BANKER
A Style of Banking
Every bank has its style, just like the people at their helm. In this regard, Banco Popular was no exception. In the words of its leader, it was a bank distinguished by its vocation as an Anglo-Saxon style financial group, “primarily providing financial services, without a desire to participate in businesses from other industrial sectors.” As its leader, Valls brought to Banco Popular a great capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and aimed to differentiate the bank by always focusing on the customer – “the person, at the center” was his motto, and emphasizing service quality.
The Gemini Banker
Luis Valls often referred to being born under the sign of Gemini when speaking to journalists; he attributed his duality to this circumstance, a personality of two sides that also manifested itself in his approach to banking1 . Indeed, when discussing his banking principles, he proclaimed himself classical and revolutionary. He was a cautious experimentalist.
“What is your understanding of banking today?” he was asked once 2 . His response was: “In terms of its substance, my understanding of banking today aligns with the classics: banking is a business of many small transactions, small margins, never taking big risks. However, regarding the means to be employed, I find myself among the revolutionaries: payment technology and information technology — as a means of obtaining information — are clearly instruments that have revolutionized the profession.”
These were two different ways of doing things by one individual identity. “No matter how much the banker uses modern tools,” he added, “he still has to choose between one model of banking management or another. He has to decide whether to engage in pure or mixed banking, the degree of internationality of his operations, what should be his optimal size, whether or not to engage in speculation, the typicality or untypicality of his operating income, where to place and how to control interest and term risks, and so on.”
Some of his Aphorisms
Luis Valls was famous for his aphorisms, which he shared with a team that always listened attentively. Some of the ones he used most frequently, referring to his banking approach, are these following3:
- Eliminate any action that does not contribute to generating income. Be efficient. Work on productivity.
- Be transparent. “Information, all; advertising, the essential; propaganda, none.”
- Do your job as a service to others. Think about the interests of the group and not your own.
- Do what needs to be done, even if it’s not what you like. Do what needs to be done without expecting recognition or rewards. Do what needs to be done without worrying about what others will say.
- Never stop improving. Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” .
Bibliography
(1) Excerpt from the book History of Banco Popular. The Struggle for Independence (Gabriel Tortella, José María Ortiz-Villajos, and José Luis García Ruiz, Marcial Pons, 2011). (2) The interview was published in FUTURO EMPRESARIAL, in October 1990. (3) Collected in the chapter “Personal and Professional Decalogue (Definitions from the Royal Spanish Academy)” with which the book Documents>Version 2 Luis Valls-Taberner begins (Luis Pérez Salas, Foundation for Social Care, 2007).
