Breastfeeding is a sensitive topic for any mother, and family, with a little one. For those who do decide to pump breastmilk, particularly at work, many stories hone in on how difficult a process it can be yet there are happy pumping stories out there. 

Starting with a definition. Pumping or expressing milk means removing milk from one’s breast other than when the baby is directly feeding and can be done by hand or by an electric machine. Typically, pumping must be done at the same time that a baby would normally feed to maintain production at a level that the baby needs. For a five-month-old baby, this could mean pumping during the day at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm, generating up to 250ml or more of milk each session. It is estimated by some that 1,800 hours are spent breastfeeding or pumping in a baby’s first year – in comparison, a typical full-time job is 1,960 hours worked per year. So, enabling pumping is an opportunity for workplaces to #AccelerateAction to enable breastfeeding and pumping at work and in life.

We can learn a lot from those working mothers or fathers who have experienced this pumping journey firsthand. We can also normalise the topic by talking about it. 

So joining Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, is Priyamvada Singh, general manager, global head of supply chain finance and co-head of global trade finance, at SMBC Americas, sharing her inspiring stories. 

Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle (MBH): Priyamvada, we met last year over a business lunch, and we had an immediate camaraderie when I discreetly explained I had to slip out to pump. For me, it was immediately reassuring to hear you had ‘been there, done that’ and to hear your acknowledgement of the challenges. What is your family story, and how did you decide to pump?  

Priyamvada Singh (PS): I was employed full-time at a previous employer when I had both my children. I went on parental leave rather abruptly in both situations as both my children were born premature (“preemies”) – at 31 weeks and at 26 weeks gestation. Both spent several weeks in the NICU before coming home. I felt the best I could do for these tiny babies was to give them breast milk to thrive. I always knew I wanted to breastfeed my children but hadn’t considered pumping (oh, how naïve I was!). Of course, when I had my first child as a preemie, actually being able to breastfeed was impossible – I had to learn to pump. I realised quickly that breastfeeding your kids or feeding them breast milk can be two very different journeys! 

With my first child born prematurely, I had to make the decision to pump or use formula. So when the NICU offered me the option of using donated breast milk until I could manage with my own, I immediately agreed, and said a silent prayer of thanks to those mothers who donated the precious ‘milk of life’! I felt relieved and fortunate that I was able to have this option as it isn’t available everywhere. I learned later that a lot of donated breast milk comes from bereaved mothers, and even as I write this, I feel a chill down my back just thinking of what those mothers lived through. 

My younger child was born in March 2020, one week before the world shut down with the pandemic. A micro-preemie at 26 weeks and a high-risk infant, even without the fear of a looming fatal virus. For several weeks, I ferried breast milk back and forth to the NICU every day – she wouldn’t be able to breastfeed until three months later. Every day, I would watch how much milk she digested (through gavage) and the weight chart, as I had to be in full sterile gear and gloves even to hold my child.

MBH: Priyamvada, that is such a moving story, and it shows how much a mother and family can possibly experience in the birth and pumping journey – far beyond imagination when we met at our business lunch. I understand you also had to pump while being at work. What made pumping facilities easier for you? I felt lucky as in my own pumping journey, my boss let me use his MD room to pump so I could be quick on the turnaround. I didn’t have to extend my work day with the “commute” to the pumping facilities. 

PS: My previous employer’s office had a mothers’ room in the building, but it was on a different floor. So o while I was able to use that room for pumping, I did use the beverage refrigerator in my boss’ office to store it during the day. Before the pandemic, when it was almost always expected that you attend meetings in person, I have to say it made life easier by having colleagues who were understanding enough to not schedule meetings around the regular times I had blocked for pumping during office hours.  

MBH: It’s inspiring to know how much our bosses, families, and colleagues can influence and improve our pumping journeys. My husband was crucial to my pumping journey – he always took ownership of cleaning all the pumping equipment and freezing all the milk. Another topic – business trips are part of our work lives. Often there may not be any pumping facilities in places like airports or conference centers. I recently found a special pumping pod at Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto, Canada, and was overjoyed. Did you find business trips a challenge?   

PS: Absolutely. It was really tough to find a private mothers’ room at some airports – even airport staff sometimes hadn’t even heard of such a thing! Hotel conference centres were the same – often the best you could do was the bathroom. At one all-day work conference in Hong Kong, I only had the lunch hour to pump, and the hotel staff was kind enough to let me use a back storage room of the Chinese restaurant in the building where I could pump sitting on a small folding chair and balancing the pump on top of carton boxes. 

Mamava‘s lactation pods are an example of a positive innovation in this space. They are nursing pods at select airports that you could reserve at specific times for pumping when passing through the airport. It’s such a great facility to have – except at times when it isn’t near your boarding gate or even in the same terminal, I had to make sure I had enough time to get there and back in time for my connecting flight (with some near misses)! Other times, I pumped in the tiny aeroplane toilets on long-haul flights to Asia and had to let the flight attendants know I would be in there for a while so there wasn’t any annoyed knocking on the door.     

MBH: Again, it shows how awareness of pumping is already a major step forward to #AccelerateAction. Were there any particularly useful tools to aid your pumping journey? I particularly found my Yeti backpack useful for longer business trips, as it could store frozen milk for an overnight flight just using the ice from a hotel ice machine (and easier to carry as a backpack).

PS: From every insulated lunch bag and cold gel pack (since ice packs won’t go through airport security) to the amazing resources from Milk Stork – I used their service to ship one week’s worth of frozen breast milk back from Asia to the US – there are many tools which became my lifesavers! I chose not to ‘pump and dump’ after my experience in the NICU, so I saved all of my breastmilk and used the Milk Stork provided container to pack and check in my precious ‘cargo’ (as a checked bag) back to the US. It arrived perfectly.

MBH: Per year, breastfeeding occupies nearly the same amount of time as a full-time job… which is quite interesting to compare, especially if trying to do both. It shows all the support possible is not just great, but necessary. Do you have any thoughts about this angle?

PS: In my view – working mums and families, whether or not you choose to breastfeed, we all work two full-time jobs without hesitation and without breaks. Breastfeeding or pumping is just another part of the job alongside a salaried job. 

MBH: Raising children is definitely challenging and beautiful. Swiss Re Corporate Solutions recognised this and now has an on-site daycare in Zurich where mothers can decide to breastfeed their children during the day if they would like. This adds another flexibility to the pumping journey. Would you have considered something like that? Is there anything your work is doing that you would like to share? 

PS: The World Bank and IFC offices in Washington DC, where I worked, do offer on-site daycare where one could have that option, and that is indeed wonderful. I would absolutely use such a facility not only for the convenience but also the most economical option. Daycare and/or full-time nannies aren’t always easily affordable options for many families.

MBH: Data also shows that [American] mothers who breastfeed for six months or more experience longer and more severe income loss than mothers who formula feed (data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth). Do you feel more awareness and support could help this issue? 

PS: I feel that any support for families from affordable daycare options or lowering the cost of formula and pumping would go a long way to help new mothers get back to regular jobs as the choice to return to work is all too often dependent on childcare options, let alone being able to feed breastmilk. Another example is allowances for child daycare that are tax exempt under IRS rules is only a fraction of what it actually costs. One parent, often the mother, sometimes leaves the workforce because it’s cheaper to stay at home and look after the children than to return to work and have to spend it all on childcare. 

MBH: Do you have any funny pumping stories? I will always remember when my sister told me she was on a consulting gig in Asia and people were so considerate to plan in advance nice pumping facilities for her. At that time, pumping was not discussed so much or really understood by many workplaces. They gave her one of the nicest rooms in the office… there was just a little hiccup that all the windows were made of transparent glass. Another fun story was from when she had her Yeti bag in airports. These are also very popular bags with groups for hunting and beach trips… so people would often ask, “Hey, what kind of beer are you carrying there?” and my sister would reply, “Milk of life”. I find it nice to share these stories as they generate the discussion in a more accessible way to make sure this topic is on the table and encourage others to speak up.  

PS: Yes, it’s great to share these stories. Storing breast milk in hotel kitchen freezers wherever I travelled longer than three days brought on most of my funny stories. It was always the oddest conversation with the front desk staff to tell them what I wanted to do and then at check-out to ask them to fetch it for me. I was always prepared with labels and secure bags before I handed it over to be stored securely so no one in the kitchen would take it out or, worse, throw it away by mistake! 

More are just stories of kindness. At another conference event where I could find no place to pump, our keynote speaker gave me her room key to use for pumping! So many times, all-day client events would lead to dinner afterwards, when I was bursting and in pain. My boss or an understanding colleague made excuses for me so I could beg off the dinner without announcing I had to pump. I have to mention the airport TSA staff, all women, who were so kind and discreet, when I scanned bags of breast milk stored in ice packs in my hand luggage through security, telling me encouragingly to take care of the ‘liquid gold’! Our band of “women who pump”, we understand each other.

MBH: I like the idea of expanding this to “families who pump” and “workplaces who pump”, as we are all in the journey together. To finish up, are there any tips and tricks that you might want to share with families considering balancing back to work and continuing to breastfeed? 

PS: Feel comfortable talking about pumping to use the resources available. Most hospitals have several resources including lactation support help and counsellors. This was a whole experience I was unprepared for – and whoever I reached out to, someone was always there to help. Lastly, because my first child was lucky enough in the first couple of days after birth to have some amazing mothers who donated breast milk, whom I will never know, but to whom I will always be eternally grateful – if anyone feels so inclined, please donate breast milk. I did so, after my second child, to the New York Milk Bank (NYMB), hoping another mother would benefit just as I did from that simple act of kindness. 

MBH: It is so inspiring to discuss this with you. I am hopeful that even articles like this can #AccelerateAction by spreading awareness and encouraging workplaces to evaluate how they can enable happy pumping stories.

The post Pump up the Jam: Stories about pumping for #IWD2025  appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

Preparing for the future is critical in the rapidly changing insurance and reinsurance industry.

That’s why the industry needs to prioritise allocating its limited resources to ensure that there is a pool of talent in place to contribute – otherwise, the industry’s very future will be jeopardised. The need for a concerted approach to talent recruitment, mentoring, and development in the insurance and reinsurance industries must be met.

To discuss this further, Deepesh Patel, Editorial Director at Trade Finance Global (TFG), sat down with Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle, Global Head of Trade Finance, Trade Credit & Working Capital Solutions at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, at the 50th annual conference of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) held in Limassol, Cyprus.

Adapting recruiting practices to attract top talent into trade finance

The industry is always on the lookout to attract and develop top talent. Empowering teams to achieve the organisation’s purpose often inspires top talent. At Swiss Re, for instance, we find our teams connect in particular with the purpose of contributing to global resilience. For our trade finance team, that means partnering specifically on the risks that support global trade. This can mean better access to trade financing, across emerging and developed markets. Connecting this purpose to the topic of empowerment is where we see our teams thrive. The intention is to build and maintain a fail-safe environment that enables team members to develop in their various roles and across their career paths. 

Blattner-Hoyle said, “We see the dividends of investing in our team’s development and empowerment. This can be evidenced in how well the team develops solutions with clients and brokers who sit at our core. With these client and broker partners, we also ensure that trade finance gets to the market segments, purposes like ESG, and/or countries that need it while, of course, growing a profitable business.”

Despite a number of highly skilled and visible leaders, the trade finance industry is preparing for an upcoming retirement gap. This makes it crucial for organisations to ensure capability and experience amongst incoming talent, also reflecting the client base and changing world we work in.  

We are focusing on transferring existing skillsets as well as building capabilities needed for the future such as in respect of topics like data-driven underwriting, AI, and evolving product structures.  Unbiased systems can be used to achieve this, helping companies figure out optimal approaches to development, promotions, and recruitment as well as creating an environment that creates a complementary team. Recruitment and staff development objectives can be reflected in modes of questioning and interview style to ensure that personal biases do not affect the talent screening and selection process.

Blattner-Hoyle said “I’m proud of the diversity of the trade finance team at Swiss Re which we built by promoting from within and also hiring complementary skillsets and backgrounds. Team make-up is a big factor in the successful build-out of the business, how we serve our clients and brokers, now and as the landscape evolves”

Mentoring and developing talent

Mentorship and sponsorship are critical in this regard. Blattner-Hoyle said, “At any moment, I try to mentor, say, maybe five people in the industry. Often the first thing I ask them is, what inspires you to be in this industry? What do you want to do? I try empower around that.

“Often, that’s where purpose comes in. These coaching conversations also inspire me on how we can shift our “traditional” ways to retain and attract such talent.”

Companies should emphasise building resilience among team members in the mentoring and development process. Setbacks in the workplace are inevitable, so it’s useful to help the team prepare to handle failure at work and feedback that may sometimes come from clients, peers, managers etc. In this vein, ensuring team members have a manageable work-life balance contributes significantly to wellbeing and mental health. AI may help with this topic too.      

Building resilience in people and fail-safe environments

The first step is listening and understanding our team members. Additionally, we find that making them feel almost akin to a business owner creates a good base for this environment. This would usually propel them to approach their tasks without the fear of failure, knowing that they are valued and trusted. 

Team members need to know early in their careers that they do not need to have answers to every challenge they are confronted with at work, but would rather be valued for their contributions to thought processes, proposing constructive ideas or technological inputs around enhancing existing products or creating new ones. Often a first failure leads to the best outcome in the next move. 

Blattner-Hoyle said, “It’s about making people feel welcome to speak up, to give their ideas, right from the beginning. It’s also building a feedback culture and making it okay to give and receive feedback all the time.” Regular one-to-one monthly sessions, for instance, are a means to establishing this.     

The potential of AI in credit insurance

Experimenting with AI could enhance productivity in this field. Within the Swiss Re trade finance team, for instance, solutions like Microsoft Copilot, an AI chatbot, have been deployed. Microsoft Copilot helps record minutes of meetings and produces quality transcripts. It can also respond to queries based on meetings recorded by it, saving team-hours.

Blattner-Hoyle said, “We are also looking into how can we augment credit analysis using AI, which is important to us. As you know, a big piece of our business is evaluating credit risk”. 

There is a lot of expectation about the benefits that can be derived from using AI in the credit processing space. These are early days, however; early adopters of this technology are learning how best to harness it to their advantage.     

There is a place for the union between the benefits offered by AI and the unique contributions that people bring to the table. AI can, for example, be configured to produce speech, but our experiences so far show that it may lack the “human touch.” 

Despite the huge productivity gains AI can offer, the contributions of a human brain will never lose value. Training teams and minds around the benefits of AI and the biases that it brings is key to maximising its benefits. 

Swiss Re has trialled AI for a variety of tasks to learn as much as possible about the biases that could come with its use. For example, they use an AI-driven solution to turn thousands of news articles into targeted and actionable early warning signals across our portfolio via updated credit scores. This type of news data allows the underwriters to compare what AI produces compared to what they would have found using their usual tools. The intention is to ensure that observed biases are known and eliminated where possible or factored into a task when combined with human input to avoid being taken down the wrong path. This is journey. 

Why consider entering the trade finance industry?

Trade finance is tangible because trade finance solutions help real people, real companies, real services, and real economies. By providing solutions that facilitate the completion of trade finance transactions, organisations not only contribute to making the world more resilient but also create jobs and reduce poverty. 

Blattner-Hoyle summarised, “This amazing purpose drives the passion with which Swiss Re’s closely knitted group provides deals and solutions to its clients and brokers every day, and we have so much fun doing it. Great deals and great purpose – everyone should come to trade finance.”

The post VIDEO | A delicate balance between human oversight and automation appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

The trade finance industry is at a unique juncture. Growth is driven by advancements in data, artificial intelligence (AI), and global client engagement – at an exciting pace.

At the same time, it’s easy to be left behind as the tide moves. To discuss this further, Deepesh Patel, Editorial Director at Trade Finance Global, spoke to Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle, Global Head of Trade Finance, Trade Credit & Working Capital Solutions at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, at ITFA’s 50th annual conference in Cyprus.

Blattner-Hoyle shared that Swiss Re’s “purpose” is to “make the world more resilient.” A large part of this mission begins with initiation.

“When I would welcome and invite new members into our team,” Blattner-Hoyle said, “I would always recommend that they aim to embrace the purpose, share their feelings and their thoughts from day one, and really be client-focused.”

Watch the full interview to find out more. 

The post VOXPOP | Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle on keeping pace with trade finance developments  appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

It’s International Women’s Day 2024. The “#InspireInclusion” theme reminds us that “when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment”. 

This got me thinking – what inspires me to be included?

While I was in the final stages of my second pregnancy, one of my team members asked “How do you keep up the energy?” as if there was some magic to my resilience as my belly grew with my little boy. 

I said, “Well…I go to bed really early. And I exercise 15 minutes a day”. 

But there is more to that story. None of us can tackle everything alone, we need a support system. By having a support system, we can make ourselves, and everyone else around us better as well.

Meet Coach Joanie. She is my magic trick to inclusion.

Marilyn: Welcome Coach Joanie, girl-boss owner of specialist online exercise company ‘Transformation Nation’. So Coach Joanie, how do you describe your job? 

Coach Joanie: I am an expert pre- and postnatal coach. Many people assume when they become pregnant or parents they have to sacrifice their body health and lifestyle freedom for the baby. I like to say backpain is not ‘part of the journey’. 

My lifelong mission is to guide clients to move their bodies to help with their parenthood journeys. We work together to reduce the impact of back pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, loss of bladder control, pelvic girdle pain, sciatica, diastasis recti, strength loss and more. 

Marilyn: Coach Joanie, you inspire me to stay included in the workforce with energy. Did you realise that your work impacts inclusion in the workforce as well?   

Coach Joanie: Well desk job-related pain and workplace stress can often lead us to feel less included. A nice example of this is inverse breathing, which is common in office workers and can be a real energy drainer. 

You will remember Marilyn, that both you and your husband were inverse breathing when I met you. By breathing in a more empowering way, we energise and get the body working well. This allows women and men to stay empowered even while at their desks. 

Marilyn: Coach Joanie, can you take us through a typical coaching experience on inverse breathing? 

Coach Joanie: Readers, take a moment to breathe without thinking too much about it. Consider where the breath is landing in your body. Then consider what is happening with your belly when you breathe in and breathe out…

First, we like to see the breath moving the belly. Your breath especially when at a desk, may be up higher like in your chest. So we work on that in my coaching sessions. 

Then, on the inhale, we like to feel the belly release and rise so that the breathe goes low into the belly and the core muscles relax. 

On the exhale, we then like to see the belly closing down into the core. 

If your breath pattern is the opposite of this, it is called inverse breathing. Try switching to the above, and see how you feel. It can be really tough to switch at first.  

Marilyn: This was game-changing for me.  

Coach Joanie: Once we have the correct breathing technique, exercise can be quick yet effective, and usually daily tasks themselves become an exercise, like picking up a baby. Or a box of documents. Or just sitting at a desk. 

Marilyn: Is this only for women? And only for parenthood? 

Coach Joanie: Most of my clients are women, but men often need this support too. If you have back pain without a notable injury, it may be your breathing, combined with the novelty of movements with kids or sitting for long periods at a desk. Really anyone can benefit. These tricks are meant to inspire inclusion for everyone.

Marilyn: I had a session on effective public speaking not long after one of our first sessions. It was interesting, as again, the prep for generating the calm and gravitas for public speaking was belly breathing. 

Marilyn: Since your coaching can be so empowering for workplace inclusion, do any companies so far offer these types of coaching opportunities as part of their diversity and inclusion programs? 

Coach Joanie: Yes some companies do, but it could be more common. Companies should consider it as a cost-effective way to inspire parents and non-parents to stay energised and healthy in their life and work journeys. 

Marilyn: Do you have any last recommendations for inspiring inclusion? 

Coach Joanie: You can have a healthy active lifestyle through pregnancy and parenthood. And while working at a desk. You don’t have to assume back pain is inevitable or that you will have to stop exercising during pregnancy. 

Breathing right and exercising just for 15 minutes every day makes me feel ready for action at work and beyond.

Coach Joanie is my magic trick to inclusion. What is yours? 

The post International Women’s Day 2024: Breathing inclusion  appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

Andreas Hillebrand is Global Head of Credit & Surety at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, an experienced people manager and an active girl dad. 

William Trump is Head Customer Office for iptiQ at Swiss Re, the Global Lead for Swiss Re’s gender-equity network Level Up, a behavioural scientist and dad. 

Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle is Global Head of Trade Finance at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, EMEA lead for Swiss Re’s gender-equity network Level Up, a leader of diverse teams and a mum. 

To mark International Women’s Day, Marilyn sat down with William and Andreas to get their perspective on gender equality and Swiss Re’s initiatives in this area. Open conversations and transparent perspectives from everyone are needed to drive an inclusive culture, manage bias, and bring people on the #EmbraceEquity journey – which is exactly what we wanted to achieve with this conversation.

Marilyn: International Women’s Day is on 8 March and this year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity. What does that mean to you?

Andreas: Embracing equity starts with creating a non-discriminatory culture, addressing unconscious bias and baking in diversity. Inclusion programmes are crucial to building understanding. In terms of lessons learned, a lack of diversity in teams is a big business risk that can lead to questionable decisions and potential blind spots.

A practical example of this blind spot risk comes from one of my previous roles when I was based in Asia. We were about to announce a major restructuring as we integrated with another company. I was concerned about potential blind spots in our decision-making team (mostly foreign men, including myself). We risked unawareness of cultural norms, and I worried that our cultural communication barriers might lead to a lack of understanding of how the teams felt and how they might influence the restructuring process.

To address this, we appointed a local, female change agent, who helped us to remove these blind spots and challenge our assumptions. We further diversified by appointing a woman with a very different cultural background and experience to the decision-making team. Their contributions have been consistent – they brought new perspectives and have strongly supported the cultural integration of the two companies.

Marilyn: Will, as a data-driven behavioural scientist, how do you reconcile the deep desire of organisations to close the gender gap and achieve an equitable workforce with the reality of the data on gender imbalance? 

Will: It’s good to be ambitious, but we also know a lot more now about how bias and stereotypes work – and how to tackle them – and that is an opportunity we need to seize. All we know about bias is that it’s deeply ingrained and often unconscious, so it can’t be fully addressed through training or education alone. We need to put effort into removing the bias from people – but also put more effort into removing the bias from systems.

Marilyn: Removing the bias; what does that mean with respect to Swiss Re?

Will: Let’s look at recruitment as an example. Following the evidence on what initiatives work – we’ve redesigned the recruitment process itself to make it less biased – specifically assessing all candidates against a set of competencies, using the same interview questions for each of those competencies and ensuring diverse interview panels. We implemented this at Swiss Re UK in mid-2022, and the data already shows that it’s had a positive impact on rebalancing the gender split in recruitment.

Marilyn: Andreas, from your experience as a senior leader do you believe targets for managers are part of the equity puzzle?

Andreas: In my view, tracked targets are necessary because unmeasured targets are also unmanaged targets. Once you reach a tipping point where diversity is self-sustaining, this will be less critical, but until then, clear ambitions can help reaching this balance. It’s only one part of the puzzle to drive equity, though. For example, at Swiss Re we’re also paying close attention to building a strong female talent pipeline, we’re committed to ensuring equal pay for equal work, we rely on strong mentoring programs which aim supporting our ambition to attract and retain female talents and our flexible working practices benefit all employees. This all helps to really embrace equity.

Marilyn: Andreas, how do you ensure everyone in your team is on board to drive this change – and how do you avoid unintended consequences?   

Andreas: To fully embrace equity we need to keep working on our culture and mindset. We can only be successful on this journey if we include everyone and if we encourage open and transparent discussions. It is natural to avoid change, so I also experience resistance. You have to allow people and teams to go through a cycle of change and manage it. You can do that by showing confidence in the recruitment and decision-making processes and providing avenues to raise concerns if someone feels something is not right. If I hear a comment suggesting that someone was “hired because of targets”, I have to immediately dispel the myth, and explain that we hire and promote the best person for the job.

Marilyn: You’ve mentioned the needed efforts of everyone; what can leaders do concretely to support colleagues in the workplace? 

Andreas: I am a father of three girls myself and have the greatest respect for the herculean effort required to raise kids while trying to advance a career, especially for female colleagues. There are many simple things that can be done that will make a huge difference.  

Some examples are:

• Offering flexibility in how and when business trips and even meetings are arranged 
• As a leader, enabling and facilitating open and transparent discussions in the team: e.g. how can we best support new parents as colleagues and as a team?
• Advertising all vacancies at 80-100%, as we do in the UK and Switzerland, for example.
• In Zurich, we built the Kids House, where Swiss Re colleagues can regularly bring their children up to the age of 18 months. Older children can be left in care in case of emergencies
• Making sure there are flexible facilities available to enable breastfeeding and pumping in a work environment 
• Fully embracing “own the way you work”, which allows flexibility and enables parents to better balance children and career.

Marilyn: Andreas, your daughters are about to start their careers. What advice would you give them on navigating their professional lives in the context of gender bias and diversity?  

Andreas: I encourage them to surround themselves with a diverse community, to fight for what they want, raise their hand, and take every opportunity for leadership roles they can, because they need to know that they can be a part of the change they want to see. Their future is in an inclusive workplace, but they still need to make sure they have a seat at the table. I am reminded of the quote by Shirley Chisholm, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” 

The post Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle: A conversation about how we can #EmbraceEquity appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

As a business leader, my focus is always on our greatest asset: our people. Retaining and supporting personnel is an area that demands immediate innovation.                                     

Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has stifled gender equality and has turned our work lives – for both women and men – upside down.  

There has been a lot of talk of “going back” to work, but now is a time for moving forward, so let’s seize the opportunity to innovate, and finally address the working parent conundrum.

This year, I write not in my capacity as a female business leader, but in my personal capacity as a new working co-parent.

The pandemic has blended our domestic selves with our professional lives, and in that spirit, I share with you my recipe – and I invite you to share yours – for breaking the bias.                      

Step 1: A spoonful of mobility 

Remove the barriers to workplace mobility. Moving jobs (internally or externally) is often critical to a person’s growth in the context of both the corporate ladder and the paycheck. 

Women can be trapped in a job for potentially a decade or more of their corporate lives during their child-bearing years.

This can be attributed to probation periods; eligibility requirements for maternity leave; clawback policies for maternity pay; lack of time with the demands of a current job, coupled with life demands; or, perhaps most tragically, when management assume that a mother may not want a promotion or some other opportunity due to family commitments.

I am therefore concerned that when women don’t move jobs due to these barriers, this will have an outsized impact on companies’ needs for talent – and, of course, on the gender gap.

We must remove these barriers, provide that development, and see women move up and progress.  

The same goes for partners: support reasonable mobility moves that enable a mobility success for someone else.

That might mean transferring a husband from London to Zurich so his wife can take an awesome job, and his commitment to his company will soar. Win, win. 

Step 2: A pint of transparency 

The currency of mobility is greatly enhanced by transparency – and that transparency should be encouraged.

So share, share, and share some more – in interviews, in meetings, on your homepage, your LinkedIn, everywhere, for people to see. Compete with your competitors on these actions.

• How are you making sure there is no bias in your hiring practices? This can go further than “we are an equal-opportunity employer” – instead walk the talk.
  
  Put more women on interview panels. Understand the implications of imposter syndrome. Write job postings in a gender-neutral framework. Don’t ask for current salaries in job application processes.
  
  
• How are you rewarding senior leaders for diversity goal success? What are the actions being taken? Do you celebrate successes? Share them. Openly.
  
  
• How is your company really supporting diversity success? With tangible actions aligned to the actual needs of women? Do you talk to women about what they need and feel, other than in exit interviews?
   
  Are women bearing the mental load at home and at work? Empower employees to appropriately engage administrative staff for administrative work. Engage employees to align change to needs.
  
  Little adjustments we may have never even thought of can make a big impact. Why not ask: what is one little thing we could do to make your day-to-day way better?
  
  
• How do you support women breastfeeding at work? Do you have purpose-built rooms that make the activity feel more working-spa, and less working-cow? I’ll never forget a family member being offered a beautiful glass room for pumping.
  
  
• How soon do you offer maternity and paternity leave benefits to a new employee? Do you provide monetary benefit for early returners to offset childcare costs?
  
  From experience, it is completely impossible to work immediately after childbirth, and the idea of not paying the salary of an employee who has a baby seems impossible. Thoughtful support for mothers who do return early makes all the difference.
  
  So offer options! Win with a flexible policy that aligns with the physical and mental reality of each person. Don’t cut off computer access unless desired by the mother. Get maternity covers. Offer compensation to those who elect to come back early.
  
  And don’t forget about employees while they are away – see if they are interested in that promotion too, perhaps? And if it’s the wrong time, there may be a right time later.
   
• Do you provide expecting parents with access to coaching, both physical and mental, to prepare for the balancing act to follow? That would be très cool. It was a game-changer for me. What about time off for the first trimester?
  
  What about supporting parents to take time off at same time – primary parents together? And consider how to help in the workplace for those mothers and fathers who have to live through baby loss.
    
• How do your mothers go on business trips? Do you have a company daycare? That may be too good to be true at present, but it is certain that one day companies will compete on just this.
  
  But for now, at least, thinking about monetary support for daycare and enabling business trips is a step forward. 

And by the way, let’s not make policies a dark art of forcing impossible acrobatics (or Excel formulas) to see if you fall within them. Make your support and actions clear and simple. 

Which leads to the next critical requirement for making this recipe perfect – flexibility!

Step 3: A gallon of flexibility 

Be agreeable to things that can be done some other time or some other place. 

Being flexible will be one of the biggest enablers of keeping women and their partners that care for children, or elderly parents, in the workforce. 

These dependents require specific things at specific times: daycare pick-ups, doctors visits, dinner, bedtime, etc. 

Many emails can be written at another time and place, so let them be flexible. That doesn’t mean we have to give up critical in-office interactions, but those interactions don’t have to be every day or every hour. 

And remember, a dad or a partner being able to work from home might mean that a mother is able to work from the office or from home herself. 

We must make it sustainable for women and men with children to stay in the workforce without failing at both jobs. 

Show flexibility and see women stay. And for those women who have chosen to reduce or exit: allow them to rejoin happily.

Step 4: A cup of good old economics                              

That leads us to economics and finance.  

Many household income statements just don’t make sense once a child enters the scene. 

Revenue: $4,000 a month (salary). Expenses: $5,000 (childcare). You would be unlikely to give a loan to that company, right? 

Yet we ask parents to suffer these costs without much thought, and they do! Many parents are willing to work for surprisingly little take home pay – for the love of their work and their ambition. Others, unsurprisingly, leave the workforce because they are effectively paying to work.                              

So yes, solving the gender gap will require enabling financially sound decisions, not just with salaries but with expenses too.

So put your money where your mouth is to develop and hire the right people for the right roles at the right salaries. Make protected budgets for diversity-enabling expenses. Make all these a clear line item that won’t get cut. 

Step 5: Discard the shame 

Shame is never a good part of any recipe. Life events and life decisions inadvertently create complex workplace situations, resulting in short- or long-term shame. 

But the shame may be there – knowingly or otherwise – for many employees and for many reasons. 

Creating a culture of shamelessness is all about breaking our biases and embracing our recipes. 

Like any good family recipe, our #BreakTheBias recipes will get improved upon each time one of us “cooks”, so it will take our global village taste-testing.

And then we can celebrate what we all hope to celebrate:

• Let’s celebrate closing the gender gap
  
• Let’s celebrate breaking the bias once and for all

The post Share your #BreakTheBias recipe, as Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle dishes up hers on International Women’s Day 2022 appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

This year’s call to action for International Women’s Day is all about this. The power of becoming alert. By slowly changing who we see in the media, the toys our children play with, and other small aspects of everyday lives, we are challenging the status quo. Little by little we are breaking down those unconscious biases that start with our children drawing girls as nurses and boys as astronauts. So, in business, let’s make 2021 the year we choose to challenge, every day, in every meeting, on every transaction, and with every hire.

First, let me take you back. Growing up when astronaut was not the “go-to” choice for girls, I wanted to be a business woman – I first honed my skills on lemonade stands, where the concept of the gender gap was far from my field of vision. Our lemonade stand had a 100 percent female board: two female entrepreneurs (my twin and I), and two employees, a female and a male (our parents), who had to pay for and source the raw materials. We may not have had many other high-flying female role models, but our scientist parents ensured that no occupation for the future was out of scope. 

My youth was spent competing on the football field, before the Women’s World Cup was drawing mass following, but my teenage career plan was to become a business professional. When deciding on my university major, while my business school friends flocked to investment banking, I chose Management and Human Resources – after all, wasn’t the role of a CEO to inspire a team? 

In time, I realised of course there is much more to becoming a high-flyer. The gender gap does exist, and most CEOs do not focus their education or careers in the field of human resources. But it got me thinking about the challenge we all face today with forging a gender equal world. We must choose to challenge ourselves as business leaders to think differently about our people, in addition to the usual business principals where we innovate all the time to stay profitable. Could there be more innovation in our people, our greatest corporate asset and one of our biggest costs? It must be the holy grail to profitability, to increasing shareholder value, to innovate around people while also driving the critical benefits of sustainability and a diverse future. 

In the WTO and World Bank’s 2020 paper Women and Trade, the role of trade in promoting gender equality, we’re told: “On its surface, trade policy is gender-neutral … But a closer look at the gender dimension of trade policies reveals important differences in how trade policies affect women and men…”.  

Take the garment industry, for instance, a huge sector globally, where women are disproportionately represented in both jobs and purchasing, when compared with other manufactured goods. Yet global tariffs on garments are amongst some of the highest in the world, in what has been dubbed a “pink tariff” in the way it directly impacts women consumers and stunts export and employment opportunities. 

Have you ever thought about tariffs or garment order cancellations having gender impacts? And how resilience in supply chains such as in the garment sector could lead to gender wins and losses? With the disruption in the world today, there is a renewed focus on the importance of resilience in supply chains for profitability. We can make this drive for innovation in supply chains and recovery from uncertainty about an innovation in the human space, about the gender equality space. 

The reality is that businesses involved in international trade employ more women. In developing countries, women make up 33 percent of the workforce in firms that engage in trade, compared with just 24 percent in non-exporting firms.

Trade also creates better jobs for women. Workers in both developed and emerging economies are almost 50 percent more likely to be employed in formal jobs if they work in sectors that trade more or that are more integrated into global value chains. 

Countries that are more open to trade have higher levels of gender equality, as measured by the ratio of trade to gross domestic product.

Becoming alert to where and how examples of female empowerment exist, allows us to challenge our companies to build on and replicate those successes.

The importance of role models cannot be understated. Powerhouse, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former World Bank vice-president and finance minister of Nigeria, has just taken over as head of the World Trade Organization, and yes, she also happens to be a woman. We can only hope that 2021 brings with it other such aspirational figures. In this issue, we also celebrate some of the many women forging the way in the industry. We feature some of the female heroes of trade, including leaders and visionaries, as well as the trade professionals and emerging leaders of the future.

The report concludes by saying: “trade alone is not a panacea to close the gender gap. But this report reveals the opportunities that can be seized by making trade more inclusive.” In short: choosing to challenge. The ideas from the trade world of harnessing gender equality wins, being alert to situations where no gender-dimension is perceived, and celebrating our female role models and pipeline, are just small steps to addressing a gender equal world. Choosing to challenge requires all of our innovative might, thinking to the stars and beyond. Those aspiring toddler astronauts are watching.

The post Celebrating Women in Trade 2021 – Why we’re Choosing to Challenge appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

The post Women in Trade 2021 appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

We discussed with AIG some of the challenges and opportunities in the trade credit insurance sector. Enabling the much-needed reduction of the trade finance gap, and bringing in a wider array of investors while mitigating the risks of such expansion in the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty will be a huge challenge in 2020. However, dealing with a broader collection of participants in the trade finance ecosystem in terms of jurisdictions, size of the borrower, types of assets and fintech entrants set us up for interesting times.

In this 2020 interview series, TFG spoke to 20 experts in trade, receivables and supply chain finance.

An Interview with AIG, Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle

Name: Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle

Position: Global Head of Trade Finance 

Organization: AIG

Interviewed by Nikhil Patel (NP), Analyst, Trade Finance Global

2019 – The Year of Growth and Experimentation

Nikhil: In 200 words, what were the key highlights and opportunities of 2019 from an industry perspective in trade, receivables and supply chain finance?

Major geopolitical shifts and instability provided both opportunities and threats in the Trade Credit/ Trade Finance insurance space for insureds and insurers this year. The market continued in 2019 to adjust structures, risk/reward balance and appetite to these changing times. 

2019 was a year of growth and experimentation with the partnership between the traditional trade finance ecosystem with alternative investors. Partnerships are developing.  

Basel III regulation and the many 2019 consultations with regulators on the same represented a clear opportunity for the industry to highlight the proven strong risk-sharing and capital risk mitigation techniques used between banks and insurers enabling global trade. 2019 generated the most coordinated industry efforts to steer such engagement to date, particularly in Europe. This will continue in 2020 and expand globally.

The Importance of Insurance and Risk Mitigation Techniques

NP: What are your top predictions for trade, supply chain and receivables in 2020?

Trade Credit and Trade Finance insurance will become increasingly imperative to support corporates and their banks as well as alternative financiers in their capacity management, economic optimization, adjustment to trade flows and cautious expansion of global trade. The recessionary fears will continue to drive a cautious approach, but trade finance as a traditionally safe asset class will continue to generate strong opportunities.   

Data is king. All parts of the trade finance ecosystem will continue to make investments in improvements in data accuracy and exchange to support much-needed efficiencies and growth, but incremental changes will continue in 2020 rather than big fireworks of tech change. 

Regulators will become increasingly engaged with the importance of insurance and other capital risk mitigation techniques to global trade and will form closer relationships with industry bodies and corporates they regulate in this space

2020 Predictions in Trade and Supply Chain Finance – An AIG Perspective

NP: In 200 words, what are the biggest challenges in trade, receivables and supply chain finance you predict for 2020?

Enabling the much-needed reduction of the trade finance gap, and bringing in a wider array of investors while mitigating the risks of such expansion in the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty will be a huge challenge in 2020. Protecting trade finance’s position as a safe asset class is paramount. However, dealing with a broader collection of participants in the trade finance ecosystem in terms of jurisdictions, size of borrower, types of assets, as well as the continual push for longer terms (that may or may not match the working capital cycle of the trade flow), fraud-potential, different global flows, technology and fintech entrants sets us up for interesting times.

NP: What are the key priorities for AIG in 2020?

Enhancing our client and broker experiences while driving profitable growth and underwriting excellence 

NP: What’s your top prediction for a technology that you think will truly kick off / have the most success in 2020?

Technologies that improve data accuracy, sharing and efficiencies but allow incremental change will be the best bet. I hope such ecosystems will be as open as possible so that further data silos are not created. Sustainability will also be more and more relevant as we look at trade finance structures and innovations

Read our trade finance 2020 predictions here

The post Protecting trade finance as an asset class: An insurer’s outlook for 2020 appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

We spoke to Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle on Blockchain and Trade Finance, taking a look at some of the real world applications of blockchain in trade finance, specifically how AIG are utilising distributed ledger and other technologies to increase transparency, reduce friction and help streamline cash flow and working capital solutions in terms of payment terms and trade finance in the insurance world.

AIG Trade Finance and Blockchain

AIG Trade Finance was established in 2007 to develop and promote an innovative new way to align trade credit insurance more effectively with trade finance products and to deliver real added value solutions for corporates, banks and other funders.

AIG innovates to support funders and corporates by using blockchain and distributed ledger technology as well as other technologies to increase efficiency and scalability of working capital trade solutions, supported by Basel III-compliant limited conditionality AIG trade finance insurance.

AIG has recently further broadened its trade finance capabilities to better partner with banks and other funders on their trade finance/ working capital flow transactions across the trade product spectrum including receivables finance, supply chain/confirmed payables finance and other working capital products.

When consider blockchain and DLT, AIG focusses on client needs and the technology solving the same. For example, the interesting attributes are the ability of the blockchain/ DLT to increase transparency, remove friction and identify provenance of data in an invoice life cycle.

We spoke to their Head of Trade Finance, Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle, about some of the industry trends which are at the edge of innovation in terms of everything DLT.

What are your thoughts on distributed ledger technology (e.g. blockchain) as a disruptor to trade finance?

I believe blockchain or similar technology applications can solve many of the issues that are widespread in the trade finance industry such as paper-driven and documentation heavy transactions, lack of data transparency, numerous different platforms that do not connect. Adoption and scalability is key though and I think that will be driven by proven examples of increasing the speed with which transactions are executed, decreasing errors, and then of course the holy grail would be to do all of these things, and using the data to make it easier and safer to include a wider remit of participants in the trade finance ecosystem including SMEs. However, so far adoption has been slow and limited in its application. It is key that we do not create further data silos via blockchain and think carefully about how all these different pilot ecosystems can connect.

Corporates can streamline their working capital solutions improving payment terms, and funders can benefit from targeted insurance supporting a funder’s capital risk mitigation requirements, and technology can enable that.

Why is AIG utilising blockchain technologies and how is this making a difference to others?

AIG has a strong innovative and exploratory approach aimed at bettering our service and product offerings to our clients and being relevant in respect of trends that will impact our clients. DLT is one of these trends. We are part of a variety of different consortiums and pilots across the company and have a joined up approach in using lessons learned on each project, one of which we drove out of the trade finance team. The key is that we are using blockchain with our clients at the center so if blockchain can solve something better than another solution, then we look to engage in that if it makes sense.

For our trade finance application, which was based on a receivables orchestration, we found that the data transparency was the key attribute that we did not see with other systems – so in practice that is being able to see the end to end invoice data at any stage in the transaction. This is particularly important when you consider expanding beyond the pilot to multiple different ecosystem participants such as more funders, obligors, brokers, insurers and even more widely including logistics, customs etc.

As the first insurer to do a mainstream pilot with receivables and insurance, we are engaging heavily with the industry and also even with our competitors to think about how we can expand this. We hope to influence the base of how trade finance and industry intersect.

What are the top 4 Blockchain Trends Over The Next 3 Years, in your opinion?

1. Convergence

Different industries will come together more easily by being able to use blockchain and similar technologies to make data sharing easier – in our case we had insurance, banking and corporates coming together. This has not necessarily been the norm in these sectors previously. APIs will be key to this convergence to offer a “quick” solution to data exchange at least in the short term. APIs were key to the cost effectiveness of our first structure.

2. Machine learning

–Using the data effectively to better assess trends will be key to expanding to more difficult risks and SME world. Blockchain and DLT will hopefully provide the platform of data convergence that will make this machine learning and algorithm use more widespread. We do this already by using payment history and underwriting experience to write limits including where financials on an obligor are not available, but much much more can be done with higher availability of data.

3. Interoperability

In order for the ecosystem to work, interoperability between blockchain/ DLT networks and platforms is absolutely key. We cannot have more data silos. There are numerous projects going on in this area now.

4. Crypto currency

I think this may become less of a trend if that is an option for an answer. The current issues with volatility, regulation, energy use, hacking etc…have taken the spotlight away from some of the non-crytpo currency uses of blockchain so I hope regulators, lawyers and industry leaders will be able to keep the issues separate.

What are the medium to long term objectives that you’re focusing on at AIG in respect to trade finance and how will you achieve this?

Medium to long term objectives in this space are to be able to better use technology and data to drive more effective insurance and more profitable growth in the trade finance arena. We believe this is only possible by working with our clients, brokers and across the industry on their various technology applications and connecting those projects where appropriate. This will not be a short term endeavour and there are and will be more hurdles to overcome, but the medium to long term potential is there.

The post Interview: AIG’s Global Head of Trade Finance, Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle on Blockchain in 2019 appeared first on Trade Finance Global.