One of the great advantages of UIUC is it can provide usabundant of social resources, for instance, we have many alumni in famouscorporations, and thus make us have great opportunities to visit some world-famous firms, like the Northern Trust, the 4thlargest trustworldwide.
NorthernTrust was founded in Chicago in 1889 by the respected banker,Byron Laflin Smith, at that time,the then capital was 1 million dollars. NorthernTrust has offices in the United States in 19 states and Washington, D.C., 23international locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacificregion, and 18,100 employees globally. They serve the world’smost-sophisticated clients – from sovereign wealth funds (including Social Security Fund of China) and the wealthiest individuals and families, to the most-successful hedge funds and corporate brands (including Bank of Communications, China Life Insurance).
The Northern Trust earn their reputation thoughan amazing record. They not only survived but thrived during the GreatDepression, two world wars and the 2008 financial crisis. They burnished theirreputation as a global leader delivering innovative investment management,asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking solutions enabled bysophisticated, leading technology.
We were host by Don, Andrew, Sheldon and Allen,all of them are VPs of Northern Trust of corporate finance dept.
At the very beginning, Don gave us a briefintroduction of the history, the acquisition, the ownership structure and thescale of business. By the end of first quarter of 2018, it has 10.8 trillion USunder custody& management; 8.1 trillion US under custody; 5.7 trillion USasset under administration; 130 billion US in banking asset. Their businessmainly in two parts: corporate& institutional services and wealthmanagement for high ended individuals and families.
The employee turnover rate keeps quite low in
Northern Trust. For the past
125 years, they were only 10 top executives. Don has workedin the company all his career, fro 38 years; Sheldon has worked here for 35years.
Don explained why they survived 2008 financial crisis: theywere not in the risky business; they were relatively conservative and careful;they got good financial strength.
Sheldon walked us the corporate culture: service, expertise,integrity; and the asset servicing part. He said they thought themselves astechnology company rather than a financial company.
Andrew shared more information about the technology thatNorthern Trust adopted. They had applied AI and blockchain into part of theirbusiness. Recently they were exploring more applications in smart contract andhow technology change customer behaviors.
For the first time, we experienced working lunch. While wewere eating, the respected VP continued to answer all the questions we came upwith. Our people asked many great questions about the popular technologyaspect. However, for me, I think one of the take away is their idea aboutcustomer education. They set benchmark for their customers. Once theportfolio’s performance is better than the basis, they no longer need to worryabout the complaints. Another thing about education is they examine severalquestions from time to time: what they do, what could go wrong; educatingcustomer go for long term targets.
I was expressed by their culture that they view employees aslong- term partners and the CEO and Chairman can answer the phone of a regularstaff. The way they communicate is of high efficiency.
Great experience and really learn a lot. Everyone value thisgreat experience very much.
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