BeWomen, our series of internal fireside chats with thought leaders and industry insiders, returned last week with a discussion between Fahreen Kurji, Chief Customer Intelligence Officer at Behavox, and Loretta Marcoccia, EVP & COO, Global Banking & Markets at Scotiabank.

If you missed it, you can download the full On-Demand video here.

Loretta was appointed Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Global Banking and Markets at Scotiabank in 2018 after originally joining the Bank in 2015 as the Managing Director and COO for Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities. In her current role, she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Global Banking and Markets, developing and implementing strategy and priority initiatives as well as global wholesale operations, regulatory initiatives, global analytics and financial engineering. Loretta is also a member of Scotiabank’s Inclusion Council, the Executive Champion of Global Banking and Markets’ Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Executive Sponsor of The Scotiabank Women Initiative for Global Banking and Markets. 

Fahreen and Loretta discussed much during the hour-long session, including the challenges of pivoting to remote work during the pandemic, and the importance of keeping on top of the latest trends.

“Keep educated. Keep learning. Listen to what your clients are saying, to what your employees are saying, to what your regulators are saying. 

“This is not necessarily in relation to Scotiabank, but big banks were once known to be slow and bureaucratic, and not able to turn on a dime. Those same characteristics are reasons that big banks are successful and that shareholders choose to invest in banks. But to be successful in the future, we need to keep learning, changing and adapting our business model to what our clients need.”

A current trend, or business approach that is certainly gaining traction among financial institutions is the move from a fragmented surveillance program across different data types and regions, toward a more holistic, unified surveillance and security program. Loretta said that this was something that became increasingly important for Scotiabank during the pandemic.

From a security perspective, we had to go from 0-100 and roll out new services quickly that would have historically taken a long time to do. The partnership that we have [Behavox and Scotiabank] allows us to use new techniques that you are developing, so working together has brought some interesting ideas on both sides.

Loretta Marcoccia, EVP & COO, Global Banking & Markets at Scotiabank

The role of technology, innovation and staying ahead of the curve cannot be overstated. Loretta explained that when COVID hit, and the majority of Scotiabank employees needed to work from home, it was even more important to have a fully comprehensive compliance program.

“We implemented Behavox in the middle of that [work from home transition], so it became an important tool for us, because it gave us complete communication surveillance coverage. Behavox Voice allowed us to have coverage wherever people were, at home, in the office, or back and forth. It allows us to be wherever we need to be and have complete coverage.

We actually got better at surveillance during this time, due to our partnership with Behavox.

Loretta Marcoccia, EVP & COO, Global Banking & Markets at Scotiabank

As BeWomen is also an opportunity for guests to share anecdotes, and dispense advice to inspire our growing, global workforce, Loretta also spoke about how important it was to be an authentic version of yourself in a business setting, especially as a woman.

“Find common ground, that’s really common ground – be yourself. Speak up, and find your voice!” said Loretta.

The conversation then naturally turned toward Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, and the importance that Scotiabank places on it. 

“Scotiabank was recently recognized as a triple winner and named one of the best places to work for LGBTQ+ equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, it’s referred to as the triple winner because we won in Scotiabank U.S., Scotiabank Mexico, and Scotiabank Chilli for achieving a perfect 100% score on the human rights campaign’s most recent Corporate Equality Index.”

Although Loretta clearly has many, many years left in her illustrious career, to wrap up the session, Fahreen asked Loretta what she would like to be remembered for.

“I want to be remembered as somebody who brought about change, who could identify what needed to be changed, and helped turn the tide of diversity and inclusion – that means I’ve done everything I can, for the people who I work with, and my kids.”

Check out the highlights of the session below, and watch the full video by clicking here

Don’t forget to watch other BeWomen sessions, including discussions with Catherine Lenson, Chief People Officer and Head of Social Impact at SoftBank Investment Advisors, Emmanuelle Bury-Lucas, Chief Compliance Officer at BNP Paribas Americas, and many more, over at the Behavox blog section.