Pauline Bernard, Regional Head of France & Belgium, Securities Services, BNP Paribas, and Winner of Markets Media’s European Women in Finance 2024’s Excellence in Leadership, spoke to Global Trading about her experience in the securities services business both at the strategic and human level.

Can you tell us more about your role at BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business?
As a European global custodian, we offer multi-asset post-trade and asset servicing solutions to buy-side and sell-side market participants, corporates, and issuers. I have been the Regional Head of France and Belgium of the business since 2023, having worked at the bank for more than 25 years. Over the last two years, apart from leading the business line within the region, I have collaborated closely with the wider Group on our strategic plan – Growth, Technology and Sustainability, which set the growth roadmap for the business and ensure we hit our revenue objectives.

Thanks to my previous role as the Head of Client Development in the region and my professional network, I am heavily involved in local market initiatives. From an external perspective, I have been the senior sponsor for various client projects, maintaining direct communication with clients and overseeing the team in project execution. For example, earlier in March, our team in France has signed a new mandate with ProCapital, providing an extensive range of asset services in Europe.

Meanwhile, internally, as part of our integrated bank strategy, I work closely with different business lines within the bank, for example, Financial Institutions Coverage and Global Markets. Particularly in the private capital space, the team and I have built a community of key stakeholders that help clients navigate the changing market environment and fund strategies. We are seeing loads of cross-selling opportunities where clients can truly benefit from our expertise in wealth management, capital markets, and of course, asset servicing.

I enjoy how my role evolves alongside the growth of both the Securities Services business and the wider bank. The mix of client-facing responsibilities and group-level strategy planning keeps me in tune with the industry and keeps things interesting.

How has the industry changed since you first joined the business?
Our industry, like the wider financial sector, is constantly evolving. However, not everything has changed. Client relationship has always been of utmost importance to the securities services industry. While our services and products, obviously, are more technology driven, the “human element” is as crucial as ever.

Clients nowadays have a better understanding of the value and impact our industry brings, which in turn means they have higher expectations in terms of our market insights and solution-driven advice. They want to hear more from us, not just telling us what they need. They want us to share our views on different portfolio management system tools, tax matters, regulations, infrastructure changes, etc. This is why we need a large, diverse pool of talent that brings both breadth and depth of expertise. It goes beyond one local market or a specific asset service.

Our industry has now branched out to helping clients expanding their network and markets, and giving them the necessary resources to achieve operational excellence, so they can focus on their growth ambitions. Going beyond the duties of a service provider, we have transformed into clients’ partner, adviser, eyes and ears within and outside the industry.

What are the specific achievements in your career that you are particularly proud of?
I am most proud of the long-term client partnerships I have built, and the talented teams that sustain them. Earlier in my career at BNP Paribas as a salesperson, I won several complex mandates. Two decades on, those clients are still with us. Through market cycles, technology changes, and regulatory shifts, we have shown up consistently, solved their problems efficiently, and earned the right to grow alongside them. What started as transactions have grown into partnerships of trust, because we listen, execute, and bring everything we can to the table.

And as one of the relatively few female leaders in our industry, I am honoured, and humbled, to serve as a regional head. BNP Paribas has backed this journey with meaningful support for diversity. I hope I can pay it forward by sponsoring talent, sharing my experience, and opening doors so more women can step into senior roles and feel they belong. If my path helps make leadership feel possible for others, that is a legacy I would be immensely proud of.

Lastly, I also take pride into the community we have built at the bank. An engaging and supportive culture that everyone feels heard, we challenge each other respectfully and celebrate wins together. Since I first joined the business, I have witnessed how our teams have developed and collaborated in a growing scale. The close relationships, both internally and with clients, and the culture, are the achievements that I cherish most.

What advice would you pass on to people at their early stage of the career in the securities services industry?
When you are starting out in this industry, I would treat this first phase of your career as a firsthand apprenticeship, focusing on three core values.

First, you must always keep your clients in mind. Your clients want to focus on making investment decisions rather than managing operational organisation. Their demands can change every day, but ultimately, we are helping them to improve efficiency, accuracy, and their risk management. We are here to translate their evolving needs into solutions. It might sound obvious and cliché, but we do need to put ourselves into our clients’ shoes, be ready to do the extra mile, and be their problem solvers whenever needed.

Second, you should value both technology and your human network. Our industry is sprinting from batch files to various data management tools, from AI to tokenised ledgers. Stay intellectually curious about any emerging technology or platforms. However, remember that our industry is an ecosystem business. We collaborate with people from operations, legal, IT, regulators, fintech partners, and many more. Hence, you need to invest in genuine relationships across these teams. When settlement snag hits at a Friday evening, the speed of your personal network will matter as much as any algorithm.

And lastly, you need to master the fundamentals before chasing the next buzzwords. Spend more time on understanding how an asset moves from trade date to settlement, what can go wrong, how we manage each risk. If you can explain everything we do without a single jargon or buzzword, you will be already ahead of the curve.

Your attitude and mentality are your most important assets. Stay motivated, stay engaged. Know your purpose. Securities services might be invisible to most people, but the financial markets cannot function without them. That purpose is hugely motivating, and there is no better time to help shape its future.