The investment bank Morgan Stanley celebrates this week the 15th anniversary of the establishment in Montreal of its technological development center, which has just experienced an accelerated expansion, while its workforce has doubled in the last three years. Sophia Bennaceur, regional manager of the Morgan Stanley Montreal technology center, explains the mandate of this branch of the New York institution and the reasons for its strong growth spurt in recent years.
It was in June 2008 that Morgan Stanley gained a foothold in Montreal by taking over the activities of some 200 IT specialists from the firm Compuware, which developed software for it.
Courted by the Quebec government, the company decided to make Montreal one of its information technology development centers, which entitled it to tax credits of 30% on the salaries of its developers.
“I joined the Montreal Technology Center seven years ago as Chief Operating Officer, when we had 800 employees. Today, we have reached 2,800 employees, which makes Montreal the third largest technology center for Morgan Stanley after India (Bombay and Bangalore) and New York.
“The Bank established itself in Montreal because of the pool of IT talent and the large university pool found there, which makes it an ecosystem with very high potential. We are in direct time with New York, which is also an advantage, “said Sophia Bennaceur, in post for a year now as senior manager of the Montreal office’s activities.
Several factors explain this significant boom. The Montreal Technology Center supports the development of applications and that of all the bank’s systems, be it securities investment software, wealth management or financial instruments, compliance, human resources and legal.
“Over the past few years, we’ve integrated new FX and regulatory functionality, and there’s been the migration to the cloud and the acceleration of digitization with the integration of data and cybersecurity.
“There is the constant need to develop the systems, we have recruited a lot over the past three years by seeking specialists from all fields, from aeronautics to video games, we have recruited internationally by participating to the missions of Montreal International and we also solicited the university network,” explains Sophia Bennaceur.
Two weeks ago, Morgan Stanley hired 100 interns who had just finished their university term, and is even going so far as to recruit from Montreal CEGEPs.
“We hire them during the summer and some will stay with us while continuing their studies. Over the past 10 years, we’ve hired 489 college graduates who have gone on to become analysts,” says the manager.
Second largest investment bank in the United States, just behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley is present in 42 countries and has 80,000 employees worldwide. Its IT activities employ nearly 30,000 people worldwide.
“The Montreal Technology Center represents 10% of Morgan Stanley’s overall IT business. We don’t just do software development, we also have a cybersecurity center, an artificial intelligence center, and we even do quantum digital with the group’s first quantum engineer in North America,” proudly explains the Montreal manager.
“We are a cost center for the bank, but we offer savings and we can count on a large pool of talent, quality people who have the capacity to develop. The vast majority of our leadership staff have been with us for over 10 years,” the leader points out.
Over the past three years, the Morgan Stanley Technology Center in Montreal has recruited 250 permanent foreign workers.
“We have a great diversity, with 68 different nationalities. We have a francization committee and we offer French lessons to our employees,” continues Ms. Bennaceur.
The company also makes extensive use of major IT consulting firms such as CGI or Levio, whose consultants represent 45% of the workforce at the Montreal center, while internal employees make up the majority of the 2,800 employees.
“We always need outside consultants. I think we are entering a period of consolidation where we must integrate our new employees well so that they become immersed in the company culture, but there is still great potential for growth.
“The digital transformation continues, we are still in the integration with cloud computing and the development of artificial intelligence. There is still appetite for growth”, anticipates Sophia Bennaceur.
