In that respect, it was a bit like coming home.
The bank has quite a long tradition...
Yes, last year was our 50th anniversary as a bank in Germany. All 16 members of our U.S. Board of Management came, including the CEO, because we celebrated the anniversary with our customers in a big way. That was great, because it also underscores the long-term thinking of our bank, that we don't think in the short term, but in decades and centuries.
Next year we celebrate the 240th anniversary of the bank. It was founded in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the Treasury of the young United States. You may know him from the Broadway musical and the $10 bill.
Yes, that's right! What are the topics that you have pushed first since taking up your new management position?
There was a strong focus on customer projects, i.e. primarily new customer acquisition and onboarding of new customers. We also have close ties with both our European bank and our U.S. parent, where we are developing many new products and services.
What does the BNY Mellon Bank actually stand for?
What sets us apart from many banks is our focus on digitalization, the use of artificial intelligence, and collaboration with FinTech companies and startups. We already have quite a few processes running with AI.
Can you give an example of an AI application?
When a custodian settles a securities transaction, the value dates are fixed for each market, e.g. T+2. Only after this date is the settlement date. However, it may happen that the transaction is not settled on that day. By default, we monitor the securities transactions: What about the broker? Why is the transaction still open? In addition, we now have an AI in place that predicts whether the transaction will actually be settled on time. We have a 92 percent hit rate with it, so we can improve our "settlement on time." That gives our customers and us security.
Thanks for the interesting insights into the custody business!
Photo from the Fondsfrauen Award 2023
Foto-Copyright: FONDSprofessionell/Christoph Hemmerich
Anke Dembowski is a financial journalist and author of various investment fund-related and other financial books. She is also a co-founder of the "Fondsfrauen" network.