Continuing Education
Well-trained managers for a solid future: interview with Nicolas Krügel
June 2, 2025
At BCGE, skills development is a strategic priority. In a constantly evolving banking environment, training employees, building a strong management culture, and relying on solid partnerships such as the one with ISFB are all levers to ensure the institution's excellence, sustainability, and agility.
Mr. Krügel, you are CEO of Banque Cantonale de Genève. How important is skills development within your institution?
Acquiring skills and maintaining them at the highest level is essential for an institution such as ours. BCGE has therefore set up a training center organized into sectors: management and talent, front-line professions, and cross-functional professions. Our employees are thus trained, both technically and behaviorally, by internal or external instructors as appropriate. Ultimately, the objective is to ensure advanced technical mastery, strong leadership skills, and excellent customer service—three essential aspects of our differentiation and the realization of our vision.
How would you describe the management philosophy at your bank?
Our ambition is to ensure that everyone carries out their role autonomously, with courage, authenticity, and fairness. This involves preparing the next generation so that they take over their roles imbued with these values and equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to lead. It also involves cultivating this aspiration with all line managers regularly, in management meetings and in our daily work with our clients.
What do you expect from your managers in terms of management, and how do you support them in their training?
The Bank's objective is to maintain a high level of managerial skills and ensure that all line managers are proficient in the tools, methods, best practices, and knowledge essential to exercising their leadership role. To this end, the Bank relies on a significant internal training program, supplemented by external interventions, to ensure the sustainability and development of these skills.
A new edition of the ISFB Banking Management and Adaptability certificate will take place in the fall of 2025. What major challenges do you identify in this area, and how can this program offer concrete solutions?
The issues facing banking sector managers are vast and sometimes very diverse in nature. By addressing a wide range of topics within a single program, the ISFB Banking Management and Adaptability certificate constitutes a key contribution to the preparation of banking executives in the French-speaking financial center. This certificate also allows professionals from diverse backgrounds to demonstrate different ways of approaching and addressing these issues.
Your bank works regularly with the ISFB. What benefits does your bank derive from this collaboration?
The ISFB is a long-standing partner of BCGE. Its undeniable added value lies in its specialization in banking topics, which provides our institution with access to high-level training, as well as the opportunity to exchange experiences and best practices with professionals from other institutions. This helps our employees develop a very high level of knowledge and skills.
