Earning the Right to be Here

At 38, Annemarie Durbin already heads the longest established foreign bank in the Philippines. If you doubt the youthful Durbin’s ability to lead Standard Chartered Bank Philippines through tough times in the banking industry, consider that she counts field hockey among her hobbies. Anyone who has heard the crack of a hockey stick against a hard rubber ball–or the occasional sound of wood on bone–will appreciate that most challenges pale in comparison. "Field hockey is not as rough-and-tumble as you think. I used to play football," she says.

Standard Chartered was established in the country in 1872; only the Bank of the Philippine Islands has a longer pedigree. Durbin, who was appointed CEO in June 2000, has presided over two of the most significant achievements of the bank–its elevation by the Monetary Board of the Central Bank into a Universal Bank and the rapid growth of its consumer banking division. The inclination of youth is to charge onward, but Durbin is respectful of the 130-year history of Standard Chartered in the Philippines.

"Stories about great-grandfathers of people who now work at the bank who also used to work at the bank…the things they used to do to help out customers during the bad times! It’s pretty heartwarming that we were there to help. In the past, sometimes (the bank) didn’t go forward as fast as we would have liked to, but we stuck it out. We were here for customers. I think that counts for a lot. I know other banks don’t have that same history," she says.

To be sure, it has been an eventful 130 years. Early operations involved the financing of machinery imports to service booming agricultural industries such as sugar, hemp, coconut and later copper, pig-iron, anchors, cordage, tobacco, coffee and rice. Standard Chartered housed its first branch at the ground floor of a modest house in Binondo; the upper floor was used as a kindergarten.

In 1886, Dr. Jose Rizal, pursuing advanced studies in Paris, advised his parents to send him money through no other bank but The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (its pre-merger name). The generous dollar-franc exchange rate of the bank would afford him more pocket money, Rizal reasoned.

During the late Spanish period, Britain was the Philippines’ largest trading partner, accounting for about a third of both imports and exports. Many Filipinos still rue, especially when con-fronted by our mañana civil service, that Reino Unido did not extend its zeal for commerce into a resolve to colonize such a useful trading friend.

When the Americans offered Emilio Aguinaldo $400,000, the amount was eventually transferred to The Chartered Bank in Hong Kong and placed on deposit for two years at an interest rate of two percent. His heirs possibly experience a certain déjà vu with today’s similarly stingy rates.

World War II brought hard times to the bank. Bombing raids directed at the ships docked along the Pasig River repeatedly rocked its Wilson Building branch. The Japanese later claimed the building as their Treasury Headquarters. It is never easy for an Englishman to part with his money, but prudent bank officials evacuated their gold bars to the island of Corregidor.

"The answer is no," smiles Durbin when inevitably asked if the bank recovered its hoard. "As you know, Corregidor fell–we tried and did as best as we could. The odds were over-whelmingly against us."

Today, the anguish of war is well behind Standard Chartered as the young lawyer from New Zealand charts its peacetime course. Durbin, though, is well prepared for any battle. The former head of Training for Corporate & Institutional Banking for Africa and Europe (a title best pronounced only after inhaling a lungful of air) has 16 years of banking experience. Besides being a graduate of Bachelor of Commerce (Accountancy, Finance, Economics & Management), Durbin is also a law graduate of the University of Auckland. "Law is an amazing training ground for business. Every single day, the law comes into your job as a CEO. I actually wonder how someone who doesn’t have legal training copes," she says.

Those who know her are even now amazed at her energy. Early in the morning thrice a week, she subjects herself to the sadistic instructions of a personal trainer she swears is out to kill her. Twice a week, she plays tennis. And golf?

"I don’t particularly have any desire to play golf. As you know, Filipino businessmen and government officials play a lot of golf. I have a membership at The Manila Golf Club, which is two minutes from home so it seems like the logical thing to do. But it’s such a time-consuming thing. I get a little frustrated. I hate being bad at something. It’s the old cliché–my handicap is my golf swing."

A year and a half ago, Durbin gave birth to her first child, Jack Harry. The caesarian delivery occurred a week earlier than expected, before she could appoint an acting CEO. After waking from her anesthetic snooze, she began calling the office from the hospital room. Ten days later, she was holding meetings at her house, working around Jack Harry’s breastfeeding schedule. Three weeks later, she was exercising vigorously. A week after that, she was in Hong Kong playing hockey. She returned to the office two weeks before her maternity leave officially ended.

"My husband was really cross with me," she recounts. She is married to Richard Mathias, also a lawyer. "Richard was running a business, also in England, that trains lawyers in their professional qualifications. I’m very lucky. Not a lot of people would have done it," she says, explaining that Richard gave up his business to relocate to the Philippines with her and is often home to care for their son.

Durbin admits to one personal failure, allaying suspicion that only kryptonite could slow her down. She has completed only two of the 14 lessons from the Interior Design by Remote Program she enrolled in late last year. "I had this fond notion that I was gonna have time. I thought I was going to be on maternity leave, sitting at home with nothing to do. I quite enjoy decorating my house, that sort of thing. Of course, I had no clue how time-consuming babies are. People tell you that and you just ignore it."

She also admits that prior to her CEO appointment, she knew little about her future destination. "I had no preconceptions about the Philippines–I didn’t know the first thing about the country. This is a terrible admission but I didn’t even really know anything about Marcos or Ramos. I came in ignorance.

"When you come into a new job, everyone is pretty keen to tell you what can go wrong with that new job but it’s always not as bad as you think it will be. It’s been great. The culture shock here was in fact less than when I moved from New Zealand to London. I thought that New Zealand was part of the Commonwealth, we all spoke English, we had the same heritage but it was very, very different.

"One of the amazingly positive things about the Philippines is that they accept people here for what they are. My main problem was actually in the minds of the senior people of Standard Chartered Bank because their preconception was that the Philippines is quite a macho society and that I may not be accepted. Very egalitarian."

She describes her management style as "caring yet tough." Her recent press statements reveal a quiet confidence. If she feels that the bank will need to increase its branch network from the current nine branches, then purchasing a local bank is an option, she says. She believes cross-selling, specifically the selling of other entities’ insurance products within bank branches, should be permitted. Its perils, she says, would be reduced with rigorous staff training. (So far, the Central Bank allows such services only by banks with a 51 percent equity stake in the insurer.)

Durbin has also sounded out the alarm–the Philippines must lower its current P4-million anti-money laundering limit or face a backlash from potential investors. "The Financial Action Task Force has categorically stated that the current legislation is not sufficient. Congress is going to have to change the law. Congress is going to have to deal with that issue. (Not doing so) will be just another reason to put people off from investing in the Philippines. They already find it quite hard to do business here. That won’t help."

Concurrently the head of the bank’s Consumer Banking, Durbin has shepherded the division to profitability. Consumer banking now accounts for roughly half of the bank’s revenues, despite its products and services having been offered only since the mid-’90s.

"We are never going to be a mainstream consumer bank catering to every member of society, with a branch network of huge numbers throughout the country. That market is well covered and probably over-covered by the local banks. We support those local banks because we actually provide funding to many of them to allow them to do that. In an indirect way, we already have as much involvement in that business as we want to.

"We’re in a very niche business, which is unashamedly A and B segments on the wealth management side, and A, B and C segments on the credit card side. That’s where we’re happy to be."

As for the traditional focus of Standard Chartered as a bridge to emerging markets, Durbin says, "We have played and are playing a very valuable role in the Philippines ranging from helping out multinationals who haven’t invested here before–advice-giving as to what are the pitfalls–as well as providing the funding. That helps the country as a whole in terms of direct investment, as well as helping us in terms of profitability."

She is justifiably proud of her employees’ commitment to community work, chief among them their passionate collaboration with the SOS Children’s Village, a German charity that provides orphans with a community environment far removed from the halfway house atmosphere of many orphanages; Create Responsive Infants by Sharing, a Marikina-based orphanage for some 100 infants and sexually abused children; and Habitat for Humanity Philippines.

"We take time off work or on weekends–sometimes a combination of both–and (the bank) organizes it. We get fantastic feedback from our employees. They say thank you for the opportunity to help. I was really pleased with the last Habitat trip in Taguig. Not only employees, but Central Bank officials as well as some of our customers came as well, including our ad agency. We all built together, over a hundred of us."

The bank recently unveiled its new logo to symbolize the intensified promotion of its five core values–courageous, responsive, international, creative and trustworthy. The old logo was "flat, boring and old," she says, and its intertwined S and C brought to mind "fornicating worms." Durbin insists the change is more than just external–the new three-dimensional emblem reflects the "DNA" of the bank, its values.

She says, "If our customers don’t experience us this way, for God’s sake, tell us because we’re committed to this. We want to live by these values. We have to earn our right to be here everyday. When you’ve been in a country like the Philippines for so long, you actually get some of the best characteristics of Filipinos. The very best characteristic I think you’ll find of Filipinos is that they are amazingly resilient. I would say Standard Chartered is amazingly resilient as well."