BWS received a request of cooperation with a primary management consulting company in the preparation of the necessary documents for the submission of an application for an Electronic Money Institution license under the Payment Service Directive 2.
The support consisted in providing skills, knowledge and drafting of the documents attached to the authorization application, in order to operate in the field of i) Payments by electronic money, ii) Consumer credits within the limits allowed by PSD2, iii) Issuance and management of credit and debit cards enrolled in international card schemes.
In Compliance with FINMA Circulars on Outsourcing arrangements and on Operational Risks, BWS was requested to review all agreements with Vendors, assessing the correctness and completeness of contractual provisions and internal processes in the domain of Outsourcing of significant functions.
BWS was also mandated to complement contracts with additional provisions, where deemed necessary, discuss directly with the Vendors and evaluate with Legal Department the most suitable contractual integrations.
In continuity with the advice in the feasibility study and business and operating model design performed in 2021, the mandate received focused on the implementation phase of the “New Swiss Private Bank” project.
After selecting the core platform and the Vendor / Outsourcer, the tasks performed by BWS have been in the domain of the implementation of a standard IT Banking Platform in full outsourcing and in the processes design and Vendor contractual provisions fine tuning.
Leveraging on blockchain and DLT, and on its already developed idea that revolutionizes the Inventory financing market, the Fintech company wanted to explore the way to transform an already digitized physical inventory in a bankable asset, enabling its distribution to private and professional investors, in full respect of laws and regulations, in a given elected country, through the existing bank network.
The client, an important Private Bank in Geneva, asked for BWS support to implement in parallel the new FINSA (Financial Services Act) and a new Avaloq logical model for Persons with active roles on accounts.
Those projects were showing relevant functional overlaps, with major risks identified both in the technical implementation and in the client contact needs, but with deadlines that were not allowing any replanning option.
The entry into force of the Financial Services Act (FinSA), of the Law on Financial Intermediaries (FinIA) and associated Ordinances (FinSA and FinSO), are pushing the community of the Independent Asset Managers to rethink their structure, the services offered to the clients and their business model, adopting changes that may result not only in obligations to adapt themselves to the new regulation but, above all, in new business opportunities.
Thanks to the experience and deep knowledge on MIFID 2 and FinIA / FinSA financial legislation, deepened in several projects with banks and financial institutions, we have been mandated by our client, a leading Swiss Asset Management company, to accompany and support him along the path of the adoption of new Laws and Ordinances.
The bank, recently licensed by FINMA, has introduced innovative processes, fully digital, to offer products and services to its client base that integrate new technologies and traditional banking.
While the main focus is on designing effective digital onboarding and on developing solutions to support dealing in financial instruments both digital and traditional, attention is also devoted to internal processes, with the will to have effective Change management and Vendor management, associated with a proper project portfolio governance.
We helped an Asset Management boutique, which decided to expand its business model, adding the provision of advisory services and portfolio management services not only to its direct clients but also to Independent Advisors, having a similar business purpose, in the name of their direct clients.The move is part of a larger strategy update, in view of the important changes that the new Regulations Financial Services Act (FinSA) and Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) entering into force in 2020 are going to introduce in the Industry for all its members.
Targeted Independent Advisors are those who lack of the minimum organizational capabilities and of an adequate IT and operating platform, especially in view of the new regulatory requirements that will increase dramatically the obligations in terms of controls, risk management, compliance and investor protection.
The bank, recently become an independent Bahamian licenced bank, after its sale to a new Shareholder, in full BPO with Avaloq Sourcing, was engaged in the upgrade of the core banking platform and, in parallel, in the replacement of its e-banking application, two big projects to be performed at the same time.
One of the largest Trust groups, with offices in all the most important Financial Centres and a full range of services offered to target clients, wishes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its processes, looking for the advantages that new technologies can provide also to areas of business typically labour intensive.
The implementation of the group business strategy will rely on solutions flexible in terms of usability, essential and simple in terms of functionalities, tailor made in terms of available features.
The bank, a primary European group, after a selection process conducted with our contribution, decided to adopt a full BPO model for its Swiss Private Banking International Hub and launched a migration project, as first step of the Hub implementation.
The company, previously in outsourcing for most of its core processes, was requested to review its administrative set up, as a consequence of the termination of its main outsourcing contract. Constraints on budget and a work in progress for the definition of its medium term strategy have brought the company to require an assessment of its operating model
A Bahamian bank, formerly a subsidiary of a Swiss banking group, requested, as a consequence of its sale to a new shareholder, to implement a fully independent operating platform.
The dismissal of the services provided by its former Swiss Parent Bank and the implementation of a new business and operating model were the key components of this project.
Using our methodology, we have provided the bank with an easy-to-use list of measures that will allow the bank to reduce its operational risks in the area of IT infrastructure management, Application maintenance, project management and internal controls devoted to monitor the outsourced services. We helped also the bank in re-writing their Service level agreements with third parties and we co-operated in the management of the key projects.
The objective was to identify smart and cost effective solutions, based on their core system Avaloq, complementing the advisory tool functionalities, for those requirements not supported by the tool itself, and designing a process framework consistent with the use of two applications synchronised only in batch mode.