Anneka Treon: From head to heart

“Born and raised in London, I'm originally Indian. My parents moved to England in their early 20s, because of the political situation in Africa. At school, I was a bit of a nerd, with big glasses and awkward hair. My parents were really hardworking, and I thought I should be too. I put a lot of time and effort into my studies. I was very curious. My mother was quite strict. No cartoons, only healthy food, etc. We had a videotape closet and the only videos I could watch were about learning the piano, the guitar and one on chess. I was intrigued by chess and ended up being UK champion.

The power of empowerment

I’m now ING’s global head of Private Banking, Wealth Management and Investments. Just the words, ‘private banking’ may be elitist for some people. If I wanted to be elitist, I wouldn’t have joined ING. I have a different perspective. I’m all about empowerment. I believe that money doesn’t buy you happiness. But financial disempowerment can probably make you unhappy, regardless of your wealth bracket. That’s why I believe so much in this business.

People don’t necessarily invest because they want to. They invest as a means to an end. Whether you’re a CEO of a large company or from another walk of life; many real-life decisions are made at the kitchen table. Including investment decisions. Investing €100,000 for one person can be as scary as investing €10 million for another. Numbers may differ but human emotions are pretty similar. We are all emotional beings that make non-rational decisions. Driven by things like fear, greed and hope

Simple… but complex?

Investing is a bizarre concept because it’s simple, yet it appears complex. It’s democratised yet there’s a perceived barrier to entry. Statistically, each and every one of us, can double our money every seven years or so. That's what compounding is. But we get in our own way, because of our emotions and the complexity that comes with our personal situations.

My interest in banking started early. I was 15 when I joined a bank for the first time and spent most of my school holidays interning at banks in London like Morgan Stanley, Rothschild, Goldman Sachs, etc. It was an unconventional age to start but I elbowed myself in with an unconventional story about chess and another hobby of mine, MindMapping. I was curious about what looked like a sophisticated industry, filled with such smart people and wanted to find out what happens in real life. All these ‘suits’ that go into these impressive buildings, what are they doing? It reinforced that this was my thing.

The spontaneity of life

From an early age I’ve been quite rational, analytical and logical. Everything came with a plan. But I was soon confronted with the beautiful spontaneity of life. My husband and I met at a young age and we married very young. He was based in the Netherlands and as an entrepreneur, was physically connected to that part of Europe, so I had to move. It felt like a tough surrender at the time, but I now realise how lucky I was. It brought such a powerful perspective and so many life lessons. I was schooled at big banks where the business card gave you a huge head-start and moved to a bank that prospective clients had never even heard of. I quickly realised: wow, we better build something here and earn our right to exist.

It was the third day of my new job in the Netherlands when I fainted in the office. Pregnant and I didn't even know it! It was very derailing. It wasn’t in the ‘plan’ to marry young, let alone have a child at 22, but it ended up being so educational.

Inner mission

I have an inner mission to acknowledge the non-rational and to commit to truly guide and empower people around investing. Think about the entrepreneur working day and night on their business. For such an individual, the scarcest asset is time. It means having one or two deep ‘kitchen-table’ conversations to make an investment game plan, which can be tracked and adapted digitally with an on-demand advisor who truly cares.

The private banking industry increasingly focuses on the very wealthy. These clients get plenty of attention but also plenty of complexity that sometimes becomes counterproductive. Clients with lower wealth get less and less attention. And further down, there’s a huge chunk of society screaming out for guidance. Robo advisory was supposed to take that space, but it didn’t succeed. Because they’re not talking to people’s heart space.

The colour orange

Within ING we have a strong Private Individuals and Business Banking franchise. This gives us amazing insights into what clients might be interested in or worried about. We try to use this in our advisory journey to save them time and hassle.

ING is already in the heart space of our clients. We have over 39 million Private Individual customers in 10 Retail markets digitally engaging with us multiple days a week. For those with the capacity to invest, we can add one or two human, ‘kitchen-table’ moments to this digital journey, and bring value. It's an unmet need in the market that ING is so well positioned for.

I’m very proud to work for ING. And my priority is to do things the ING way. As a global investment community, we have built a conviction around what orange means in the world of investing. The wealth management and investment industry is growing so rapidly, with declining interest rates encouraging people to invest. We don’t want to just participate in this space, we want to leapfrog how we can add value to clients in it. With our mindset of being first, we focus on empowering clients through their heart space. That’s what makes us different.”