The Connector Podcast - SFF 2022 - INTIX

Join the conversation with Marc Braet from Intix talking about end-to-end transaction chains and turning data into actionable insights for operational excellence, compliance and audit, and for sharing with ancillary services at the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF 2022). Recorded live at SFF 2022.

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Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com

#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech

Transcript

Introduction  0:01  
Welcome to the connector podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs banks and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder toe and Vander Heiden as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the market.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  0:20  
Welcome, again, straight away live from the FinTech festival here in Singapore. And I'm so pleased because I have so many nice people already in front of me today in my podcast, but I also have the pleasure and joy to have mark with me. Mark, can you tell me a little bit about you? And who do you work for?

Marc Braet  0:38  
Yes, well, thank you for the invitation, good to participate to this podcast? Yeah, so for myself, let's say background, my background, I would say is, I've been active in the financial industry on the on the technology side, I would say since 25 years being having a, let's say, a rather long career at swift for, let's say, until the mid 2009, and then actually made a step into entrepreneurship, by launching congratulations. Thank you very much, and CO founding the company, where I'm still active today, which is index.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  1:14  
Okay. And maybe you can already explain us a little bit more about index before we go into further details.

Marc Braet  1:20  
Yeah, so index is a company that we founded out of the, let's say, the challenge that we discovered in industry regarding access, easy access to transaction data, which sounds like an obvious thing that banks should be able to do. But we realized actually, that getting access access to transactions, which are spread over a multitude of systems, and also format standards, is something that is not easy, not obvious for banks to realize. And they do need that, that that functionality for many different, let's say, use cases they work on. And so with my partner who is more the it brain of the company, we looked into the opportunity of addressing that challenge, and we came up with with, let's say, a set of solutions. And yeah, that's how index was

Koen Vanderhoydonk  2:10  
born on nice, super nice story. But we'll come back to index later in this podcast, what has led you to join the Singapore FinTech festival?

Marc Braet  2:19  
Yeah, well, that's already like jumping a few years, let's say further since the incorporation of the company. But we? Well, I have maybe to start with the beginning of the of the year, it was an important moment for us in 2001, where we decided that we saw a lot of opportunities in the industry in Europe, which is our home market today for the technology that we deliver and the challenges that reside in the market. And then we had the we're fortunate, let's say, to in terms of our growth plans that we had to do partial exit to a private equity beginning of this year, which then gives us a lot of means to really go into exponential growth scenario. And that actually allows us today, to scale fast, and to make sure that we can, you know, we can create, or I would say, local local agencies or branches of aventics, around the world to really make sure that we have customer proximity. So we recently opened an office in Singapore, longer than two months ago with the first people on board. And so we felt it was important to be here to really make sure that index also gets seen on the market in Asia, and also from the other side, also to understand whether, indeed, how should we approach the market in Asia different than we do in Europe? Or in North America?

Koen Vanderhoydonk  3:38  
Yeah. And I think that's, that's the very healthy attitude that you just want to understand first. So what has been your biggest discovery at this festival?

Marc Braet  3:49  
Well, first of all, it was discovered in total, because it's the first time we and I personally attend this festival MSA, I'm very positively surprised by the event in in its entirety. It's, it's, we are used to conferences like sciples and things. So here, it's a broader scope. But it's I have the impression that that conversations go easily in a more detailed and senior level. And more much more to the point compared to previous conference. So I lot appreciate a lot the openness of the people that we've spoken to. What I also surprised of is that I think when you see the technology, let's say initiatives or ideas that are present here all over the the exhibition, I think it's amazing. It's like I think they should be a wake up call for Europe. For many people. I think things are going very fast here. So it's it's we hope to be part of that. Let's say that, that growth in Asia together with the rest of the community.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  4:53  
Well, talking about fast growing you have been also fast growing in your home country Belgium. You yet, you're not so known by the market. And I thought that was interesting. When we first spoke earlier this week. You mentioned to me like but we have been a fintech. Are we still a little bit of a FinTech, but not so known by anyone? So what has happened there, Bart?

Marc Braet  5:15  
Well, yeah, indeed, we were always like flying under the radar, as I called it. And I think it's not sure exactly why it we have been focusing, of course, on building our product, not too much distracted, let's say, from what, for example, did not do in the beginning was really participating all these startup competitions and these things where you spend a lot of time and in the end, it takes you away from your focus of what you're really trying to do. So maybe that one of wands is one of the reasons on the other hand, also, as we are focusing on the banks. Now, the market in Belgium is also pretty limited, you have a number of banks left with with Belgian authority, I would say. And well, most of them became a customer over time. But still, if you look today, only 97% or something like that of our total revenue is from abroad. So the minority of what we do actually is Belgian activities. Also, because of Belgian, of course, being geographically very small, small market. But it chose for us that the importance for ethics was was abroad.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  6:20  
In our earlier conversation, you also talked about operational resilience. And somehow this is also a topic that is close to my heart, at least some of the things I've done in the past. So if we talk operational, we talk about what's happening within the bank, it's it's happening on the core systems, it's happening to improve how they work. Is that a domain where you don't activate

Marc Braet  6:43  
our technology? As I explained it to the beginning, the access to transaction data, it all started there. And again, this from there, we took kind of the marketing phrase, you know, we're the Google for the banks.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  6:56  
sounds sexy.

Marc Braet  6:56  
Yeah, well, that's we tried at least. So, but again, it expresses what we want to be at the source, let's say making sure that the data is accessible, as easy as information is accessible over Google. At the same time, also, for us, this was an important foundation, the way we were doing that, I mean, really getting access to the data is one thing, but and also getting access to systems to infrastructures of banks. So we gradually actually were able to improve and to increase our presence, I would say also in the, in the organization of the bank, leading to many more use cases over time that could be addressed by our technology, and which we then packaged in if you want in different solutions. And the beginning indeed was from this Google of the bank perspective, which reporting and dashboards and stuff. But then that actually evolved also based on exchanges with our clients, we try to listen to our clients, you know, when when forget what they what they need, and what they're looking for, what the challenges are their pains. And one point in time we got a request from a bank say, Well, you know, we are we are actually we were very happy with your technology, which is looking at quality, completed transactions. But at the same time, we're very much also, the world is going much more in real time, we would like to understand also to, you know, to see what is happening with transactions that are going through their lifecycle notes, recorded transactions being in flight. And that's actually how we then came up with a more track and trace type of solution, which is really going in depth in the organization are really taking information from the different events, what transactions are living through or going through. And that that that gave a number of opportunities both on the business side, because since we address complexity, let's say from an organization, not from a technical perspective, but from a data perspective, it gave us opportunities to address both business challenges, like you know, what's my value at risk in the company and every stage, but at the same time, also to understand what my operational efficiency, and also the improvements I could make on that hand could be realized. So and that's something that really triggered a lot of interest from the large players. And you know, we have, it was also a trigger for us to really get the tier one banks on board. That was really for them the biggest pain that we're having. And also most of them have already tried to develop themselves, and miserably failed, most of them would say, but our technology was indeed able to address that. And and then from there addressing to finalize that story. The next big step we see now happening or living, I would say on top of mind over clients is everything regarding compliance or regulation. And they're also our solution has big fit.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  9:38  
While they were explaining Mark, I was thinking you're a magical guy. Why? Because if we would have played a game talk about bank operations without using the compliance words, you manage it, because a lot of the things you said I had in my eyes might use a lot to do with compliance but then at the end, you nailed it by saying compliance.

Marc Braet  9:58  
It's in a way It's due dates. It's one of the top topics, I would say in the financial world compliance regulation. It's there. It's an it's just becoming more and more challenging and important for banks to address

Koen Vanderhoydonk  10:13  
an early reset. Now you're joined, you're entering the Asian markets with an entry point in Singapore, are you not a bit afraid that compliance and rules and regulations are so different from the current clients that you have?

Marc Braet  10:26  
Yeah, and that's, that's the question we got here this week as well in Singapore. Now, the thing is that intake should not be seen as a compliance solution might sound strange, or they say that we consider ourselves rather as a compliance facilitator. So what we do and nowadays, what is a very, I would say, maybe recent, but important term in that world is know your transaction, we all know KYC for the know, your customer KYC. But the next step indeed, KYC know, your transaction is really what regulators are looking at. And it's extremely difficult to, let's say, to generate an information because you know, the data is coming from so many, it's not only transactions, it's also combining transactions with AML information with account information with beneficiary information with KYC files, and so on. And what we can do with our technology is to bring all these different data elements together and create true correlation and AI, also a linking amongst the data, so that you can actually have like an immediate profiling about your transaction, which is then actually the information that let's say regulators are looking for. And since the fact that we are not the AML system, we are not the screening system, we are not the compliance tool specifically, we are not really dependent on let's say being having to apply have to implement a different local rules and regulations. But we can work with the information that the bank has available, and actually use it for the linking into the transaction. And as a result, generate the KYC information.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  11:53  
Make sense? I think that's a good story to bring also to this, this market, as Mark will always do the end of this podcast. So what I like to ask is, well, you came in for the first time. If you would be a salesperson for the FinTech festival, what would be your one minute pitch?

Unknown Speaker  12:13  
Do you mean selling the FinTech festival?

Koen Vanderhoydonk  12:14  
Yes. Well,

Marc Braet  12:15  
I think I think it's been fantastic for us, the first time first discovery. So my sales pitch here would be that this is for me a fantastic platform to be to get really reached. I mean, Asia is big. I mean, we think Europe is big. This is another another ballgame from time to time. And so I would say this is an ideal location to really come and discover the whole of age, everyone's here. I mean, you can talk to people from Vietnam, from Japan, from Australia. Everyone's here. Everyone's approachable, very relevant, I would say also profiles of different institutions that you're interested in. So I would I can only recommend it. I mean, it's, we'll be back.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  12:53  
Cool. Mark, thank you so much for your contribution to my podcast. My pleasure. It was great to have you to meet you here as well, knowing that we were both at cybils. We have been splitting each other before. So thank you also to the audience's please stay tuned because we will have more news coming straight from the FinTech festival here in Singapore. Thank you so much. Bye bye.

Introduction  13:14  
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