DIANE D’ERASMO
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
COMMERCIAL BANKING, HSBC USA
Diane D’Erasmo can’t type. Her mom didn’t want her to learn when she was growing up.
“She felt that if somebody knew you knew how to
type that they would make you sit at a typewriter
and type and be a secretary,” she says.
Not to disparage secretaries, but D’Erasmo says
her mother—a successful accountant—wanted her
daughter to be able to select from a broad range of
opportunities. She got her wish, and today,
D’Erasmo is executive vice president and regional
president in charge of commercial banking in the
northeastern U.S. for HSBC North America Holdings Inc., the country’s fifth-largest bank.
D’Erasmo says her reliance on two-finger typing hasn’t held her back, although she has had to
endure a few snickers while hunting and pecking
at her keyboard. She credits her people skills with
taking her to the top of the banking world, with
personal connections helping her move from accounting to commercial lending early in her career. Now she’s relying on those skills to help steer
her division through the recession. Like all
lenders, HSBC has been hard
hit and impaired loans in
D’Erasmo’s unit have risen
while credit extended to customers has fallen.
HSBC doesn’t break out her
unit’s performance, but the
broader U.S. commercial banking
group is the second-most profitable of HSBC’s four primary
U.S. divisions. Commercial banking earned $224 million during
the first six months of 2009, off
from $430 million for the same
period last year.
D’Erasmo says one of her se-
crets to success is building
a good rapport with
clients so that her team
can understand and address their needs.
“I think that a lot of
businesses today are
struggling,” she says. “We
have tried to take the approach of being proac-tive…. If you are having
problems, maybe I can
help you.”
Her boss, Christopher
Davies, the senior executive vice president in
charge of U.S. commercial
banking, described
D’Erasmo as “a first-class
senior executive.”
“Technically, she is extremely strong,” he says.
“She’s the strongest client person I’ve ever come
across. She’s an advocate for her
clients. She’s been with a lot of them
for a long time.”
Davies says her breadth of experience—D’Erasmo has been in
banking for 25 years—enables her to
give her clients “sound advice on
how to manage through this period.”
While helping her clients work
through problems, D’Erasmo says
she is also taking advantage of the
economic upheaval to grow. Her di-
vision is using HSBC’s global pres-
ence as a selling point to potential
borrowers that also do a lot of cross-
border business. She says there is
also a chance to ramp up specialty lending, particu-
larly in the apparel business.
“We’re still going after new business; we have
the balance sheet to go after business,” she says.
“I’m fortunately, knock on wood, having another
good year this year.”
D’Erasmo makes sure her life isn’t consumed by
work. She makes time for family and recently
watched a teen flick with two of her three daughters.
She surprised herself, and them, by crying at the
end. “I’m a softie,” she says. “It was a sappy ending.”
D’Erasmo, who flashes a big smile often and
easily, also gives back to the community. She sits on
the board of Junior Achievement of Northeastern
New York Inc., a business group that helps educate
children. This summer, she and members of her
department spent a day cleaning up a park in New
York and another day teaching financial literacy to
middle-school students.—Matt Monks
16
Age:
55
Favorite pastime:
Watch daughters play sports
Children:
Three (ages 16, 22 & 25)
Last book read:
The Nine: Inside the Secret World
of the Supreme Court
Last movie seen:
“(500) Days of Summer”
Charity most active in:
Junior Achievement
One thing on “bucket” list:
See the seven wonders of the U.S.
Top non-business concern:
World hunger
The British government’s rescue of The Royal Bank of Scotland last
year has thrust Ellen Alemany, the head of its U.S. operations, into an
unfamiliar role: turnaround specialist.
It’s a challenge Alemany, the chief executive of the $121 billion-asset
Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I. and RBS Americas has heartily
welcomed. Indeed, when the British-based parent company nearly collapsed under the weight of over-expansion and bad investments, Alemany was the first division executive to present to RBS Group’s CEO a
strategy for restructuring business units and ensuring future profitability.
Alemany then began shaking up the management team, unloading
branches, exiting business lines and introducing innovative new products.
“Citizens received a strong vote of confidence from RBS this year,”
Alemany says. “That faith is enabling us to work every day toward becoming a leading bank in the markets where we choose to operate.”
These are challenging times for Citizens. Aside from the problems at
its parent company, now 70 percent-owned by the British government,
the bank is struggling with its own credit-quality issues. As of June 30,
17 ELLEN
ALEMANY
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP INC. AND RBS AMERICAS
Age:
53
Favorite pastime:
Watching children’s basketball and
soccer games
Children:
Three (ages 16, 20 & 24)
Last book read:
How the Mighty Fall
Last movie seen:
“Inglourious Basterds”
Charity most active in:
The Center for Discovery
One thing on “bucket” list:
A single-digit handicap
Top non-business concern:
Environment
1.75 percent of its loans were past due, up from 0.70 percent a year
earlier, chargeoffs had more than doubled from a year earlier, to 2.09
percent of loans, and the company had lost $263 million, compared
to a profit of nearly $370 million in the first six months of 2008.
In order to return to profitability the bank has shuttered or sold
branches throughout its footprint and turned to growing deposits.
In October Citizens instituted an environmentally oriented incentive
program that rewards new and existing customers with up to $10
per month (or $120 per year) for conducting transactions electronically. From its launch in October 2008 through June 30,
Green$ense had doled out $3.5 million to more than 218,000 customers. More importantly, the initiative helped the bank increase
core deposits by nearly 13 percent in nine months, to $67.4 billion.
Citizens also created the TruFit Student Loan program, a new
private-label initiative for student loan originations and servicing
aimed at covering the growing funding gap between federal student loan limits and the rapid increase in college costs. Under Alemany’s direction, the TruFit program was developed in just 60
days, in time to make the July loan application deadline for students attending universities in the fall.
“A key part of our strategy is keeping the customer at the heart
of every important decision we make, and rolling out carefully considered products that appeal to customers—and to help them
when they need it most. TruFit is a great example,” Alemany says.
