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just four years – an emerging pattern that national and global banks agree would be foolish to ignore.
The percentage of banks implementing API gateways to accelerate digital banking innovation.
Ahead of the Curv
When it launched in 2019, Cortex Life was heralded as something excitingly new. Described by BNP Paribas as an industry first, the single dealer platform allows traders to seamlessly buy and sell everything from bullion to emerging-market currencies. Even more striking, though, is Cortex’s digital assistant. Known as AliX, it offers clients a running commentary on execution and trading, as well as important events like market wobbles or changes in liquidity. AliX manages all this by reacting to over 100,000 data points every second, meaning even frazzled financiers can make decisions quickly. Gavgani, for his part, says Cortex and AliX are a “one-stop shop” for business clients of all types. “It speeds up daily tasks, such as pricing complex options versus traditional methods,” he adds. Nor is Gavgani and his team stopping there.
72 Dough Roller 10
The number of countries with a BNP Paribas bank – making it the eighth largest in the world.
Rather, Cortex and AliX are the short end of a far broader wedge – one that ultimately promises to reach every corner of BNP Paribas’ business. As an example, Gavgani describes BNP Paribas Securities Services’ partnership with Curv, a cloud-based digital asset security infrastructure. In simple terms, the system uses private keys and multi-party computation to ensure that transactions are signed securely. But though this technical wizardry is certainly impressive, Gavgani returns to the lodestar that’s guided BNP’s digital transformation since 2016 – listening to what customers actually want. “One of our primary objectives with this initiative is to allow our clients to continue to benefit from the efficiencies of their existing operating model for traditional assets,” he explains. “We will provide them a consolidated service covering both traditional and digital assets – allowing them to leverage the same communication channels they have with us today along with a consolidated account structure across both types of assets. As we are still in the very early days of institutional investments in digital assets, our short-term objective is to lay a solid foundation to be able to service our clients once they are ready to invest in these new types of assets.” This focus on keeping the customer happy extends to retail consumers too. Lyf Pay, for instance, is a free mobile payment app that centralises customers’ cards, coupons and loyalty cards in a single place. BNP even lets them connect to other financial institutions. It goes without saying, says Gavgani, that all these successes have forced BNP Paribas to take a sensitive approach – nudging customers towards a digital future he’s convinced can help everyone. “It makes sense to help clients move from one technology to the other, ensuring that the legacy technology is used less and less.” The same could
be said of the bank’s own workers, embarking on their own digital adventures. Appropriately known as SEARCH, this specialised search engine collates everything staff need to know in one spot. Making these internal schemes successful needs work. For one thing, says Gavgani, the bank hunts for the most promising young boffins, and shepherds them through the ranks via mentorships and graduate schemes. For another, BNP organises courses for older staff to keep them abreast of new developments, training around 300 each year. As Gavgani notes, 50% of what a tech graduate learns at university will be irrelevant in just five years. Beyond personnel, another major challenge is keeping these new digital platforms safe. That’s doubly true for Gavgani, who says that security should be an “obsession” for CIOs the world over. It’s unsurprising, in other words, that his bank has over the years developed a comprehensive security team – and the technology to help. If, for example, the AI spots a certain account acting suspiciously, it’ll immediately inform the bank.
Role with it
Between proactive security and constant training, it’s clear that Gavgani and his team are building the foundations of a robust and durable digital infrastructure. More than these institutional moves, however, Gavgani says he’s had to rethink his own role at BNP Paribas. “I think that the role of a CIO has completely changed”, he says, suggesting that the shock of the pandemic has forced the profession to broaden its outlook. “The role of a CIO today is matching technical skills with business performance. This is why IT is becoming increasingly essential – specifically in the bank and for our customers. Tomorrow’s banks will be digital, and engineers will be part of the business to build new products.” This is already happening at BNP. Putting data up into the cloud – and then using it intelligently to help clients – are the two pillars of what Gavgani describes as the destiny of his bank. This is undoubtedly part of a broader trend. At HSBC, for instance, a new API now lets businesses understand their cash flow and automate operations. At Barclays, the so-called ‘Smart Investor’ platform uses elegant UIs and automated data analysis to make transactions simple. No wonder, then, that Bernard Gavgani devotes so much time to these technologies himself, spending two days each week working on the latest cloud and AI platforms. “I know that this is the future,” he says. “We cannot – and have no right to – miss this transformation.” Given his bank’s form, he probably shouldn’t worry. For two centuries, BNP Paribas and its predecessors have already shown just how successful embracing change can be. And anyway – you get the feeling that Gavgani is happy to work past midnight to make it happen. ●
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
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