Dan was appointed Regional Head of Corporate Affairs for India & South Asia in September 2014, with responsibility for all corporate and staff communications, sustainability and community initiatives across our four South Asian markets (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal). Dan is based in Mumbai, India and manages a team of 21 people.
Previously Dan was Regional Head of Corporate Affairs for Africa between 2011 and 2014, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dan joined Standard Chartered in January 2008 as Group Head of Government Relations, based in London, and managed the Bank’s relations with the UK and US Governments, international institutions including the European Union, and led advocacy on public policy.
Before joining Standard Chartered, Dan spent eight years in the UK Treasury, advising Ministers on a variety of domestic and international policies. Dan has also worked for several environment and development NGOs (including six years as a non-executive director for a UK development education charity) and the United Nations Association
Q. Do you feel there can be a Company/platform like Airbnb or Uber to challenge the traditional approach of banking?
Dan Mobley: We have already seen the rise of exciting new technologies that are revolutionising aspects of banking, especially around retail payments. Often these have been driven by new entrants in developing countries who have cleverly adopted to local needs.
For example, Africa is seeing startups driving a huge up take of mobile banking: across the continent only around a quarter of the population has a formal bank account, yet in countries like Kenya an estimated 50% of the population are accessing financial services through their mobile phones. In India, companies like the Delhi based Beam allow customers to use their mobile phones to pay bills, buy train tickets and remit money to relatives, with transaction costs much lower than conventional banks. Technology will really help in the fight against financial exclusion.
But these services are mostly additional to, rather than replacing, traditional financial institutions. Banking and payment systems are, rightly, carefully regulated to prevent money laundering, fraud and other financial crimes which inevitably acts as a brake on the rise of new providers. In many cases, banks like Standard Chartered are already using digital and mobile technologies to improve our existing products and services and I’d expect many of the most exciting innovations – including ideas around using “big data” - to come from within the sector rather than outside.
Q. How important storytelling is for a Bank like Standard Chartered?
Dan Mobley: Story telling is everything. Banks have historically been very conventional in the way we try to reach our customers, with old fashioned advertising campaigns and press releases about new products. Even today, if you see a TV commercial or a print ad for a bank and cover the logo, they can seem interchangeable between competing banks! We try to use stories about the positive impact we have, whether on our customers, our staff or the communities we live and work in, to differentiate Standard Chartered. Our promise, to be “Here for good”, is all about the stories we tell ourselves and others about our values, our history and the people we are trying to help by being a well-run, responsible and progressive bank.
Q. How has your storytelling shifted over the years?
Dan Mobley: Our decision to rebrand as “Here for good” in 2010 was a pivotal moment for us. This was a bold claim to make when the terrible impact of the financial crisis was being felt worldwide, driven by some very unethical behaviour in parts of the industry, and the reputation of banks and bankers was at its lowest ebb. We wanted to show that banks can and do play a positive role in society. We wanted to capture the essence of Standard Chartered: what makes us different, what do we stand for? Can we be about more than just profit? What commitment can we give to be there for our customers through the bad times as well as the good? The very process of debating our brand generated huge numbers of stories about our history, our people, the places we operate and how we try to be different – many of which have then inspired our ad campaigns as well. These stories also act as a guide to our staff on how we expect them to do things the right way.
Here for good allows us to tell stories as diverse as: the support we gave to the people of Sierra Leone during the recent Ebola crisis, increasing our lending to local business with a new $50 million working capital facility; the 2 million people we have educated about HIV-AIDS worldwide through our “Living with HIV” programme; or the more than 1% of Bangladesh’s GDP that our business supports every year.
Q. How do you approach digital platform & social media to engage with the bank’s core essence – Here for Good?
Dan Mobley: Banks can be very conventional beasts! Many have struggled to come to grips with social media and what it might mean for how to promote and protect reputations. We use Facebook and Twitter to speak and listen to our customers directly as well as to tell stories we think might interest them. The most interesting aspect for me is when social media cuts through how you think you might be perceived and tells you how you really are viewed, positively and negatively. I’ve seen great examples where someone has criticised us on social media and other customers, without any interference from us, have come to our defence, citing great customer service or some of our community projects.
Social media also stops us getting complacent – these conversations about us are happening whether we engage or not. There’s simply no point turning ostrich and burying one’s head in the sand of press releases and ad campaigns if there is a very different debate going on online about your brand by your customers. Reflecting the shift in corporate communications in the digital age, we have also recently launched our own content hub called Beyond Borders (https://www.sc.com/BeyondBorders/) to house our own publications, opinion pieces, infographics and videos.
The idea behind this “brand journalism” is not to churn out corporate propaganda about our business but instead to showcase expertise and insight in topical issues, in a way that we hope will grab the attention of our clients, staff and potential new hires, journalists, commentators, regulators and governments.
Q. In today’s open information age, people search for transparency. They want to validate any message/campaign with the actual behaviour of the Bank & its people. How do you drive this part?
Dan Mobley: Nothing generates cynicism faster than hypocrisy, so we strive to live our talk in everything we do. All banks are ultimately just people, a few buildings and some IT. While we can make incremental improvements to our infrastructure, it is only really through our people that we will set ourselves apart from the competition so we work hard to ensure our staff discuss, debate and understand what Here for good tries to encapsulate. We have extensive training programmes covering good conduct and what kind of business we want to do and – more importantly – what kind of business we will turn away. We have published and regularly update on our website our 20 “position statements” on sensitive sectors related to environmental and social issues and all our relationship managers have to pass training courses on how to apply these rules. We have also shared our internal policies on how we deal with clients and staff in order to prevent bribery and corruption, money laundering or to promote diversity and inclusion, human rights or health and safety. Ultimately, having the best trained, highly motivated and well trained people working for us is the best safeguard for our reputation and brand.
Q. What would be your advice to professionals in the banking industry?
Dan Mobley: First, challenge conventional thinking in what a banking brand really means – it should not be a slogan or a sales pitch but something that tries to encapsulate the culture, history and promise that a business offers to all those with a stake in its operations. Banks and banking can be boring and conventional but they don’t have to be! Second, marketing matters as much within an organisation as it does outside. If your people don’t believe in your brand they won’t try to promote and protect your reputation. Finally, despite its battered reputation following the Western financial crisis, banking can and does play a vital role in the world. Good, well run banks drive the trade, investment and growth that will alleviate poverty, create employment, sustain vital tax revenues, fight financial crime and much more. We professionals in the industry have a responsibility to rebuild banking’s reputation as a force for good in society – we can find, shape and tell the stories that explain this essential role.
Dan Mobley will be visiting Bangladesh to attend Communication Summit on August 29 as a session speaker. In the session he will be sharing his experience on branding, banking and the impact of technology. Communication Summit is a day-long program of Commward 2015, which will be attended by 300 registered marketing & business professionals.
