eFinancialCareers

The world is global. What a cliché – or is it? You have only to look at the credit crisis to know that it’s true.

Who would have thought that the American sub-prime mortgage crisis could lead to a run on Northern Rock? Or look at the labels on anything and everything that you buy. I’ll bet that most of it is made in China.

The same is true in banking. The world is global. Every successful banker that I know thinks nothing of hopping on a plane in search of a deal. Their firms send executives to live and work elsewhere in the world – places where their skills should lead to a cross-fertilisation of knowledge and ideas and where their expertise will be valued.

In 15 years in banking I worked in New York and London – but that is not to say that I only worked with Americans and Brits. Several bosses were American, but there were also numerous Italians, a Lebanese, an Aussie, a Kiwi. My team included a Greek, a German, a French national, an Italian, a Swede, as well as Brits and Americans.

There is a need for understanding and tolerance of the countries and cultures from which we come. If a German schedules a meeting at 14:00, you had better be there by 13:59 (or more likely 13:50 to negotiate the reception procedures), or you are late. If an Italian says they will arrive at 12, don’t actually expect them at 12. A Dutchman may offer you a sandwich or a bread roll with a glass of milk for lunch. To a Frenchman this would be anathema.

And all this is before you start talking about linguistic misunderstandings. As a native English speaker working in London, I had the luxury of thinking I was always able to fully express myself. It would be easy to think that Americans and Brits can understand one another – yet Winston Churchill famously said that we were “two nations divided by a common language”. And he was right. Something that is 'not bad’ in England (or 'pas mal’ in France) is not necessarily the same as 'not bad’ in America.

The major international banks that exist today are precisely that – international. Is Barclays truly British anymore? Do you need to speak German to work at Deutsche Bank? Is Goldman Sachs just American?

Working in a global, multi-cultural society means that you have to be tolerant. Open-minded. Accepting of others. And if you want to work in finance, the culture that you have to accept more than any other is American. All these international banks have lost some of their national identity and replaced it with something more international and something more American.

Like it or not, America is a world force and as a group, American investment banks dominate the market more than those of any other single nation. The US dollar may be suffering these days, but the American work ethic and can-do attitude are spreading. Have a nice day.

Anneke de Boer is a former managing director of Morgan Stanley’s fixed income business in London. She retired in 2006.