CI Financial, Canada’s largest investment firm, has hired consulting heavyweight CGI to modernize its transfer agency business. 

A transfer agency is a company that keeps track of what securities investors own and logs when a security changes hands. Transfer agencies play a critical role in financial markets.

IT modernization 

CI has signed a contract with CGI under which the latter company will modernize the custom-built software platform it uses to power its transfer agency business. Montreal-based CGI is one of the world’s largest IT consultancies and, as such, has no shortage of experience working with large financial institutions like CI.

The companies didn’t say exactly how CGI will modernize CI’s transfer agency software. In a software development context, the term modernization usually means changing an application’s code to make it faster, more cost-efficient or both.

Another possibility is that CI is looking to change the type of IT infrastructure on which its transfer agency software runs. That, too, can require extensive code modernization.

Notably, CGI will not only modernize the software but also take over its maintenance.

CGI will handle the maintenance work involved in running CI’s transfer agency platform and deliver the platform to the Canadian financial services giant on a software-as-a-service basis. As part of the agreement, CGI will hire the CI employees who were responsible for managing the platform until now.

The companies’ consulting deal extends to a number of other areas as well.

Alongside the transfer agency platform, CGI will manage some of the software that CI relies on to support clients who invest in its mutual funds. Among others, CGI will take over the management of the systems that CI uses to support its mutual fund record-keeping operations.

Big benefits

CI COO Darie Urbanky commented that “we’re excited by the tremendous benefits this new relationship with CGI will bring to our clients, our firm and our employees.” CI hopes that the deal with CGI will enable it to better support clients, as well as the investment advisors in its ecosystem.

CGI executives are equally enthusiastic about the deal, but for a different reason. “This partnership represents a significant milestone for our global financial services business, highlighting the value of CGI’s end-to-end services,” remarked Guy Vigeant, CGI’s top executive in Canada.

Vigeant’s point about the deal and its benefits with regard to “highlighting the value of CGI’s end-to-end services” is most significant in a marketing context. The deal will make it easier for CGI to prove its know-how to potential clients in the banking sector.

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