Financial Coach

Fadi lost his heart to ING when he did an internship at the bank while studying banking and insurance as part of his secondary vocational education. He stayed on afterwards, all the way through his degree in Commercial Economics and beyond. He recently celebrated his tenth anniversary at ING, and he can’t imagine a better employer.

“I got several job offers after graduating, but I was in no doubt that I wanted to stay at ING. They had been so flexible during my degree that – thanks to all kinds of creative work schedules – I’d been able to work 20 to 30 hours a week, which I was very happy about. I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere and teamwork with colleagues, and I can’t imagine anything more interesting in terms of the work itself. There are so many different clients and so many different situations that I never get bored.”

The overall financial situation

“We help customers with a wide range of issues – from installing the ING app to opening an account if they can’t figure out how to do it themselves online. But if they are open to the idea, we also dive deeper into the customer’s overall financial situation. The key is to spot the underlying question and go the extra mile so that you can add even more value for the customer. Nobody comes to us saying ‘I want to invest’, but by talking to them you might discover that it’s a suitable solution in their case.”

‘Nobody comes to us saying ‘I want to invest’, but you might discover that it’s a suitable solution’

“As a financial coach, you inform clients about relevant solutions but you don’t advise them. That’s an important distinction. We need to have quite a lot of knowledge about our products, of course. Among other things, that knowledge comes from studying for the mandatory qualifications under the Dutch Financial Supervision Act. I’ve recently completed all the mandatory sections again. That was quite tough; I find it relatively easy to learn, but it’s always hard to study alongside your work, and the subject matter is pretty intense.”

Big smile

“What else do you need as a financial coach? You must be a good listener, show interest and find it easy to build up a rapport quickly. You must genuinely enjoy working with all kinds of different people – even ones who are irritable or emotional or downright rude. On the other hand, some customers are really lovely and bring you cakes or give you compliments, and take an interest in you and your way of working. That’s priceless. Whenever that happens, I head home in the evening with a big smile on my face.”