Clients bank on corporate social responsibility

Hampden & Co was pleased to be one of the main supporters for the Cazenove Capital conference – Mission Led Investment in Scotland – that took place at the EICC (Edinburgh International Conference Centre) last week.

After negotiating our way into the venue past a throng of reporters and press photographers who were there to cover HRH the Duke of Sussex’s appearance at an adjoining event concerning sustainability in the travel industry, attendees heard an opening address from Cazenove Capital’s Bob Hair that touched on why private investors play an important part in securing a better future for the world.

As Bob put it in his opening remarks: “Responsible investing has become such a big issue that we expect it to become the mainstream very soon. Investment can no longer just be about pounds, shillings and pence.” Three key themes – climate change, social inequality and homelessness – were then further examined during the course of the conference.

As the mother of an eight-year-old child, global challenges around areas like climate change and how it could impact life as we know it in the relatively near future, are something that I think about along with many other people I know. It is something that has blurred the lines between our business and personal lives and, increasingly, these kinds of topics are ones I discuss with my own clients.

Social Bite founder Josh Littlejohn was one of the keynote speakers at Mission Led Investment in Scotland who reminded the gathering of the seriousness of big societal problems at hand. Social Bite has been an agent for change when it comes to homelessness, not only in Scotland but also beyond our borders.

Hampden & Co is a longstanding supporter of Social Bite, with our CEO Graeme Hartop sleeping out on Charlotte Square at the very first sleep out several years ago, and we have also used Social Bite for catering ing at our headquarters in Edinburgh. We were also pleased to see one of our former banking directors, Malcolm King, join Social Bite’s corporate engagement team ahead of the World’s Big Sleep Out last year.

In terms of my own journey, I joined Hampden & Co from Handelsbanken earlier this year having worked in private banking for more than a decade. While the last few years have seen me broadena client base in my native Fife, I am now actively growing my network in Edinburgh itself and have been bowled over by the number and quality of events happening across the city on a weekly basis.

One of those recent events was the Business Women Scotland roadshow. Business Women Scotland, which was founded 11 years ago by Lynne Kennedy, connects some of the nation’s most inspirational women and fittingly took place in the lead up to International Women’s Day earlier this month. Like every sector of industry in the early 21st century, we want to see more women in private banking and I’m proud to be one of those women.

Overall, in my short stint at Hampden & Co so far, I have been greatly impressed by the quality of the team and the absolute client-first focus. In my experience, while lots of banks talk about relationship banking, Hampden & Co really does walk the talk. We now have more than one hundred people across our Edinburgh and London offices and that gives us great perspective on what is happening in Scotland and the UK as a whole.

By offering pure banking services, we have been able to work with a broad range of wealth managers, solicitors and accountants across the UK and that has been hugely valuable in ensuring that our clients are getting the right professional advice according to their needs - the kind of tailored approach which is the bedrock of a leading private bank like Hampden & Co.

Clare Ansell, banking director at Hampden & Co

Climate change has blurred the

lines between ourb usiness and

personal lives