As part of the Heard at Ops series, Debra Guarino of BNY Mellon | Pershing talks about the focus on operational efficiency, the value added from hiring talent with non-traditional finance backgrounds and preparing for T+1 and the upcoming regulatory agenda. Watch the video and read the Q&A below.

Q. As an operations leader, what are some of the priorities that you’re focused on?

For this year, it is about how do we do more with less – whether it’s less time, less people, less resources. Certainly, the transition to T+1 is a part of that; it is cutting our settlement time in half. And so, we are really looking at all our processes leading up to that:

• Where are we not as efficient as we should be?
• Where do we have opportunity to scale?
• Do we still need to execute manual processes?

Another part of it is making sure that we have a good plan in place for shifting resources that includes cross-training and upskilling.

Q. How is the role of operations changing?

We have seen such a shift in the talent pool and the types of skills that we’re looking for in people. In the past, we looked at a certain degree – whether it is accounting, finance, or business – and people with certain experience: what firms did they work at that look like ours?

That has completely shifted in this faster environment. With the increased reliance on faster technologies and new technologies, that skillset suddenly has changed. Now we are open to candidates who come in from non-traditional financial services roles, and they’re adding value very quickly when they walk in the door.

It is a nice blend of legacy employees and new employees, and you mix those two together. The experience that we have from the traditional ops person who may be with your firm for 10 or 15 years and some new thought process – a new way of doing things – intertwined with that will make us stronger and more efficient.

The other thing we have noticed with new talent is their expectations, which have shifted due to the pandemic and people spending time learning what they like, what they don’t like and what they value.

As leaders, we are going to be challenged with: How do we keep these associates engaged? How do we help them move along on their path to where they want to go? They are making us better leaders by increasing the talent pool that we are pulling in.

Q. What is the industry’s biggest challenge in the coming year?

The biggest challenge is certainly going to be the regulatory agenda in front of us. We are faced with the move to T+1, which is tremendous and happening in May of 2024. But there are many other proposals that have either been approved, out for comment, comments are back and being reviewed – and it is really going to be about how we layer all those things on top of each other.

We must be very deliberate about how we deliver all of it, in a compliant fashion, and in time for when the rule will become effective without pulling back on anything else that we are doing.

The only way we are going to be successful is to pause, evaluate, and take the time you need to do that analysis before we start marching forward with coding and changing our processes upfront. Make sure that if one could impact the other, that we are looking at them together – collectively – and making the right decisions.

Debra Guarino is Managing Director of Pershing Operations and Trading Services at BNY Mellon | Pershing

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