From Bunnik to the Zuidas
By Nelsy Salden-Rebbens
In 2006, I graduated with a degree in Economics and Social Sciences. It wasn’t a course that attracted large crowds, but it appealed to me all the more.
The idea that economics and financial markets are shaped by human behaviour was gradually being embraced. Corporate governance codes such as the Tabaksblat Code had been introduced not long before, and their effects were still largely unknown. I specialised in this, in responsible behaviour in financial markets, or something like that.
My learning didn’t stop when I started working.
Miles apart, yet just a stone’s throw away
‘Responsible’ is a term we love in the financial sector. It sounds nice and objective, but I learnt that it is precisely not. During my time in Bunnik, responsible lending in consumer credit meant something quite different from what it meant during my years at the bank in Zeist. ‘Responsible’ can mean: we won’t lend you more than you can repay. And ‘responsible’ can mean: we’ll lend you money if you invest it in something that benefits our planet and life on it (and can be repaid).
There is a strong belief in ‘responsible’. Objectively speaking, Bunnik and Zeist are only a stone’s throw apart, but it turned out to be miles apart. Not in the lovely colleagues I worked with, not in the enjoyable and educational things I did in both places, and not even in the intention to do good. But in the practical application of ‘responsible’.
It taught me to shift my perspective and, sometimes out loud or in a soft whisper, to question apparent objectivity. I learnt that money isn’t objective; it’s subjective. You determine your own worth.
From cash box to dealingroom
Exactly twenty years ago, I entered the world of finance. I think it's a powerful place.
Too powerful at times.
With my broad range of experience, which I can still draw on for some time to come, I want to give meaning to the system and, above all, to the human experience within it.
I’ve travelled between filling cash machines, carrying cash boxes, right through an office in Driebergen and a secure dealing room in the Zuidas, where you won’t find a single physical euro. Between spending money you don’t have and setting money aside for a future that may never come. The lessons of the past 20 years have shaped me both personally and professionally.