Overcoming Incomplete Information to Meet a Critical Deadline

A leading international bank was selling its European financial asset services to another firm. The complex migration this involved was falling behind schedule with unexpected challenges threatening key deadlines.   

Transformational Impacts

• Pinpointed issues holding back the migration and rapidly developed effective solutions. 

• Migrated all 80 customers and 170 investment managers within a four-month period.
• Ensured key legal requirements of the project were met to enable the sale to continue.

“The initiative required clear communication with clients and their associated third parties which the team excelled at. Under the stewardship of the executive leads, consultants excelled into highly valued members of the team and the business analysts were outstanding. The project was delivered in a timely manner with a clear and focused understanding of what was needed.”

Identifying obstacles to a rapid migration

The firm faced a time-sensitive challenge to migrate 80 customers and 170 investment managers to a new custodian under a court-sanctioned, legal transfer VII (Financial Services and Markets Act 2000). 

The new custodian had set an ambitious timescale, but underestimated the need for detailed and precise documentation, leading to incomplete and inaccurate information that slowed progress. 

As delays mounted, frequent updates were required to keep customers and investment managers informed, risking a loss of confidence in the process. 

Our role was to identify and resolve these issues, ensuring a smooth and reliable transition, while meeting critical deadlines. 

Putting change management expertise into action

We worked closely with both banks to identify the core functional and operational differences that could impact customers and investment managers, as well as key actions that needed to be taken. 

This enabled us to shape a tailored and structured migration solution, including the revision of inaccurate information which we redelivered to customers and investment managers.

Our strategy was also underpinned by the development of key documents and tools:

• A Master Information system that played a critical role in identifying accounts, services and methodologies relevant to the project.
• A Transition Guide informing customers and investment managers of changes. This was supported by semi-automated appendixes developed by our business analysts.
• Factsheets for customers and investment managers showing the current position of their accounts concerning services, reporting and transmission methods.  

Meeting vital project deadlines

All 80 customers and 170 investment managers were migrated to the new client within a four-month period, meeting key deadlines and legal requirements. 

This was made possible by our specialist team who had the expertise to quickly analyse what was holding the migration back, pinpoint effective solutions and implement them to tight timescales.  

Alongside developing documents, tools and methodologies that supported the project, our team communicated with customers and investment managers before each migration, ensuring they had clarity throughout the process.