IT transformation has marked 2023
2023 has been a major milestone in UniCredit’s Global Securities Services. We have completed our major IT transformation project, which started in 2019, and rolled out the new custody platform of BANCS in 8 markets across Central and Eastern Europe. The real transformation can start just now, having a “state-of-the-art” system as a baseline for our future differentiating service model and capabilities.
In October 2023, with the final implementation of BANCS in Austria, GSS completed a pivotal chapter in its digital transformation journey, underlining both the vision of the business for the long term, as well as the Group’s commitment to its overall strategy for efficiency, client centricity, empowerment, enablement, and overall mindset to “win for the future”.
We are extremely proud of this achievement which, above all, occurred thanks to an adept team of seasoned custody product and technical experts from the Group Digital, dedicated GSS business colleagues across multiple locations, and our partners from TCS. Their combined expertise, dedication, and collaborative spirit turned our vision into reality and the complexity of all eight markets was significant. The resilience and leadership shown by every member of the team were nothing short of impressive throughout the journey. This project made us even stronger and more resilient for any change we may need to encounter in the future. We did it together and all of us can be proud of this success.
Throughout this project, our mantra and promise to all clients was that this would be a “no negative impact” transformation and we can confidently claim that this target was met. We also maintained strict deadlines and, again, our dedication, collaboration, and perseverance enabled flawless discipline in meeting all our milestones.
With this immense transformation, GSS is now ready to meet the needs of our partners well into the future. Amongst the many benefits BANCS brings, some highlights include greater, versatile, and individualized reporting capabilities, harmonized across all entities; flexible and timely corporate action notifications, available in multiple formats according to client needs; even greater reduction of operational risk through enhanced automation of multiple business processes; full ISO20022 compliance with conversion capabilities where needed; a fully integrated billing and invoicing system including cash interfacing; automated trade-matching and settlements with CSD proprietary systems. This list continues, but, most importantly, along with the high-quality services we provide, we are now well-positioned to fully adapt to all future requirements, be it client or regulatory-driven. This is even further strengthened through our cooperation with TCS, as with their far-reaching network of provider solutions we can now, by being members of the vendor working group for regulatory compliance, leverage and advocate on a large network.
We also appreciate our clients' unwavering support throughout this entire transformation, from feedback provided in helping shape our direction, all the way through to dedicating capacities in helping test the systems in all implemented markets. It goes without saying that without their trust and involvement, this project would not have had the same level of success, and, for this reason, this success is everyone’s to be celebrated!
As we move into this new era, GSS carries forward its confidence that it will continue providing the service excellence the industry not only recognizes, but has come to expect from UniCredit, backed by a system that underpins our continued dedication to surpassing all expectations.
