Birgitte Bonnesen worked for Swedbank for thirty years where she became president and CEO in 2016. She is most notably one of the most influential leaders in the banking industry. Swedbank is a Nordic-Baltic banking group that is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The bank specializes in financial services, asset management, and retail banking.
Birgitte is a very progressive leader as she handled the banking group’s technological upgrades to a digital platform which helped to automate their consumer loan and mortgage processes.
Under her leadership, the banking group amassed over 600,000 corporate clients and more than seven million private clients making it Sweden’s largest banking establishment.
In addition, more than half of their sales contracts are completed on the digital platform increasing efficiency. Birgitte Bonnesen is a strong leader increasing Swedbank’s revenue by almost 9% just one year after the digital upgrade.
Birgitte Bonnesen was also president of the Swedish Banking Association from 2017 through 2019. The association represents financial institutions and banks established in Sweden, and they are members of the European Banking Federation. Their duties include regulating and creating policies around payments and security and informing the public on its banking sector.
Birgitte was raised in Jutland, Denmark and moved to Sweden in the late 1980s. She majored in English, French, and economics, and earned an MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Before becoming the chief executive officer of Swedbank, Birgitte Bonnesen took several key roles in the company heading Swedish and Baltic bank initiatives. She worked as the chief audit executive, head of internal auditing, and she led trade finance and global financial institutions.
Birgitte’s career advice is visionary, and she believes that having this ability and being persistent are keys to success in business. Long term strategies take planning and patience.
With banking and technology, she predicts that the whole revolution is in the middle of a major shift where digital platforms drive consumer behaviors and create needs within banking and society. An example of the need for artificial intelligence in banking can be felt in the customer service sector where chatbots can interact with customers and solve simple problems with their accounts. Technology is offering solutions for repetitive tasks.
Her advice to others interested in executive positions in banking is to specialize in an area related to technology whether it be in computer or behavior sciences. Technology is driving many aspects of finance and it’s a valuable topic to master.
