Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has announced the launch of its new Enterprise Collateral Management System (ECMS) – an integrated, cloud-based, ‘one-stop-shop’ platform to manage, store, review and track collateral data across the Bank.

Bendigo said its new ECMS – ‘Collaterals 360’ (or C360@BEN) platform, which was two years in development, integrates 15 internal and external legacy systems previously used for collateral management – a risk mitigation process whereby two counterparties exchange items of value in order to secure a financial transaction, typically an unsecured loan.

The new digital repository provides a “single source of truth” for managing securities, according to the bank, helping to reduce the double handling of data, removing duplications, and mitigating the risks of incorrect discharges.

The new C360@BEN platform was also commended by Bendigo for providing an interactive and user-friendly experience for its staff, which it said would “simplify, modernise and digitise how the bank manages and records its collateral information”.

Chief operating officer at Bendigo, Bruce Speirs, hailed the new system as “foundational”, noting that the ECMS would “enhance the bank’s compliance with its regulatory and customer service obligations, upgrade our overall collateral management process, and improve the quality and completeness of our security documentation”.

Commenting on the considerable efforts put in to migrate data to the new C360@BEN portal, Speirs added that “the development of this new system involved the meticulous analysis and validation of more than 350,000 collateral records and 20,000 insurance records”.

“It was a huge undertaking and I want to congratulate all those involved in the project for their hard work and dedication over many months.

“C360@BEN is a foundational system that will evolve over time and allow us to introduce improvements and new features on a phased basis across our various business units.

“The construction of C360@BEN further illustrates the Bank’s commitment to boosting its digital capabilities by rebuilding its technology systems to be digital-first, cloud-operated, and API-enabled.”

Speirs concluded: “The momentum behind our digital transformation, means we remain well on track to becoming a bigger, better and stronger bank.”