‘We’re like the heart specialists of banks’

If you’re not familiar with Tom Papagiannopoulos’s company, that’s fine by him.

“I’m glad that you’ve never heard of us,” he said, “because that’s what we do: we work in the background.”

Papagiannopoulos is the co-founder, with Mohsin Syed, of BanQsi Inc. The Winnipeg-based company provides core banking transformations and consulting services that help financial institutions modernize operations, reduce risk and navigate change.

When Papagiannopoulos is explaining what he does to family and friends, he likens core banking to a key part of human anatomy and BanQsi’s staff to medical experts.

“We’re like the heart specialists of banks,” he said.

Core banking is the back-end connection for multiple branches of the same bank or credit union that allows customers to access account transactions, such as loan management, deposits and withdrawals, in a single safe entity.

If a financial institution is updating or migrating its core banking, or merging with another organization — think of the credit union mergers that have occurred in Manitoba in recent years — BanQsi is there to help.

“We help them merge the hearts together,” Papagiannopoulos said. “What we do are projects (where) institutions can’t afford to get it wrong.”

Since May 2023, BanQsi has successfully completed 40 large-scale projects across North America. The company has doubled its workforce in the last year to approximately 50 employees, Papagiannopoulos said, at least a dozen of whom live in Manitoba.

In October, BanQsi established an office in Dubai, so the company can pursue work in the United Arab Emirates and the other five countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council.

By Papagiannopoulos’s count, there are fewer than six companies in North America that do what BanQsi does. As the company continues to grow on this continent, Papagiannopoulos and Syed saw an opportunity to serve the growing financial services market in the Middle East.

“We wanted to make a statement,” Papagiannopoulos said of establishing the Dubai office. “We know that we’re going to be active there … And once we are, we have one or two other international markets that are kind of lining up for us as well.”

Although his initial university degree was in classical studies, Papagiannopoulos has spent the last three decades working in IT, including management and executive roles at IBM.

He started BanQsi in December 2022, eventually bringing on his former colleague, Syed, who is a University of Manitoba graduate and experienced fintech executive. Syed is currently based in Dallas.

The company’s name — pronounced “banksy,” like the elusive English street artist — is a combination of the French word for bank, and SI, which stands for systems integration.

Papagiannopoulos declined to name BanQsi’s clients, citing the sensitive nature of the company’s work, but said the company has supported Manitoba-based institutions, helping them manage complex core banking and modernization initiatives.

The nature of BanQsi’s work also makes it difficult for Papagiannopoulos to go into detail about what happens when the company is working on a project.

“We have a methodology that (employees) follow and it’s essentially bulletproof,” he said.

“But the weekends are long. We have everyone on hand, on alert. When there is a glitch, people stay up ’til 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., but on Monday morning, things work.”

As he looks to the future, Papagiannopoulos sees further expansion ahead. He anticipates BanQsi’s employee count growing by 30 per cent before the end of the year.

“We’re building towards growth — we’re not chasing growth,” he said, adding that BanQsi isn’t looking for funding the way other fintech companies might.

“A lot of folks raise $10 million, $20 million, in the hopes that they’ll do something grand. We’re just going to do something grand slowly and surely.”

BanQsi is proud of its Winnipeg roots and its foundation will remain in the city, Papagiannopoulos said.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca