Most Powerful Women in Banking: No. 6, Bank of the West's Nandita Bakhshi

President and CEO

Bank of the West in San Francisco is stepping up its effort to diversify its talent pipeline and its senior ranks. One of several new initiatives it has underway is meant to give women who have left the workforce to raise children or care for loved ones a way to revive their careers.

Under the leadership of President and CEO Nandita Bakhshi, the U.S. banking unit of BNP Paribas launched a program that essentially offers an on-ramp back into the job market for women who have taken time off. The bank benefits by capitalizing on a highly experienced talent pool that may be overlooked by other employers, who are not interested in helping these job-seekers get back up to speed.

“We don’t have enough female executives in this industry, and I do believe it is my job to help change that,” Bakhshi said.

People may put their career on hold for any number of reasons, but because caregiving responsibilities fall disproportionately on women, they are more frequently hobbled by a gap on their resume.

To get its program going, the $99 billion-asset Bank of the West partnered with a firm called Women Back to Work and is focusing at least initially on filling technology roles. Women who successfully complete the 16-week program will be considered for IT positions based in Tempe, Arizona.

“With this returnship program, the bank is ensuring that women’s perspectives are not lost as a result of any circumstance that may have put their careers on hold,” Bakhshi said.

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• Most Powerful Women 2020: Nandita Bakhshi

The program is also expected to help get more women into the banking sector (or back into it, as the case may be).
Another aspect of what Bakhshi is trying to do is foster more diversity among those ready to move up into the top executive level. She has intentionally looked to place female executives in roles with profit-and-loss responsibility, which, she said, “has not only impacted their career path, but also has directly influenced the bank’s bottom line.”

Over the past year or so, Bank of the West also improved its Community Reinvestment Act grade to “outstanding,” expanded a partnership with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in which it provides support for diverse entrepreneurs and launched a new checking account for eco-conscious consumers.

The launch of the “1% for the Planet” account in July 2020 drove the highest consideration levels the bank had ever seen and exceeded by 39% the goal set for accounts opened by new-to-the-bank customers, despite the pandemic timing. The account allows customers to track the carbon impact of their purchases and donates 1% of net revenue from the account to environmental nonprofits, at no cost to the customer.

Besides her role as CEO of the bank, Bakhshi is also co-CEO of BNP Paribas USA. Among her leadership activities outside the office, she serves on the supervisory board of The Clearing House and on the boards of directors for Grameen America and the U.S. India Strategic Partnership Forum.