Banco Hipotecario: Vision, Dynamism and SDG-Adherence

Banco Hipotecario President Celina Padilla Meardi has a vision to create better opportunities for her fellow Salvadorans through banking services.

She believes that updating knowledge in legal, financial and technological areas will help to achieve that goal. She has put her extensive professional training to good use.
After graduating from the Universidad Doctor José Matías Delgado in 2002 with a degree in Legal Sciences, Padilla Meardi obtained her license as a lawyer and notary.

Padilla Meardi continued her postgraduate studies and achieved a Master’s in International Transactions and Comparative Law from the University of San Francisco. She also has advanced studies in the legal aspects of technology and blockchain, and in 2018 graduated in Network Designer Conversations from the Generic Management Skills Programme of Medellin, Colombia.

“With a customer-centric and dedication to the modernisation of financial services offered by the bank, Padilla Meardi bases her management style on four pillars: trust, transparency, respect and communication.”

With this experience, a commitment to her country and strong ethical values as a professional, Celina Padilla Meardi took charge of Banco Hipotecario in June 2019. Under the administration of the president of the Republic of El Salvador, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, she was charged with generating productivity and strengthening Banco Hipotecario services.

With a customer-centric and dedication to the modernisation of financial services offered by the bank, Padilla Meardi bases her management style on four pillars: trust, transparency, respect and communication. This has generated an environment of innovation and development.

One of her aims is to enhance the Banco Hipotecario’s adherence to the Principles of Responsible Banking through the Financial Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP FI.

This aligns the Banco Hipotecario’s business model with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, entrenching the role of financial institutions in the care of the environment at national and international levels.

As a founding signatory, the bank has committed to promoting products, services and relationships to support and accelerate changes in the economy necessary to achieve shared and lasting prosperity.

Important steps have been taken with the launch of the BH 365 Financial Correspondents and the BH Lite Account, products that will allow thousands of people — some of whom had been excluded from the national financial system — to benefit from banking services.

Recently, Padilla Meardi inaugurated the BH Café project, an agency that provides products and financial advice and makes available technological tools, including tablets, free Wi-Fi, a comfortable working space (and delicious coffee — from Salvadoran suppliers).