Q&A With BHI’s 2021 Rookie of the Year Award Recipients
Q&A with Josephine Fischioni, First Vice President – Cash Management Sales
Tell me a little about your role at BHI.
My primary role at BHI is to work with our clients to design, propose, and implement a customized cash management solution that helps them manage their day-to-day business efficiently, effectively, and safely. In order for me to be able to deliver in this role I have to collaborate with my team members to strategically prioritize and execute projects so that the solutions we offer can provide value for our clients. I consistently look for ways to improve processes and offerings so that they stay relevant and desirable for our clients.
What do you like best about your job?
There is a lot that I like about my position at BHI. My role is dynamic and I continue to learn something new every day. I love having the opportunity to build relationships with both my clients and colleagues, and it’s my personal goal to become a trusted advisor to both. If I have to select one aspect of my job that I like best, it would be the sense of satisfaction I get from delivering positive experiences for our clients.
What do you like best about BHI?
It has to be the culture and the people. I genuinely like and respect my colleagues across the various lines of business that I interact with on a daily basis. It’s invaluable to be working with a collective group of people who consistently strive to deliver positive client and employee experiences in tandem with achieving and surpassing sales goals.
What did you do prior to joining BHI?
My banking experience spans 30+ years at several financial institutions such as Astoria, Santander, PNC, and NatWest.
What are your goals for 2022?
Our team and BHI as an organization had an amazing 2021, so my goal for 2022 is to build on the success we had last year. In addition to achieving and surpassing sales goals, my main objective is to help drive enhancements to our Cash Management solutions offerings, and even more importantly the delivery of those solutions. It may sound a bit cliché, but for me it all begins and ends with the client experience!
Q&A with Rita Berlin, Vice President – Compliance
Tell me a little bit about your role at BHI?
As the Tax Compliance Officer at BHI, I am primarily responsible for the development, implementation, and ongoing management of the tax compliance program for the bank’s US activities. This includes providing relevant tax guidance to all areas of the bank with a primary focus on US information reporting and withholding (IRW) tax matters.
What do you like best about your job? About BHI?
I work in a highly visible position, and since day one I’ve had the opportunity to directly interact with every department and colleagues across different levels of seniority, including senior management, the business lines, and support functions. This is very rare at other organizations and generally only possible at a bank the size of BHI.
My role is also unique in that my interaction with groups across BHI allows me to delve into granular details, which further allows me to make recommendations for improvement. Overall, I have found the culture of people to be respectful, appreciative, and senior management to be very supportive of tax-related initiatives.
What did you do prior to joining BHI?
I am a licensed attorney (JD, LLM) with over 20 years of experience working for a major global financial institution.
What are your goals for 2022?
In 2022 and beyond, as part of the ongoing management of the tax compliance program, my goal is to ensure that there is continued focus on complying with the IRW requirements, particularly in the first line of defense teams within our organization. Compliance is not a one-time event, but should be well understood and upheld on a daily basis.