Complex risk models are no match for BMO’s Market Risk Technology Team  

Between 2007 and 2009, the world experienced a financial crisis that changed regulatory demands and increased the need for disclosing market risk. For BMO’s Market Risk Technology Team, this meant scaling risk platforms, more regular stress tests on various data, and running far more complex risk models to predict the bank’s ability to withstand hypothetical future adverse events. This work had to be done outside of business hours, which presented a challenge. 

To help modernize and simplify our platforms, BMO engaged multiple cloud technology partners to harness the power of the cloud – and build a flexible and modern risk platform to meet the bank’s regulatory risk requirements for years to come. 

“The real challenge is not the new services themselves. It’s adapting legacy processes and skillsets to get the full potential from cloud adoption,” notes Harsh Katoch, Managing Director, Market Risk Technology at BMO.  

One example of BMO leveraging the full potential of the cloud is our partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Together, BMO and AWS have used Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), grid computing and Amazon CloudWatch to continue innovating and optimizing computational resources. A scaled-up, elastic cloud platform allows BMO to run multiple risk metrics and regulatory stress calculations in parallel, and scale computational capacity for future regulatory requirements. 

This work has been effective across BMO’s businesses. Using various services from multiple partners demonstrates the power of our digital strategy, which includes increasing technological flexibility and driving product innovation for customers. 

Learn more about how the Market Risk team uses AWS to optimize computational capacity.