Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, and one of the
Speaker 1: big stories we're taking a look at today is well,
Speaker 1: the history of one of the oldest banks in the world,
Speaker 1: Bank of New York Mellon Market is two hundred and
Speaker 1: forty years in business. The bank was founded back in
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty four by Alexander Hamilton, making it the oldest
Speaker 1: bank here in the US and one of the top
Speaker 1: twenty banks in terms of age worldwide that's still in
Speaker 1: continuous operations. I had to sat down chance to sit
Speaker 1: down exclusively with the CEO of BNY Mellon, Robin Vince,
Speaker 1: to discuss the milestone and more importantly, what's next.
Speaker 2: How do you keep a firm like this relevant? Take
Speaker 2: a listen.
Speaker 3: Two hundred and forty years is a long time. We've
Speaker 3: operated over four centuries of history, particularly New York history,
Speaker 3: and we're getting together with some clients to actually enjoy
Speaker 3: that and make sure that we mark the moment. We're
Speaker 3: actually the oldest operating longest operating company in New York,
Speaker 3: with the oldest member of the B five hundred and
Speaker 3: Fortune five hundred and the first stop listed on the
Speaker 3: New York Stock Exchange.
Speaker 2: But we're looking forward.
Speaker 3: So innovation at the end of the day is an
Speaker 3: important part of this story too.
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about that innovation.
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't get to two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: years by just dumblock. I mean, even if you go
Speaker 1: through the list of some of the banks that sort
Speaker 1: were born out of the birth of this nation, at
Speaker 1: least you're in the United States and the ones that
Speaker 1: are still there, I mean, what gets you to another
Speaker 1: to forty It's not just going to be the same playbook.
Speaker 2: Isn't it.
Speaker 3: Well, I think you're exactly right that innovation is at
Speaker 3: the very heart of that. You only get to be
Speaker 3: old if you're resilient and if you're innovative focused on
Speaker 3: your customers.
Speaker 2: At the end of the.
Speaker 3: Day, it's our clients that guide our progress as a
Speaker 3: company and to operate through all of the different ups
Speaker 3: and downs that we see the world wars that have
Speaker 3: occurred over our history, the very birth of the nation.
Speaker 3: Literally the British were leaving just months before the foundation
Speaker 3: of our company. You have to be resilient, you have
Speaker 3: to focus on your customers, and you have to.
Speaker 1: When we talk about sort of the next big structural
Speaker 1: changes that are going to shake up banking, shake up.
Speaker 2: The finance industry. Right now, there's a lot of talk
Speaker 2: about AI.
Speaker 1: Is that moment here now or is this still something
Speaker 1: in the future that you're preparing for.
Speaker 2: Well, the answer is both. It is here.
Speaker 3: There are opportunities now, but those opportunities are going to
Speaker 3: get more and more exciting over the coming years. I
Speaker 3: was actually just back from the West Coast where I
Speaker 3: spent time with some of the luminaries of the AI industry,
Speaker 3: really hearing their thoughts and participating with some others in
Speaker 3: a few different sessions and just trying to peak over
Speaker 3: the horizon about what's in store.
Speaker 2: And I think it's going to be very important.
Speaker 3: I think it's going to create great opportunities for our
Speaker 3: client facing businesses to be able to do more for
Speaker 3: our clients. I think it's going to help us to
Speaker 3: run our company better. And I also think it's going
Speaker 3: to be something that's going to give benefit to our
Speaker 3: people to be able to take some of the drudgery
Speaker 3: out of some aspects of work and actually help them
Speaker 3: to be able to focus on the things that are
Speaker 3: going to add the most value. So I think it's
Speaker 3: to be honest, it can be a win win win,
Speaker 3: but it's going to take a little bit of time.
Speaker 3: Let's talk a little bit more about what's going on today.
Speaker 3: You just had earnings about a month ago. Here they
Speaker 3: please a lot of investors.
Speaker 1: The turnaround that you've been orchestrating there seems they've really
Speaker 1: taken hold. There's a lot of focus right now on
Speaker 1: organic growth or investors are focusing on organic growth. How
Speaker 1: much do you see that organic growth rate, the one
Speaker 1: that you just posted in the most recent quarter continuing
Speaker 1: through the rest of the year.
Speaker 3: Well, our team has been laser focused over the past
Speaker 3: eighteen months on helping our firm really be more for
Speaker 3: our clients, and that's the very heart for us of
Speaker 3: organic growth. We have this incredible franchise around the world.
Speaker 3: We serve so many clients all around the world in
Speaker 3: all parts of the financial system, and yet we do
Speaker 3: relatively few things with many of them. So the opportunity
Speaker 3: to do more of the things that we do, bring
Speaker 3: more of our platforms to our clients is a very
Speaker 3: significant opportunity. We have a terrific franchise and so it's
Speaker 3: really about approaching it through that lens that creates organic growth.
Speaker 3: We are excited about the fact that we have really
Speaker 3: been generating more organic growth, and obviously we're hopeful that
Speaker 3: we'll be able to.
Speaker 2: Continue to do that. As part of our.
Speaker 1: Journey geographically, where is most of that growth going to
Speaker 1: come from? Is it going to be here in the US,
Speaker 1: North America or Europe, Asian Middle East?
Speaker 3: Where it's truly around the world. We serve clients all
Speaker 3: across the globe now. I do think there's a lot
Speaker 3: of opportunity in the US right now, given everything that's going.
Speaker 2: On in the economy here.
Speaker 3: But we're also in the import export business of financial services,
Speaker 3: So we help our international clients access the United States markets,
Speaker 3: and we help our US clients be able to go
Speaker 3: out and access markets all around the world, whether it
Speaker 3: be people who want to bring capital in or who
Speaker 3: want to be able to go take capital into other
Speaker 3: parts of the world. We have that knowledge, that expertise
Speaker 3: and the local on the ground experience to be able
Speaker 3: to help clients.
Speaker 1: Are you seeing more demand for that, not only just
Speaker 1: from existing clients, but from potentially new clients as well well.
Speaker 3: There's certainly demand in the United States for capital because
Speaker 3: the US economy has really surprised many people, I think
Speaker 3: with how well it's been.
Speaker 2: Doing, and there's.
Speaker 3: Just a lot of interest in participating in this market.
Speaker 3: And then outside of the US, the world's a pretty
Speaker 3: complicated space right now. We have wars in different regions,
Speaker 3: we have complexities on the geopolitics side, and so clients
Speaker 3: want that expert navigation advice on how to actually go
Speaker 3: about doing their businesses in the most efficient ways.
Speaker 1: When you look at some of the disruptions going on
Speaker 1: out there geopolitically, the wars, disruptions and shipping routes, everything
Speaker 1: else going on, do you see those as sort of
Speaker 1: passing things, meaning something that could be resolved within the
Speaker 1: next couple of years and then we go back to
Speaker 1: whatever the normal is or is this something we're just
Speaker 1: going to have to live with and adjust to for
Speaker 1: years to come.
Speaker 3: Well, here's where I'm going to go back to being
Speaker 3: two hundred and forty years old as a company. I
Speaker 3: obviously can't look back myself over that whole period of time,
Speaker 3: But the world is a complicated place, and we have
Speaker 3: had many episodes in history where there have been different things.
Speaker 3: Tensions that go on can be in politics, it can
Speaker 3: be in geopolitics, and so I think we should all
Speaker 3: recognize that we have to be prepared for those types
Speaker 3: of situations, and we actually think that being resilient and
Speaker 3: being prepared is just part of how you have to
Speaker 3: operate as a great company.
Speaker 1: These days, with regards to economic conditions, both here in
Speaker 1: the US and abroad, there's been a lot of talk
Speaker 1: about where the economic cycle is and whether it's going
Speaker 1: to be favorable to banks. When you look at the
Speaker 1: economic conditions, you look at the interest rate backdrop, are
Speaker 1: you comfortable.
Speaker 3: Well, another way that you get to be old is
Speaker 3: never by being comfortable, by always challenging yourself. Got to
Speaker 3: be a little bit skeptical about the world in order
Speaker 3: to make sure that we're looking around the corners seeing
Speaker 3: the risks. This was a lesson that some firms learned
Speaker 3: the hard way last year when they weren't prepared. So
Speaker 3: we view being cautious, thoughtful, and prepared as an essential
Speaker 3: part of operating.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Having said all of that, I do think that the
Speaker 3: US economy has surprised to the upside over the course
Speaker 3: of the past year or so. We've seen that with
Speaker 3: inflation being stickier. It's kind of a nice problem to
Speaker 3: have because it's really been the manifestation of the fact
Speaker 3: that we're benefiting from a whole bunch of different things
Speaker 3: in the US right now. We have interest from abroad
Speaker 3: in terms of investing in the United States. We have
Speaker 3: a relative abundance of raw materials, not everything, but a lot.
Speaker 3: We have energy independence, that's a big deal. We certainly
Speaker 3: saw the examples of that of not having that in
Speaker 3: Europe over the course of the past couple of years.
Speaker 2: We have availability of labor.
Speaker 3: Those things are contributing to a very significant upside in
Speaker 3: the US economy. We've had a little bit of industrial policy.
Speaker 3: We've got the innovation that we just talked about for AI.
Speaker 3: These things collectively are really creating a pretty powerful economic engine. Now,
Speaker 3: not everybody has been participating in it, but for the
Speaker 3: sixty percent of Americans who participate in the stock market,
Speaker 3: there's been a psychological boost there when they see those
Speaker 3: new highs, and that contributes to spending, and there's a
Speaker 3: circular process here which feeds back to inflation.
Speaker 1: And that is the CEO of B and Y Melon
Speaker 1: Robin Vince, celebrating a two hundred and fortieth anniversary of
Speaker 1: that financial institution