In a ‘fireside chat’: Simon Shepherd, MD, MGTL, and Paul Jamael, MB, CIBC Capital Markets, discussed this important subject at the BAFT Europe Bank to Bank Forum on 11th March 2025 in Amsterdam.
Correspondent Banks are looking for new and innovative ways to rationalise their operations and better manage risk; Paul and Simon talked about how Technology Platforms are empowering Correspondent Banking operations.
Technology Platforms as enablers.
During the panel, Paul highlighted that CIBC’s Correspondent Banking arm is leveraging MGTL’s Platform to automate and streamline critical tasks, including Client Relationship Management, Governance and Oversight of audit trails, RFP Issuance, Network Management, Data Management, Invoice Management, Regulatory Reporting, and Account Opening Processes for vostro and nostro accounts.
Paul also noted that the MYRIAD Platform is bringing a number of strategic benefits to CIBC’s Correspondent Banking operations, including improved transparency, faster processing times, reduced bottlenecks, cost synergies and enhanced risk management, to name just a few examples.
The Platform has ultimately given Paul’s team greater bandwidth, allowing them to devote more time and resources to identifying new revenue opportunities, strengthening Client Relationships, and dealing with complicated business issues.
This comes as regulatory pressures, i.e. sanctions, stricter Know-Your-Customer (KYC), Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) rules etc., along with the recent turbulent market conditions, have made Correspondent Banking more complex, risky and expensive.
While the tough headwinds have forced some Correspondent Banks either to exit the business altogether, de-risk, or retrench from non-core markets, Providers who are using cutting edge Technology Platforms, such as those offered by MGTL, are finding it much easier to navigate the challenging conditions.
Looking to the future.
In today’s fast-changing and increasingly competitive market, Providers need to be agile and constantly improving their Products.
By collaborating with Clients, such as CIBC, MGTL is continuously working on ways to enrich and augment its solutions. Customers are already benefiting from some of the upgrades MGTL has implemented, as part of its Next Gen Programme. In fact, CIBC is poised to become the first Client to use MGTL’s exciting new PDF invoice ingestion and reconciliation tool.
In the retail world, Consumers are used to having an end-to-end digital experience when buying goods and services online, and the same is true for Institutions, which now expect their Providers to have similar levels of digitalisation embedded into their Services. To meet the needs and specifications of tech-savvy Clients, MGTL is improving its GUI front end by making it more user friendly.
Market conditions are also becoming more volatile, and this is posing major issues for Clients, especially during the Relationship Management process. In response, MGTL is developing an additional Risk Module by introducing tools to support the scoring and analysis of risk questionnaires, governance, reporting and oversight of identified risks.
When choosing a Vendor, it is vital Clients work with Providers, like MGTL, who are continuously pushing themselves to improve their Service Offerings and delivery.
