Nandita Bakhshi, former Bank of the West CEO: The exit interview

On December 15, after a 37-year run, Nandita Bakhshi will retire from the "corporate side of banking."

"This is uncharted territory for me," she said, adding that she will stay on the board of BMO, where she served as a special advisor to the bank during its acquisition of Bank of the West from BNP Paribas.

Bakhshi, a longtime Most Powerful Women in Banking honoree, moved from India to Albany, New York, in 1986. Her husband, Shiv, was studying for a Ph.D. in communications with a focus on telecommunications.  When she first arrived in the States, she considered becoming a teacher, but now that she was living in a culture that gave women more freedom of choice over their career paths, she decided to look in a different direction. 

She began her career in banking as a part-time teller for Northeast Saving Bank, and worked the 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. shift. 

"For me, this is what I call 'white knuckle stress.' I was learning about the culture. I was learning about people. I was learning about computers. And I was learning about banking."

And, as she noted, she was learning about U.S. currency. "I couldn't get over the fact that every dollar bill is the same size, whether it's $1 or $100. A 20 rupee bill is a different size and color from the 100 rupee bill. And that was extremely challenging, but also very exciting. And I think that this experience was the foundation of what I was able to do."

Her husband transferred to Ohio State University, and Bakhshi was hired by Banc One Corp. in Columbus, as a salesperson in the branches. She rose to a regional manager position before being recruited in 1996 to join Home Savings of America in Irwindale, Calif.

The climb

Over the next 20 years, Bakhshi kept rising. She held executive positions at FleetBoston (now part of Bank of America), First Data (now part of Fiserv), Washington Mutual (now part of JPMorgan Chase) and TD Bank. In early 2016, Bakhshi was tapped to be the CEO of Bank of the West. 

"I always say that every job I've had has really prepared me for the CEO job at Bank of the West. And that it was, perhaps, the best job I've had to be able to take close to a $100 billion-asset bank and lead a transformation on the technology side, on the culture side, on ESG and on risk and compliance."

Bakhshi's seven-year stint as a CEO came to a halt last February when BMO completed its acquisition of Bank of the West, and Bakhshi was appointed as a special advisor to help with the transition. "There are two main parts to any transition: the culture and the technology. And most people worry about the technology transition first. But I would say that BMO, with Bank of the West, focused on both."

More than 60% of Bank of the West employees were retained by BMO, and during the transition, Bank of the West's 500 branches remained open. When the work of the transition team ended in September, BMO acquired nearly 1.8 million customers and extended its banking presence in commercial and wealth offices in key U.S markets. 

"This is one of the best [transitions] I've seen, both from people and from a technology perspective," she said. 

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Changes and leadership

Over the years, Bakhshi said, the largest changes the industry has undergone are in gender, technology and leadership. "We're not where we need to be, but there are a lot more women in senior positions than when I was growing up." Technology has greatly changed the business of banking as well, she said. "I think with the advent of technology, internet, mobile phones, banking is now, you know, 24/7 — anywhere, everywhere." And leadership styles have also evolved over the years, she added. "Leadership used to be a lot more prescriptive — not engaged, somewhat detached and unemotional. Today, leaders need to be in a very different category altogether. They need to be authentic. They need to be empathetic. They need to engage with their teams."

Bakhshi, who has long championed women in the industry, is hopeful that hybrid work will allow women to remain in, and rise up, in banking. "Every woman that I've talked to really likes the fact that they can come to the office three days a week. You want that relationship that you build with your colleagues, but at the same time, on certain days if they can work from home, the stress of just commuting and being in the office goes away. And COVID has shown us that we can be productive working from home. I think it's a win-win situation where we can help women with [that kind of] flexibility."

But the responsibility for promoting women to positions of power lies mostly on executive leadership, she said. "The solution lies in leadership. You know, taking an extremely focused, strong view on how to help women have careers, not just jobs."

"Most women I talk to — I mentor women, not just in the financial industry, but broadly overall — they don't know where they're going most of the time. And they don't see role models that they can emulate. Often, they will tell me they're hired because of their qualifications and gender and all of that, but once they join the company, nobody kind of takes care of them and kind of says 'here's your pathway.'"

Bakhshi said that banks need to build a "bench" of talented women to help women ascend to executive positions, similar to what American Banker does with the Next list, which highlights women 40 years and younger who are rising stars in their organizations. "This is why I'm so excited about the Next program that you have, because that [program] is what creates a bench. But you have to hire from the bench to take them to senior levels. And as they go to the VP and SVP levels, you've got to make sure they understand the path in that organization for them."

A woman can climb the corporate ladder with help from a single mentor, but Bakhshi says she can also get help from a "cadre of individuals that help this woman at a time when they start to weigh their options about work-life balance" to keep them from leaving the workplace in the first place.

What lies ahead

Two weeks after she exits her role at BMO, Bakhshi will wrap up her third and final term on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. "It's been such an honor to serve. You sit with 12 CEOs from each of the 12 districts, talking about the economy, inflation, what the Fed should do from a monetary policy standpoint about new technologies like AI and other things. And think about the richness of that — about [the opportunity for] getting information on lending to commercial customers from Citizens Bank of Edmond's Jill Castilla or talking about digital currency with another bank CEO."

She will also continue her work on the board of Grameen America, a global microfinance organization inspired by the work of Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. "I'm very, very passionate about the microfinance area because it really helps women, helps women get to start businesses and have economic independence, financial independence, and that leads to social change. So I'm very, very excited about that and will continue to do that."

Bakhshi is also currently in talks with a few other publicly and privately held boards, mostly focused on improving the lives of women. "I've always been, in my whole career, really focused on women mentorship and putting them in P&L roles. And I will see how I can continue to do that."