Crown Agents Bank has sharply lowered its exposure to interest rate movements after launching its first multi-currency interest rate swap hedging programme with treasury technology provider ALMIS International.
The bank deployed Cobalt, the ALMIS treasury management system (TMS), alongside ALMIS Hedge Accounting to begin trading interest rate swaps.
The project went from choosing a supplier to running live hedges in roughly four months, giving the bank a tool it had not previously used to manage its balance sheet.
ALMIS secured the mandate after a competitive tender. Before the switch, the bank relied on bonds to hedge, and the new set-up widened that toolkit to include swaps. The relationship has since grown further, with the two firms now working to move the bank’s fixed income holdings of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) onto the Cobalt platform.
Crown Agents Bank did not want to rip out its core banking system, which still supports its payments and foreign exchange operations effectively. Instead, it sought a modular product that could sit beside existing infrastructure and supply swap and hedge accounting functions. ALMIS met that brief on fit, delivery speed and cost.
The swap programme was operating by the end of 2025, covering the bank’s structural interest rate exposure.
Crown Agents Bank provides cross-border payment services for markets across the Global South and is regulated in the UK. Its business centres on payments and FX, supported by a core banking platform it chose to retain throughout the project.
The two companies said the project shows how lenders can upgrade risk controls and add treasury functions through modular technology, avoiding the expense and disruption of a full core banking replacement.
Crown Agents Bank banking director Aasif Sarigat said, “Introducing interest rate swaps for the first time was an important step in strengthening how we manage risk across our balance sheet. We needed a solution that would let us hedge our interest rate exposure more effectively, work alongside our existing systems rather than replace them, and give our teams the capability to run a more sophisticated hedging programme. ALMIS did all of that, and we were live within four months.”
ALMIS International chief commercial officer Jake Rose said, “Introducing interest rate swaps for the first time is a significant step for any bank. Crown Agents Bank set a clear objective and a tight timetable: get the hedging right without disrupting its core banking platform. Their team’s focus made that pace possible. It shows how banks can add specialist treasury capability as they grow, one piece at a time, rather than replacing everything at once.”
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
