CGI has partnered with the Bank of Montreal (BMO) and the National Bank of Canada (NBC) to pilot the use of intelligent process automation in capturing, identifying and classifying documents as part of the CGI Trade360 global trade platform’s transaction flow. The purpose of the pilot is to help these banks and others accelerate their digital transformation by automating paper document flows, ultimately improving their trade finance operations, compliance and relationship management. CGI collaborated with technology partner Conpend, a leading provider of artificial intelligence solutions for trade finance processes, in planning and executing the pilot project.

The pilot proved the integrated CGI Trade360 and Conpend solution increased efficiency and effectiveness of trade finance processes for the participating banks. The project team also documented accuracy and data capture rates as part of a broader set of metrics, which will be used to benchmark the commercial version of the Trade AI platform.

"We at BMO view this initiative as foundational in our ambition to be a digitally enabled Global Trade Finance business. Integration to our core CGI Trade360 platform will enhance operational efficiency and our client experience with this proven intelligent process automation. We appreciate the partnership with CGI and Conpend in our digital transformation journey," said Dean Gillis, Managing Director & Head, Global Trade, BMO.

“This pilot is very exciting for National Bank of Canada since it enables us to accelerate the deployment of digital solutions for our trade finance activities. We are confident this will improve our customers’ experience while allowing us to be more efficient, flexible and agile in answering their ever evolving needs,” said Normand D’Arcy, Senior Manager, International Services, National Bank of Canada.

Marc Smith, founder and director of Conpend, said: “Via our Trade AI application, Conpend provides digital transformation software to the trade finance industry – automating the processing of both digital and paper-based trade documentation. Working collaboratively with CGI Trade360, we are able to substantially and rapidly extend our reach to global financial institutions, many of whom have been struggling with the manual processing of documentation for decades.”

Torben Sauer, CEO at Conpend, added: “This pilot is an excellent example of the Conpend-CGI partnership, and its success strongly demonstrates the transformative potential of Trade AI.”

"Financial institutions have a growing need to accelerate their digitization initiatives to become more resilient and meet increased customer and employee expectations around digital capabilities and services," said Frank Tezzi, Vice-President of Trade and Supply Chain Solutions at CGI. "With this successful pilot, our client banks are able to empower their employees and refocus on high-value work while further digitizing trade finance processes and reducing costs."