Meet the Mentor: banking and global FX expert Alan Urmston

We meet one of our leading mentors, and quiz him about his stellar career – and advice for mentees

FW: With a 35-year career spanning NatWest, global FX, payments brokers, and now consultancy, how have you navigated transitions across such varied environments — and what motivated those shifts?

AU: My career at NatWest Bank proved hugely beneficial and instrumental as I navigated the transition into other sectors due to excellent bank training, the scale of the bank, and pivotally, learning about customer service and satisfaction. Both the broking firm and, language services companies I was employed at had an innate need to attract and retain customers. My experience and commercial acumen were paramount throughout my transition into language services, having no previous knowledge of this industry. Interestingly, it was at this point in my career that Ronel Lehmann and I first connect before I became a mentor at Finito Education.

My 35 years at NatWest ended after working in the City of London, Manchester, and Leeds. However, I continued my professional services career working with global language services providers whilst I established a consultancy business.

At NatWest, you rose through trading desks to senior FCA-regulated roles and even served on a sub-Board committee. What were the key milestones or mindsets that helped you get there?

The key moment was in 1992 when I was working on the world’s largest trading room just before the Pound Sterling exited the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) and “Black Wednesday” occurred, that I first encountered financial derivatives. I was fascinated how these instruments, when used appropriately, could significantly assist a UK corporate manage a financial risk that it was unable to de-risk itself during the course of its ordinary business. Following this, my career remained derivative and corporate focussed which meant that I had to be authorised and regulated by the FCA. Subsequently, towards the end of my time at NatWest I represented my unit on a sub-Board committee specifically for my expertise in how the bank should package and disseminate derivatives to corporates and how the bank itself should manage the credit risk of such products.

Leading and revitalising underperforming sales teams to award-winning performance requires both strategy and empathy. What leadership lessons from that experience resonate most with you today?

As mentioned previously, my time at NatWest provided me with a catalogue of leadership, sales, and human insight training. The leadership lessons that still resonate today are to ask an underperforming team unambiguous, non-accusatorial questions such as what is going badly and why. Furthermore, ask them for their suggestions as to how they would fix and improve matters. Finally, I would ask what could be achieved if we made the improvements. In summary, demonstrating that I listened to them and created a strategy to improve with a self-chosen commitment from the team to succeed. This lesson still resonates as a key part of my thinking on leadership today.

In your role as a Banking Consultant, you support businesses with funding, corporate governance, debt-refinancing and FX risk. What is one complex client challenge you helped resolve, and what was your approach?

I will condense my answer as much as possible without diluting the relevance of the example. I was asked to help a UK, medium size organisation that needed to purchase USD, EUR, and CHF over an initial 12-month with a manageable hedging strategy. My approach suggested a strategy combining a mixture of forward contracts for those orders with certainty of cashflow and a percentage left un-hedged (whilst monitoring prevailing rates). I used two providers to ensure competitive pricing with the following three steps that formed the basis of my approach. The initial task was to establish a robust, risk management policy that defined goals that stabilised cash flow and protected profit margins from adverse currency movements. It also determined the risk appetite, and who was responsible for managing the strategy, with the board agreeing a policy mandate of hedging 75% of all known currency exposures and 25% of projected exposures left un-hedged.

The next task was to help the procurement and accounting teams to forecast USD, EUR, and CHF purchase volumes for the next 12 months, breaking this down by month to align with the purchase cycle. This also meant analysing each currency pair and identify timing and amount mismatches where cash inflows and outflows in a particular currency do not align in time and amount. This helped determine the exposure to be hedged.

The final task of the initial phase was to select the foreign exchange (FX) providers, this included both banks and specialist FX platforms. This meant clear communication of hedging requirements to each provider, including forecast transaction volumes, maturities, and specific needs for USD, EUR, and CHF. It was imperative that each provider established timely and transparent reporting cadence, including trade confirmations, mark-to-market valuations, and performance reports.

Given the current regulatory landscape, especially around foreign exchange exposures, what are the top three pieces of advice you’d give to a small business exploring export/import opportunities?

It is broadly the same advice I would have offered many years ago, however, with advancement in technology now significantly assisting all parties, I would recommend that an importer or an exporter uses a provider that offers not only a customer portal that facilitates not only complete on-line audit trail and reporting but also human intellect to support the technology with sensible, knowledgeable market commentary. The first piece of advice would be to undertake thorough research based on the businesses GBP pricing in different currencies, whether it is financially beneficial and then establish a strategy with a provider of foreign exchange services that also embeds cross border payments into its customer eco-system.

The second piece of advice would be to choose a strategy based on the need for certainty. If there is it would follow to use foreign exchange forward contracts to manage the exposure over a period. Of course, each business has different exposures and price points that could allow a degree of flexibility in the strategy. The final piece of advice would be to re-evaluate the chosen strategy on a regular basis and monitor foreign exchange rates as they can move very quickly, often wiping out anticipated sales margin on non-managed requirements.

As a Visiting Academic and Masters Dissertation Supervisor at the University of Salford, how do you integrate your real-world experience into your teaching? How does it resonate with students?

It is a privilege to be at the University of Salford, Salford Business School supporting and guiding young people through their relevant journey leading to, one hopes, a career in financial services. I integrate real-world experience into my teaching. For example, my Masters students, completing their dissertations, to consider real world events such as “Black Wednesday” or the 2007/8 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and discuss the events leading up to the crisis, during the crisis, and post crisis.  To add relevant and add real-world experience we debate the causes and the lessons learned in relation to the particular module or question being analysed.

Many aspiring professionals struggle to translate academic knowledge into workplace success. What practical tips do you offer students to bridge that gap?

I agree it is a challenge for aspiring professionals to apply their academic knowledge into the workplace. I would, however, suggest these practical tips to both students and aspiring professionals. The first tip is to learn about the current issues, challenges, and latest developments (legal, regulatory, economic and environment) the target industry or a specific company in question faces and crucially keep up to date with events. This is essential when, for example preparing for an interview, or if already in the workplace, being relevant in conversations with co-workers and more senior colleagues. The second tip would be to use as many existing support network opportunities as possible. Universities will have useful programmes to tap into and use LinkedIn to broaden their professional network. The third tip would be to consider taking professional qualifications to enhance learning. Moreover, this is an excellent route to enhance credibility and may be a key factor for future career progression.

After decades in banking, you moved into language service providers—helping firms with multilingual communication. What inspired that shift, and how do your banking skills apply in that new domain?

When I left the banking sector, I considered how best my banking experience, skills and commercial acumen could be used. It soon became apparent that my career was built upon many years of working alongside hundreds of customers and providing solutions to their problems. I soon realised that I could apply my financial, banking, and professional knowledge to a new industry, helping customers with different challenges. Furthermore, I wanted to maintain customer connectivity and centricity. This added to the excitement of having to quickly learn and understand a completely new dictionary of terms and to grapple with different technology.

My banking skills applied in this new domain, primarily due to many years managing customer relationships and experience of gaining and retaining new customers with integrity, trust and professionalism.

Navigating two very different industries—finance and language services—what skills do you see as truly transferable, and what new ones did you develop?

I would consider many skills truly transferable, however, for a customer facing role these key skills would apply in any industry; firstly, asking the customer the right questions with answers that illuminate their issue or problem. Secondly, sharing the solution with the customer and what impact it will have on them. Finally, ensuring services and products are delivered in a professional, competent manner. The skills I had to develop were two-fold. One was learning and understanding the format and process of undertaking a language translation project and the other was this industry already had developed significantly new machine learning skills and artificial intelligence which were far ahead of traditional banking sector.

You’ve mentored newcomers in FX and derivatives markets. What are the most common misconceptions mentees have, and how do you help them overcome those?

I would say the most common misconceptions mentees is an urgency to progress without fully understanding the products they are selling and why they are appropriate to the customer. I helped them to overcome this misconception by highlighting the consequences of an inappropriate proposal to a customer and the potential financial and reputational risks incurred by such an action. Another misconception that often features is the need for accuracy and accountability. Where details on the customer journey and key due diligence when recording the transaction on the bank’s records are missing. To help overcome this misconception I explained that by not documenting each step and process it could cause inaccurate credit reporting, poor audit outcomes and worst of all, an incomplete picture of the customers’ banking profile.

What characteristics or habits do you find set apart successful mentees in your experience?

Successful mentees are those who listen intently, ask pertinent questions, and then take action to move forward. I would also add persistence and pragmatism in the current employment marketplace as being beneficial traits.

You’ve maintained a long and successful career alongside family life—your daughters are pursuing distinct and exciting paths. How have you balanced professional growth with family commitments over the years?

Thank you. It was not easy to balance a career that meant navigating long hours and the occasional weekend away, with my priority of family commitments. I had a clear approach to managing my time which meant I had to be present, completely focussed, and in the moment, whether spending time with my family or in my commitment to serving employers and customers. There were times when I had to compromise, but whilst working alongside my wife, her work commitments, and family commitments, I was able to build my career maintaining the stance of proud husband and father.

If you could speak to your younger self, just starting in banking, what advice or reassurance would you offer?

My advice would be this; have the confidence to ask questions of more experienced colleagues about their role, what they do?, for whom?, and why it is important to the bank? I would also advise seeking out a mentor to help steer and guide me through my early career progression. As for any reassurance I would simply say banking in its purest form will remain as the lifeblood of an economy facilitating the movement of capital and money. However, when I started my banking career in 1982, processes where archaic and labour intensive but with the rapid advancement in financial technology, the incredible opportunity artificial intelligence offers banking customers, and new entrants offering new and interesting services, banking remains an exciting and fulfilling career; it’s just a different landscape to navigate.