Anne Finucane: Vice Chairman of Bank of America—and a Global Powerhouse

Powerful Women's list from Forbes, Fortune and More. As Vice chairman of Bank of America and oversees the bank strategic positioning while also leading the company's E s G, sustainable finance, and public policy efforts. She's also chair of Bank of America Europe. I'm a land Revere and this is Seneca's

Women to Hear. We are bringing you one high drend of the world's most inspiring and history making women you need to hear and Fanuken has been pivotal in how Bank of America has led through the COVID response, and she's also been responsible for the bank making a billion dollar commitment to programs that promote racial and economic equality and communities across America. One of the many things that make Anna stand out is her support for women inside

and outside the bank. She's been responsible for launching the bank's many innovative and impactful programs that boost women's entrepreneurship and financial security. I've been delighted to no Anne for many years. I've seen firsthand the tremendous difference she has made in the world. Listen and learn why and Fanuken is one of Seneca's one women to hear. Yeah, well, it's terrific and to have you with us today. You have quite a list of achievements and hold quite a portfolio.

So let's step back for a moment and tell our listeners what was it about your background or you're growing up that defined you and made you the leader that you are today. Well, thank you for calling me a leader, Milan. I think what for me is my family life. I am from a large Irish Catholic family with two older brothers and an older sister and then two younger sisters and a pretty liberal uh family. Although I wouldn't have known it growing up, uh, but you know, you learned

that when you get out into the world. My father was always pushing us to think for ourselves, and and in the Catholic Church, particularly amongst the Jesuits, they have saying that conscience reigned supreme, which meant that you had to rely on your conscience, which meant you had to be informed. And UM, so as a result, that was what was expected. And over time in my very formative years, I was in high school when so much chaos occurred. I had two older brothers that were in the um

lottery draft. One got a very low number, one got a very high number. Uh. The campuses were closed down by seventy on May Day, so that you couldn't the kids in college couldn't finish their college classes by then. Uh, Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated and Martin Luther King before him. So it was such a turbulent time. We were watching conventions that were riots in the streets in Chicago. So it was hard to be compelled to be alert, to have your conscience uh direct you, and to be informed

was to know all of that was going on. The war in Vietnam was under great contention and not embraced in my household. So UM, I think that's what probably formed my early years. And uh what followed was a series of jobs that all together got me to where I am today at Bank of America. Well, you're truly a leader. And when you mentioned a saying of the Jesuits, I was also thinking about women and men for others,

and you have certainly been for others. And I know that during the time that you've had now illustrious time at Bank of America, the financial institutions have had to face many challenges, not the least of which today is COVID, which has set all of our lives upside down, and certainly institutions and everybody who is impacted by it. How did it affect the bank and what did you see happening to your clients as this plays out? And how

has the bank responded? Well, you know, the president is always uh affected by the past, and ten years ago we went through the financial crisis when banks we're not beloved and there are so many things we wish we had done better. And so over the last ten years we've really had an opportunity two uh form this this focus on what we call responsible growth, and what that means is really thinking through every time you do something, what value is it to your customers, your clients, your employees,

your your communities, and to your shareholders. And it really makes the difference because it is what has informed are our minimum wage is what has informed our increased maternity fraternity leaves informed our decisions on prison reform, and and and on gun control, because you're really thinking through what is in the best interest of all the communities and constituents we serve, and sometimes there are hard decisions to make. But in that time period, I think we made some

very good decisions. So when COVID hit, we were prepared, certainly not for the length or the magnitude of it, but for the idea that a crisis could hit. We had already had several hurricanes, We had, you know, so many sort of preambles that this was something that we had at least prepared for in part. And what we did is try to lean right in in the beginning.

And for over eight months now, most of the employees at the company, and I'm talking about of the employees work from home, and nearly all of them are working and working from home. We told them early on in March that no one would be laid off. So now everyone takes a sigh of relief and can think about their job, not whether they're going to have the job. We try to make sure for those either coming into

the office. We're considered an essential service. So our banking centers or people may call them branches, had to be open, trading for had to be open for those people coming in, making sure their transportation to and from the office was safe, that their meals were brought in, that they had masks

and plexiglass and all of that. But also for people at home, same thing, not the plexiglass, but whether you came into the office or you're at home, if you had children, we um provided you with a stipend every day to bring somebody in to help with the children, so that could be assist stir and aunt and uncle and niece and nephew, a kid in the neighborhood, so

that we could do two things. One put your mind at ease that the kids were being looked after, and two maybe give some employment to someone that now had lost a job. So it's those kind of very practical things that with our clients. We immediately let people know that if they needed to defer payments on credit cards, auto loans, mortgage, small business, they could do that. Uh. It was interesting though many asked for it. In the end, UH, a whole lot of them didn't really avail themselves of

it now. I think part of it was the stimulus package, and part of it is that for some industries it was not as onerous as we thought it might be. But we did that immediately. We uh were the largest uh P p P uh that's the government program Payrell Protection program with the government, we were the largest UM. We had the most amount of small businesses apply for that UH three D seventy thousand I think, So we had to put a lot of people against that UM

but that was important. So you had to first give them the flexibility that they didn't have to pay right away what their bills were, because they needed to be able to center like what they had and what they didn't have, and then try to help get these UM uh P p P loans done. And that just gives you a sort of a brief sense of some of what we did for our consumer and small business clients. And then we worked with more sophisticated commercial clients on

all sorts of things to try to realign their work. Well, that's a really extensive list of reaching out and responding to you know, some the things that you mentioned in terms of job security and childcare became so essential and are essential, and you've been so responsive. It's it's very impressive. You know. We also saw this year these massive calls for racial and social justice which so affect our society from one coast to the other. You all have been

extremely responsive in that regard as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that in so, you know, it's interesting. During the pandemic, we had also put for we UH philanthropically give two hundred and fifty million dollars away. That's cash. There are other things we do in kind, but cash in the ninety markets in which we operate in which would think of those as cities or major

towns for regions. UH. We added to that, we committed another hundred million dollars to support and then address the pressing needs of related to coronavirus. And what was apparent to us and clearly captured in the press is UH communities of color were affected h much more than any other community, both in job loss and in being affected by affected by the virus itself. So this was on

our mind. UH, Andrew Pleaploi've met and runs um it directs the daily e s G efforts had also worked with our outside UM group, our national Advisory Community, our National Community Advisory Council, and this is leaders of the civil rights movement, affordable housing. I'm talking about DAN double A, CP, Urban League, UNIDOSE, UH Series and a number of others. So they they are in civil rights, they are in um UH affordable housing, they are in the green space.

And we met with them help us think this through. So the extent of the Black community particularly being affected and also the Hispanic community or Latin X was extensive, and so we thought we need to do something here, we need and we could do something. Uh. So amongst ourselves we were we had been working on this, led by Andrew, and then the George Floyd murder happened, and uh, what we were going to do needed to be accelerated

in two ways, in time and in money. UM and that is when on June two, we made a commitment of one billion dollars a four year commitment, and that would be one billion dollars we wouldn't have otherwise spent, So we could have made it thirty billion dollars if we threw everything in that we would probably in the next four years unaffordable housing, small business, et cetera. But this was really intended to do something we wouldn't have done in that time frame, and and sort of creating

jump start money, if you will. So you really expanded your commitment in a very significant way and a very practical way in all of the things that the bank is doing. Seneca has one hundred women to hear. Will be back after the short break. I know you are especially proud and with good reason, of the women's programs that you have launched. I have seen that firsthand, and I think that the bank is a truly exemplary leader

on these issues. Maybe you could talk a little bit about what you're doing internally for your female employees and externally, because you do so much that impacts the quality of life for women, certainly for entrepreneurs and others in this country and outside of the country. Thanks for asking that first.

I think it has made a difference. Brian moynahan is our CEO and is a very enlightened leader UH and in in his time as CEO and chair we have had UH roughly of the women and management are at the The executive management team have been women, about half the half the company certainly women nearly half our in management. The board is a reflection of that to now. That didn't all happen in a day, but it did happen

over time. And um, you know, once you get diversity, both in terms of gender and color at the top of the house, a lot of conversations take place that weren't going to take place before. Then you know, if all women are together, what we might talk about, and if all men are together, you know what they might talk about. But when we're together, somebody says, hold on, I didn't get that, and it opens up a door

that just otherwise wouldn't be open. So that was really the beginning of I think moving forward internally, and we have mentorship programs, sponsorship programs for women, we have forums and classes, and we're assigned to people or we assign

ourselves and that's all worked very effectively. But I have to say, even um years ago in the late nineties, as I watched Hillary Clinton and you at her side, and the role that you played with the women of Northern Ireland in the Good Friday Agreement, it was very impressive and I remembered it. I didn't know why we could do about it, but I remembered it, and I wouldn't have been in AH in an elevated enough position, probably to do much more than know about it and

do something. I was at a smaller bank. We had later been acquired by Bank of America, but anyway, I remembered all of it. And um I was on the board of the American Ireland Funds, so we had gone to Northern Ireland met with the women um subsequent to your initial foray. So I was impressed and so noted. Fast forward some years later and you were UM with the Obama administration and I think we met somewhere along the line when you were um U S Ambassador for Women.

And I don't know if you even remember this, but we had a meeting in California. You went through what you thought we could do, and you really pushed me. So the first thing we did is we UH had a meeting with Vital Voices. I suggested to them with

I thought we could do something together. UH. Later we met with Kathy Russell at the State Department and we established the Global Ambassadors program, which your mentors UH usually from the developed world, but not always in the areas of medicine, business, government or education, meeting with women in emerging markets who had all the talent, but not all the tools. And this was one on one, a week long one on one form with help from experts, and then a forum at the end of that. And we

did that all over the world. But as good as it was, we were helping dozens of women and maybe one day a hundred or two hundred women, but that's really not enough. So from there we also, while keeping that going, met with Sharie Blair to do the her her Uh Mentoring program, which is all online and was really sort of before it was deregord to do that.

And the online mentoring program meant that we could have thousands of women and we've had about women that we have worked with entrepreneurs again skill building, how to ask for and get capital, a business plan, et cetera. That begot a relationship with Tory Birch, who in the United States, so the program with Shari Blair was also emerging markets. Tory Birch, who was a client, met with us to ask for some advice on women she was mentoring, and she said, you know, they all need a loan before

they have any of the credentials. They don't, you know, they don't they haven't made any money. They may not have the best business plan. So we said, okay, well, we and other established banks would have a hard time giving small business loans that were totally insecure unsecured, and also probably wouldn't pass muster with the regulators. But we do provide money for community development financial institutions, who in

turn at lower rates. Because we get them the money at lower rates, and because we give them philanthropic money to staff themselves, they can provide lending to these women and they can also provide um mentorship and sponsorship, I mean really helping them with business plans. And then we could step in and help too, and that has been great. We made a fifty million dollar commitments that's now a hundred million dollar commitment and it's for those women at

an earlier stage in there um business. So each of these has begotten yet another thing. And and UH in each case, what we're trying to do is apply what we learned from the last one and create a new opportunity. And finally, as you know better than anyone, because you helped us do it, we UM through your help and uh kim Asarelli's help, we established a program with Cornell and this is an online program that allows for a certificate at the end of it. It's a course selection

and a certificate, all done online. And we've had twenty thousand women go through that, and of them have been women of color and from all over the world. So each of these has been it's been uh, you know, over time, understanding what we didn't know and building on that, and it's just been great. First of all, I hardly pushed you, and you've always been deeply committed to making

a difference. I remember an event in Dublin a couple of years ago with one of the peace negotiators from Northern Ireland and she talked about what it meant to be validated and supported. Returning to the subject of COVID, an, I wanted to ask you about women's leadership, because what we've seen in the COVID crisis is that women heads of state and heads of government have done exceptionally well

in dealing with the crisis in their countries. Do you think women's leadership makes a difference, and perhaps you could talk about how that plays out in business and how

in fact we might get more women into leadership. So I do think women lead differently, and I do think it's clearly made a difference in those countries that are led by women, and I think it's made a difference in businesses that have a number of women at the top, even if it isn't the CEO, because if you can get into the c suite or be in the equivalent in executive management, you're really at the table to make decisions.

And I am fortunate enough to have the ability and the resources, both in people and in finances too, to have our company do a whole lot of things that I think any company could do if that's where you want to put your money. And I think women think

very practically, and I think we think very holistically. If a woman or a man cannot leave their house because their child is being unsupervised, or they can't go to school, or you're sick with worried that that job isn't going to be there the next day, how can you perform well if the communities in which you work and live in your economy requires to be opera rating, So that

would be the case of a bank. If small businesses aren't operating, if people aren't working, they're not putting money into a banking account, they're not paying their bills, you've got to be part of that solution. So you've got to ease the waters a little bit. You have to say, hold off on those payments. If that's going to help make some other things happen. You know, we can tack them onto the other side of thirty six months or thirty years. Those three months aren't gonna matter. They're just

going to be on the back end of that. So you just think in terms of very practical things. I don't know that men don't. I just think that women always have had to do that for centuries, millenniums. We have been multitasking in the home and you know, more recently outside the home, but we couldn't shirk or shake

the home requirements, and so we just think practically. And I really do think that makes the difference and makes a huge difference in a company if enough women are at the table, because you kind of go through the checklist the way you would with anything. And I don't think the men resisted. I just think it's an additive that makes a huge difference. And we've been talking about Bank of America's commitment to social and economic impact. I

know you're also deeply committed to environmental sustainability. In fact, you mentioned green spaces early on. Can you talk a little bit about that. You know, the environment is much like many issues. It's it's an issue that affects everybody and in very fundamental ways, and in a way that honestly, it's always interesting in the US, it's political, But nowhere else in the world is the issue of sustainability. Um uh,

reducing our carbon footprint such a problem. But in any case, just just dealing with it as as an issue at hand. I mean, we all have to be grateful to the sustainable development goals that were established out of the u N and so many countries embraced because of those seventeen Sustainable Development Goal. So many of them are affected by by the environment or or could be improved by the environment.

Clean water, clean air. UH, these health issues, the reduction of asthma, the reduction of disease, the production of women and men who don't go miles to get clean water to bring it back to their homes. So like the other initiatives, you know, you wake up and you you you sort of step into these things and you think, wait,

I could do that. Initially we were confronted this is fifteen years ago at a annual shareholders meeting by Sierra Club and others who said, you are doing too much in the fossil fuels, and you are allowing for fossil fuel companies, to particularly coal companies, to do mountain top sharing. And I have to say it was more ignorance than it was intent. Uh, the CEO at the time, Ken Lewis, said, UH asked me to stand up. I told the environmentalists they'd be hearing from me, and within a few weeks

we were meeting. I went with them to West Virginia to look at the mountaintop sharing and its effect, and we immediately said we wouldn't do it anymore, that we would eliminate that and began a rather formidable um environmental program. In two thousand and seven, we said that we would do twenty billion dollars of environmental business, meaning underwriting renewables of some sort, and I thought I had no idea how that would happen. But within three or four years

we had done it. I mean, we got people together and we figured out how to do it. And today, just fast forward to today, we have already done a hundred and fifty eight billion dollars of environmental business. Uh. And this is not greenwashing, this is you know, you can tick and tie this to the letter. Uh. We're the largest underwriter of green bonds, the largest UM provider of tax equity. We have done thousands of efforts in terms of energy efficiency in renewable energy, solar, wind, moving

into the value of hydrogen. Our research group has published six or seven reports that are completely objective. The demonstrate that those that commit to e s G. Environmental, social and governance tenants can demonstrate that they are less apt to go bankrupt, and they operate more effectively, and they are less apt to hear, you know here negative noise from their shareholders. So there's real value here. And it's different for every kind of business. It's every it's not

cookie cutter, it's uh. Packaged goods companies are really looking at their supply chain and the use of plastic and too much paper. Real estate companies are looking at energy efficiency when they're building a building or when they do a retro fit. So UM, we've really enjoyed not only benefits from doing this work, but also we have enjoyed uh profits from this work. Now we ourselves are carbon

neutral and we are poised. I hope for uh, you know what I think will be a very aggressive push out of Europe with the Green Deal to get to net zero by and halfway there by, which means you had to have started by now to get to carbon neutral. And I've always known you to be positive and upbeat, and here we are talking about the COVID crisis and climate and racial injustice, so many really tough topics. What

makes you optimistic? Well, I have a very simple kind of bell weather, and it's uh recognizing energy givers from energy takers. I certainly don't want to be an energy taker myself, but I'm so attracted to energy givers and they uh infused me with energy. Honestly they do. And they and thinking, so I said, years ago, you pushed me into something. Well, whether you knew it or not, you know, I didn't know enough about what was possible. And you have to be in the company of people

that can educate you. So the ability to listen, particularly to energy evers, and then take in that information think how could I apply this? So you might not think that you had that effect, but you did have that effect because I thought, well, this is a good thing to do, and each of the things, particularly around the initiatives on women. One begot the next it was recognizing this is a good thing. But I've just met another

group of women and we could do more. And I don't want to diffuse it so much that it's a thousand lights that end up to be nothing but a string of lights. I wanted to be something that becomes a true pinnacle. But but building on it, and you meet women and men that energize you, They have ideas, they challenge you. And I don't know about you, but I do know you feel this way that that it sort of gets you to the next day. It's it's just it's worth it. And thank you so much for

joining us today and agreeing to do this interview. I've been privileged to know you and it's wonder ful to be able to bring your words and wisdom to our listening audience. So thank you and Fanuken, vice chair of Bank of America Global Powerhouse, and thank you too for leading the way for our country and world are a better place because of it. Thank you, Milan, and thank you for being a good friend. I appreciate it. Listening to and Finuken is so inspiring she's the true definition

of leadership. There are just a few of the points I took from the conversation. First, when you let your conscience lead you, you can do so much good in the world, and Finucan has done that since childhood. As she quoted from the Jesuits, conscience reigns supreme. Second, the Bank of America programs and has led are truly game changing, providing assistance during COVID, the billion dollar commitment to promote racial and economic equality, the programs for women entrepreneurs, and

those to sustain the environment all impactful, all groundbreaking. Finally, and shows us that we can make a difference if we're always ready to listen and to learn, to learn from the energy givers, the innovators, the people who show what's possible. Tune in on Thursday to learn about our next featured woman and discover why she's one of Seneca's

one Women to Hear. Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio with support from founding partner p And. If you like what you heard on the show, rate and review it on Apple Podcasts, we hope you'll Join us for our next episode of one hundred Women to Hear, where we can all listen, learn and get inspired. Have a great day.