OREANDA-NEWS. The noted international financial services organization BAFT (The Bankers' Association for Finance and Trade) has launched a new program to recognize and encourage the next generation of high achievers in the transaction banking industry. BAFT calls the initiative the Future Leaders Program, and has selected Ryan Welsh from Treasury Services as an inaugural participant.

A specialist in trade finance assigned to sales and relationship management, Welsh, 28, covers a territory that extends from the Midwest to the West Coast, and focuses on importers and exporters, including a number of major domestic agricultural commodity producers that supply markets outside the U.S. Welsh joins 27 other bankers representing 25 institutions in 12 different countries named to the BAFT program's first group of participants. 

Program participants have been organized into project teams organized around three challenges common to all transaction banking institutions: 1) recruiting and development new talent; 2) payments compliance; and 3) understanding the role of emerging technologies. Welsh is a member of the 'recruitment and development of new talent' project team, which is meeting weekly and like the other two challenge teams, will present recommendations to the BAFT board at the organization's Annual Conference & Regulatory Compliance Forum in May.

"Given our strategic focus on talent development, we're delighted to have Ryan as a representative from Treasury Services participating in BAFT's program," said Ian Stewart, executive vice president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon's Treasury Services business. 

"We often point to treasury services as the foundation for client relationships that often include touch points all along the investment life cycle. In some ways, trade is as basic to treasury services as treasury services are to our company's client relationships. That makes Ryan's participation as a trade finance specialist in BAFT's leadership program especially appropriate."

"Ryan's selection also shows the benefit of our longstanding involvement in BAFT. As a BAFT board member, I've seen first-hand the significance of what our head of trade finance, Howard Bascom, was able to accomplish during his service as BAFT's chairman. BAFT's successful merger with IFSA (the International Financial Services Association) during Howard's chairmanship made BAFT truly global in scope, and an even more important resource for banks engaged in transaction banking," Stewart said. 

A 2010 graduate of Washington and Lee University with a B.S. in Business Administration, Ryan joined BNY Mellon in September of 2010 as an entry level college grad. First assigned to Treasury Services as a cash management and trade finance client service associate, he was promoted to vice president this past December, and reports to Howard Bascom as a member of the Global Trade Finance & Credit Services team.  

“The opportunity to interview at BNY Mellon came just a few years after the 2008 crisis. Looking back on that experience, I feel lucky to have encountered people who were willing during a really tough time in our industry to take a chance on a guy right out of college, Welsh said.

"From day one I got a lot of support, and it came from all levels. The folks in Trade Finance went out of their way to welcome me and get me solidly positioned as a member of their team. Once my career started moving forward, Howard, Eric Kamback, and David Cruickshank were incredibly helpful in encouraging me to participate in the pilot Investment Services rotation program. Once I completed the program and secured my current position, Howard and Ian have gone out of their way to get me involved in activities like the BAFT program that can broaden my understanding and experience, and help me build an impactful network.”

“I'm a firm believer in the importance of differentiation, and feel fortunate to be part of company that stands out because of its reputation for outstanding customer service and building and maintaining mutually beneficial, trustworthy relationships,” Welsh said.