“You don’t modernize a private bank without breaking a few habits” – Interview with Olivier Pagès, COO of CMB Monaco

CMB Monaco has just shaken up its technological infrastructure. Before we get into that, who exactly are you, and why should we know you?

CMB Monaco is an international private bank, rooted in the Principality for several decades and now part of the Mediobanca Group. We manage the wealth of families across multiple generations; these are not clients comparing brokerage fees, but clients entrusting us with the complexity of their lives: multi-jurisdictional structures, succession planning, cross-border tax issues. What truly sets us apart is that, with a team of 270 people, a client can call their private banker and get an answer within the hour. Try doing that in London or Zurich.

“Digital transformation” has become a cliché. Why invest heavily in it when your business is built on human relationships?

Precisely because our business is built on human relationships. A private banker who spends three hours a day manually reconciling data is three hours not spent with clients. Technology is not there to replace the relationship: it’s there to give time back to it. And our clients demand it, the new generation of investors (heirs, digital entrepreneurs, etc.) no longer accepts receiving a portfolio statement by post when they track their assets in real time on their phones.

The real risk is not investing in technology – it’s failing to do so. A private bank that sticks with tools from the 2000s won’t lose clients tomorrow. It is already losing them today, quietly, to faster-moving competitors.

In concrete terms, you have replaced your core banking system. That’s a risky move for a bank in operation. What has it changed?

Risky, yes, and necessary. We migrated our core banking system to Avaloq and integrated BlackRock Aladdin for portfolio management and risk management. This is a massive undertaking, and it would be dishonest to say everything is perfect overnight, stabilizing a platform of this scale takes time, and we are actively working on it. But the direction is clear: our bankers are starting to take ownership of their new tools, habits are changing, tasks are gradually being automated, and our clients now have access to a new mobile app that will continue to expand in the coming months.

CMB Monaco is the first bank in Europe to adopt this Avaloq–BlackRock Aladdin combination. The rollout is ongoing, we are progressing in phases, but the foundation is in place and the trajectory is clear.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere in banking narratives. For you, is it real or just communication?

It’s real, but still under construction. We are gradually deploying AI with BlackRock to transform dense analytical reports into targeted summaries that bankers can quickly use. The long-term goal: to detect weak signals in portfolios, such as sector overexposure or emerging counterparty risk. But the banker remains in control. AI does not replace human judgment – it enhances it. Clients want to speak to someone who knows them, not a chatbot. Our conviction is simple: in private banking, even the most powerful AI in the world will never replace the handshake that seals a wealth decision worth several hundred million.

Monaco is often perceived as a niche financial center. Is that a disadvantage or an advantage?

It’s a massive competitive advantage provided you know how to leverage it. Monaco offers what no major financial center can: proximity. Within twenty minutes, you can meet your banker, your lawyer, your family officer, and have lunch with an investment partner. The Principality’s political and legal stability is not a marketing argument, it’s a reality that our clients, sometimes facing instability in their home countries, genuinely value.

Our ambition is clear: to be the reference bank of the Monaco financial center, with technological capabilities and an investment offering on par with the world’s leading players, but with the agility of a firm that knows every client by their first name.

Looking ahead five years, what will CMB Monaco look like?

A bank that clients recommend without being asked. A bank where the best banking talent on the market wants to work because the tools match the ambition. A bank that has reinvented itself without losing what it stands for: demanding, reliable, close to its clients. We are not building “the bank of tomorrow” – the phrase is overused. We are building the bank our clients expect today, and that did not exist yesterday.