Published: January 15, 2025
In its bid to attract more young talent into treasury, BNP Paribas’ unique trainee programme is creating something of a stir. Romane Steisel, Strategic Marketing Project Manager, BNP Paribas Cash Management Competence Centre, explains how it is helping the next generation of treasury leaders on their way.
To many students with an inclination towards business and finance, treasury is something of an enigma. But that perception is being turned on its head as BNP Paribas’ Treasury Talent Place programme builds momentum. Launched as a pilot with four students in September 2024, its second wave will get underway in March 2025.
The ultimate aim of Treasury Talent Place is simple, explains Steisel: find the next generation of talent – and offer all the opportunities and support necessary for those individuals to become the treasury leaders of the future.
The programme to achieve this has been co-created by BNP Paribas and a number of its corporate clients. Suitable candidates are afforded two six-month traineeships. The first period is spent with BNP Paribas’ broad cash management team, and the second with the corporate treasurer of a client.
Programme content has been designed, as the BNP Paribas literature says, to provide trainees with “a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the entire cash management value chain”.
To this end, each candidate receives a customised experience, notes Steisel. This incorporates a common core, to enable them to grasp cash management as a whole, and tailored content, to meet the specific requirements of a corporate treasury while taking into account the students’ own interests and needs. Within this scope, trainees will use their first six-month tranche to learn all the relevant banking basics from BNP Paribas, before being immersed in the real-world treasury practices of its client partner for the final six months.
These real-world encounters will enable trainees to become directly involved in the day-to-day activities of their corporate sponsor. Crucially, this will also reveal to them how treasury operational activities support the organisation’s strategic goals.
Throughout the programme, there is full feedback, support and mentorship for each trainee. This, says Steisel, equips them with the wherewithal not only to carry out their mission successfully but also – and the hope is that this will indeed be the case – build a long and fruitful career in treasury.
Currently the programme covers France only, but BNP Paribas has plans to expand into Switzerland and Spain in 2025, with possible roll-outs in the Netherlands and Ireland. Wherever it is offered, Steisel says trainees will be onboarded locally, but may opt to undertake their work in another participating country, “to create for themselves a truly international experience”.
The broad idea, explains Steisel, is to “aim for young talent”, whether a current student or one who has recently graduated. While candidates do not need to be from a specific finance-focused master’s degree background, she says an interest in figures is obviously pre-requisite. The real goal, she declares, is to find trainees who are “curious about treasury, and eager to learn”.
“This is the biggest driver for acceptance onto the programme. We start by exploring their interest in cash management and treasury, and how much they know about it. But we make it a two-way process, and we will answer any questions they may have,” she explains.
While not pointing the finger in any particular direction, Steisel says treasury and cash management are not topics that are commonly taught at universities. “It’s why few students know much about the profession or its prospects. But with our client partners, we’re trying to raise awareness and inspire the next generation. We are fostering in them the idea of a new vocation; one that most will not have thought about before.”
Since the programme’s launch, the BNP Paribas team has found a number of ways to reach its target audience. Presentations at careers fairs, with the opportunity to discuss treasury with the audience, has helped. “Going into educational establishments is something we are also increasingly doing,” says Steisel. “We recently welcomed studentsfrom the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) so they could not only discover the bank but also start to explore the idea of cash management and treasury as a career option.”
BNP Paribas is also keen to host more student workshops at its premises, either with local teams, centrally in Paris, or in Brussels where its cash management competence centre is located. “We’re trying to engage students through conversation, workshops, and case studies,” discloses Steisel. “We’re also organising interactive panels with some of our corporate clients, so that they can hear first-hand about how we work together.” The bank is likewise leveraging LinkedIn to reach a wider audience with shorter formats and messaging.
In addition to these ongoing activities, in March 2025 BNP Paribas will run its third annual Expert-Student Day. Intended as an educational and networking event, it hosts around 70 students from France and Belgium, with a group also from Montreal, Canada expected this year. The two-day seminar exposes attendees to a range of professional profiles, including banking experts and corporate treasurers including representatives from the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT). It’s an event at which students will be able to question current corporate treasurers about how they arrived in their roles, how they feel about their work, and maybe seek candid advice on how to progress in their own careers.
The first six months of the traineeship are spent with the bank. This starts with a three-week onboarding period. It aims to balance the discovery of cash management products and solutions, with a more hands-on look at their forthcoming mission with their corporate sponsor. This period is followed by on-the-job training, working with two project managers to ensure exposure to different scenarios. The student will also have weekly calls with a mentor to review progress and to discuss any questions or issues.
During the six months with the bank, each trainee will be immersed in the process BNP Paribas refers to as ‘vis ma vie’ – live my life – in which they will discover all parts of the cash management business. It provides, for example, one week with the proposal management desk, so they understand how RFPs work. They will also have the opportunity to go to an Association Française des Trésoriers d’Entreprise (AFTE) industry event. Spending time with experts from the bank’s cash management competence centre, based in Brussels, is similarly on the agenda.
By working with a range of different stakeholders, the Treasury Talent Place programme uncovers more than on-the-job training could achieve. During this time, the trainee will additionally have some client interaction, working on a real implementation project. This will equip them with all the necessary knowledge before joining the client for the final six months of their traineeship.
During each phase, a midterm and final assessment of the student’s progress is provided. This is not a formal evaluation but is rather intended to ensure they are on the right track, explains Steisel. “It’s a programme that we value highly, but it’s a human programme,” she states. “We want to inspire our trainees to pursue a career in treasury. It’s purposefully flexible, and we always try to understand the needs of the students and the clients, to find the best of both worlds.”
When this programme is presented to students, three promises are made, explains Steisel. “First, that they will have a global understanding of the cash management value chain and the treasury function. This is something that they will rarely get to learn at university. Second, that they will work on real-life projects with real clients, and be involved in real duties. And third, that we will help them create a network of contacts by giving them access to a mentor and experienced people within the industry.”
By delivering on these promises, she says each trainee will be able to develop a highly competitive edge in the corporate treasury job market.
The corporate clients that wish to take part in this programme are typically either struggling to find the right talent to employ in treasury, or they need urgent support to implement a key project. With that in mind, BNP Paribas makes the student selections and undertakes the first phase of training.
By agreeing to take part, each corporate client will unlock access to talented and motivated students who, with their initial bank-led training, will be ready to hit the ground running once in the corporate treasury environment. As Steisel observes: “It’s a great way for the corporate to have access to a pool of young, talented and motivated students that are ready to contribute to their treasury projects”.
While students understand from the outset that there is no guarantee of a job for them at the end of the programme – indeed in France some will be returning for the second part of their master’s studies – there could be an opportunity for both parties to agree on making the position permanent.
For corporates, the requirements of the BNP Paribas Treasury Talent Place programme are simple. First, they need to have a specific mission that they would like their trainee to carry out. It must align with the programme’s objectives and values because, as Steisel explains, “this is about engaging the trainee in a genuine project, and enabling them to learn”.
The second requirement is that the corporate client will provide the trainee with proper guidance, mentoring, and constructive feedback throughout the mission. The corporate therefore must find time to work with the trainee and also be available to provide full support throughout their internship with them.
And finally, the corporate must be committed to providing a “comprehensive and engaging experience” for their trainee. This, declares Steisel, sits at the heart of the BNP Paribas Treasury Talent Place programme. “Ultimately, together with the client, we want to inspire the next generation of leaders of the treasury industry.”
The aims of this programme are to have a strong positive impact at an individual level, but ultimately reach far and wide. As Carole Djen-Ullmo, Global Head of Communications and Marketing, BNP Paribas, explains: “By co-creating with its clients a unique upskilling programme in cash management and treasury, BNP Paribas positions itself as a central player in its ecosystem and a leader committed to preparing the future of the profession. This demonstrates our commitment to making our fields known and loved by new generations”.
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