BNY Mellon is planning to use $250 million it has gained from new US tax rules to reinvest in technology and staff wages, its chief executive said in its quarterly earnings call.
Charles Scharf, appointed its new CEO last summer, said he expects to reinvest “the vast majority” of the gains in “our employees and our businesses.”
It plans to increase minimum wages for all employees to $15 per hour in the US, and intends to “meaningfully increase the amount we spend on technology,” Scharf added.
“Our technology will define our future, and we need to ensure we’re investing to create the highest quality infrastructure and a platform which allows us to both drive significant efficiencies in the future as well as be agile enough to allow us to move quickly as we expand our product offerings.”
BNY Mellon has put added focus on its cloud-based technology platform, NEXEN, with the aim to make the platform a bigger part in driving revenues and managing expenses.
Last year, the bank highlighted its plans to develop pricing standards for value-added solutions available through NEXEN, such as collateral portfolio optimisation and robo-advisory, while also using it as a replacement for more costly legacy platforms.
BNY Mellon reported a decrease of 2% in total revenues of $3.7 billion during the fourth quarter, however fees from investment services increased 5% to $1.9 billion, largely driven by improved performance in asset servicing.
It also reported new business wins of $575 billion in assets under custody/administration (AuC/A), taking its total AuC/A to $33.3 trillion.