“We are technologically ready, we are operationally ready, we are ready with the correspondent banks,” said Interview Tamara Caballero Velasco, general director of Multiva.
The woman, with more than 35 years of experience in the sector, stressed that the Banco Banco’s fiduciary business adapts to the new multive business model. “We have this responsibility to maintain and improve the very high level of service to which customers were accustomed.”
The banquera said that one of the advantages of operating the CI Banco business is that the systems are compatible with those of multiva so it is expected that after the authorization of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), the business operates in two weeks.
“We have the way maps and if all that is correctly concaten, on September 1 we will open the doors for this new business,” he added.
When asked if he feared that the bank acquired trusts that could be linked to illegal activities or indicated by the United States Government, Caballero Velasco said that these instruments are so complex to structure that they have very strict customer knowledge controls.
In multiva they have implemented artificial intelligence to validate the files, to analyze possible demands or litigation, as well as a comparison of information with the lists of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the International Financial Action Group (GAFI).
“Open a trust has a brutal responsibility and therefore has a series of super important controls. This business has gone through other layers of control of other banks,” he said referring to that in 2020, CI Banco bought the fiduciary business to Deutsche Bank, which was estimated at 900 trusts with 74,000 million dollars.
To have everything ready, Multiva hired the American firm Sidley Austin, who advises him on compliance and money laundering prevention. He also included the law firms White & Case and Galicia and lawyers, to advise on the acquisition, while Ernst & Young helped them with the fiscal part.
The person in charge of Multiva declined to give the number of former CI Banco that joined, but made reference that it was “a large team.”
A new era for banking in Mexico
Tamara Caballero Velasco believes that this episode of the bank, indicated by money laundering and links with drug trafficking, is “a very strong blow.”
“We need shielding,” he said.
In its criteria, good levels of capitalization or liquidity that a bank can have are not enough as long as it is not understood that having good security and prevention controls are more important.
“The court is different, the rules are different and we will need to adapt to it,” he said. “We unionly need a common front to address this situation that has been presented.”
Keeping the fiduciary business assumes it with honor and respect for the affected bank, but understands that it is a new phase in the Mexican financial system.
