A global Private Bank required assistance with the merger of its two private banks in Switzerland to define a unified strategy, organisation and service offerings.

• Prior to the merger, one of the two existing banks had concentrated its technology and operations support in a shared service centre based in Geneva, Switzerland, to support its international private banking activities (EMEA and Asia) in a centralised and efficient way.

• After the merger, this service centre faced the challenge of taking on board the private banking activities of several legal and organisational entities, supported by different platforms and with a geographical span across several time zones.

• Assist the budgeting and resourcing exercise and set up a Program Management Office.

• Ensure business continuity by defining and rolling out target and transitory operating models for the different entities.

• Help the bank to adapt its integrated systems and process to the merger’s needs. More specifically:
  • Lead the implementation of the functionalities required to support the new treasury model.
  • Coordinate the procedure and system alignment of the credit department.
  • Help in resolving the cash reconciliation backlog that resulted from the merger.
  • Organise training on the Back Office system.

• Identify and implement process improvement and post-merger optimisation opportunities.

• Structured approach to the merger.

• Defined unified solutions for the new bank strategy, procedures and services.

• Defined and rolled out a transitory operating model for the combined activities while ensuring business continuity and allowing the bank to present a single face to the market at the early stages.

• Developed and implemented an emergency support structure for post-merger production.