The Connector Podcast - Real CGR - ESG & Resilience

Join the conversation with Marc Tielemans, founder and CEO of Real CGR.  He talks about the link between business resilience and ESG.  

Real CGR is a Regulatory Technology “RegTech” supplier in business resilience, continuity management, data protection, privacy rights management and smart crisis alerting.

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Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com

#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech

Transcript

Introduction  0:00  
Welcome to the connector podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs banks and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen Vanderhoydonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  0:20  
A warm welcome to everyone. And today we have a special guest, Marc. Marc, can you explain a little bit who you are what you do?

Marc Tielemans  0:29  
Hello, Koen. First of all, thank you for having me on your podcast. It's a real pleasure. My name is Marc Tielemans, I'm CEO of Real CGR. Real CGR stands for real compliance governance and risk management, interesting focus on resilience parts, crisis readiness and data protection with our RegTech

Koen Vanderhoydonk  0:50  
excellence. And we surely talk a bit more about your company later on. But today, we agreed to have a conversation about the most prominent thing thing that's moment in the markets. It's ESG. So, Mark for you, what does ESG stand for? Don't tell me environmental social governance, right.

Marc Tielemans  1:13  
This is Dan already set? Cohn? Indeed. It's important to know, what is it exactly. So it's it's a general new unenforceable context and concept in the business world. And in fact, the ESG needs to be integrated in organization organizational strategy, because it's very important, we come to that in one second. But important to my opinion is, first of all, to know and see that the three are come together ESG, it's not only the environmental part, which is, of course, very important that and they are all equal. So the environment, it's not only about having, you know, glass cups, instead of plastic cups in your company, it's about the very important, you know, carbon footprint thinks. And so these things have been decided by UN and EU so and it's dropping down on the companies, the carbon footprint reduction is huge. And as you know, we go, Europe even wants to go to a neutral situation. They're so

Koen Vanderhoydonk  2:25  
famous Net Zero, yes.

Marc Tielemans  2:29  
Yeah, the good the Green Deal, it's no escape from that. And I mean, it's a good thing, the social relates, but I come back about the environmental thing, when it comes to crisis management, that's, that's an important part. They're interesting. The social part in a general way is how a company behaves ethically. Say it like that, of course, there's many things in there too. It's, of course, about working conditions of your employees, your social behavior in general, like human respects, your diversity, inclusion in your company of people, etc. That's also very obvious. But also more technical things in it, like, how you run business relationships, how which partners you choose in your supply chain, etc. And it goes even to domains like your liability, product quality, or safety, privacy. It's all there. Because if you don't manage that, well, it's not very ethical, right. And the governance is how you make this all happen. So and it's going to be controlled and looked at by, you know, regulators and supervising authorities in the future. I'll come back to that. But it's, it's how you do it. And it also it has, it's very broad, like, you have board composition, how is it with that? How do you manage your cybersecurity practices? What is your structure? How do you prevent bribery, et cetera, et cetera? It's all there. The governance. Yeah.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  4:09  
So I guess this is an introduction of what it is. It's, I think it's a white definition. It's also a white impact to the markets. But for you, why is it that important, and why should we address it?

Marc Tielemans  4:25  
Yeah. So indeed, Coonoor you're right as a takeaway on what this is, gee, we must say it's very huge thing. It's not just one thing, it's very huge and there are many aspects to address there. And why is it important because look, there are several points, but when you look to a company to an organization, it matters to be relevant to your environment. So an environment I don't mean the only the nature the full environment, you know, company stands alone. You work in ecological systems, with partners, suppliers, your employees, their families, the government at Swan, it's like an ecosystem. So you need to be relevant in that. And addressing ESG, in fact, brings value not only to you as a company, but to all of them. So but in generally speaking is g is important, because, in my opinion, it's only a personal thing. But it's about, you know, a sustainable future for us all. And the fact that you cannot just do whatever you want, and not caring about social or environmental. So it's doing good things for for results. And so it's being relevant.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  5:49  
Well, looking at sustainability, I think, Considering current conditions in the world's May, some may say that focus is not as much on it. And at the same time, I think industry has been challenged over the last couple of years, especially in terms of resilience. So what what, how would you then connect ESG with resilience?

Marc Tielemans  6:13  
Yeah. Well, to say it very clearly, if you look at the resilience in a very narrow definition, if I can say traditional definition, you can, you will prevent the crisis and that when a crisis occurs to your company, you will see to manage the crisis. And and that managing is, is about getting your company on the road, again, within set recovery times, objectives, and so on. So it's getting business processes back on. And of course, you will see for impact domains like humans, your operations, your ICT, your company reputations, and so on. But this is in the future, not enough, you will also not be caring if I can say it between brackets, not only care about yourself in the crisis, but care about ESG, too. So in my opinion, there will be your company, when handling a crisis will be accountable for the ESG part for the environmental. So if you lose one tonne of whatever dangerous smoke or product in a river, or in the air somewhere, you will be accountable for that. And if you don't care enough about the people, or the data privacy part or the security part in during a crisis, and you you can't risk to people, your own employees, or other people, like it's already written in a GDPR, by the way, you will be accountable for that. And also the governance part. Were you prepared? Yes or No? Were you prepared? Well, yes or no? Be yes, indeed, that will be audited. And you will get possibly fines for that. And it's not a game. It's those fines, in fact, already exist. Why should you also address? I mean, that's the resilience part, right. But there is something really broader.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  8:22  
And which is the broader part, then? Well,

Marc Tielemans  8:25  
I heard I was on another conference recently, and it was really financial conference. And there you see that access to business deals international or access to finance, VC money, etc, by the way, or even just regular bank money, you will pay it more or you can even be excluded in the future. When when you don't do the ESG part very well. So you see that there's a huge strategic aspect about addressing ESG because you can really, you know, like wipe yourself out as an organization if you don't want to. Yeah, so. And our part in that is, as I said in the beginning, it's a huge part is very broad, but we certainly care about the resilience aspect and the data protection aspect in ESG preparedness readiness.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  9:22  
It is maybe a nice bridge to tell a little bit more about your company real CGIAR what what does the company step in what solutions are you providing in this in this aspect?

Marc Tielemans  9:34  
Well, we are not going to claim that we are you know the full scale full spectrum ESG provider that that that asset, we care about resilience parts. And you know, rec tech regulatory technology is really about in my opinion, it's making things efficient, right. So if you are efficient use Save on resources that can be human time. That can be management time, that can be, you know, yeah, ICT resources and so on. So there is a direct relation, if you save on those resources, that's good for the E, the environmental part, it's also good for the s, because you, you make the people's life, the ones who has to do it even more easy. And the governance part is also very clear, because, you know, you switch from you making yourself more relevant using reg tech. Traditionally, again, you know, you have governance programs, like business continuity, and so and you maybe the tendency is to avoid fines, or to be scoring good when there isn't certification or an audit. And so that's what we call the keeping the lights on approach, okay. But in the future, this will not be enough animals to nibble. Yes, you know, why? Because the regulators also change. And they also have technology. So what what's happening since there is a real shift in the, in the aspect of, you know, the regulatory compliance and how supervising authorities control that the markets. So it will not be enough to keep the lights on the you will be asked to show your accountability and your framework of accountability on a constant basis, just just like that, because a crisis can happen just like that. So and this is why it's this where we help. So we make it efficient. And using direct tickets, it's so much more efficient, you can show your accountability right away. And of course, you can use it independently from your own ICT. As an important aspect, when you have a crisis, this is we swear we do in fact, we we relieve we unburden the client of that aspect.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  12:07  
And everything is obviously proved driven. So that's what the regulator wants. Mark, does that also mean that we already have standards in the markets in terms of this, this subject to resilience?

Marc Tielemans  12:21  
There's no really a standard, but there are these goals, many very valuable content on the market. Depending on on the view, your how you, you know, approach it. So if you talk about environment, there are of course, items that can manage carbon footprints, etc, etc. But it's, it's not really about having something really, really new. It's, it's about doing things a different way. Like, for example, again, resilience switch from, you know, the manual way paper and excel sheets to a RegTech that it's fully leveraging the is G part. And I know there is, yeah, of course, publications will come, I believe in quite near future from the European institutions about that. And there are also checklists on the internet that you can download and use. Yeah,

Koen Vanderhoydonk  13:21  
well, those real CGIAR also assist when shit hits the fan. So you talked about the more perpetual thing, the strategic part, the be ready when it happens, but how do you support and the business when the real crisis is happening?

Marc Tielemans  13:41  
While finally, and I put my answer in the context of ESG, you have to address that ESG when you have a crisis. So it means like, for example, you need to be a really able to perform actions and communications, and careful security and data protection when you have a crisis. So if a crisis hits you, right, and you have to start finding your stuff and papers at that moment of crisis, it's that precise moment, that lapse of time between the crisis occurring, the moment you become aware of it, and that you want and that you start to react. This is usually damaging your company, because reputational

Koen Vanderhoydonk  14:30  
finance is very important. And you can really rely on couple of hours, it's your reputation is gone or not. And

Marc Tielemans  14:37  
honestly, with using this kind of RegTech or RegTech. I mean, you just go to the app, you start by pushing the button and you start your credit. It's three clicks, three clicks away from to the crisis management

Koen Vanderhoydonk  14:50  
almost make it sound sexy mark. Well, when is the next crisis coming?

Marc Tielemans  14:55  
It is it is passionate stuff. Cool. I can tell for people who are passionate about managing risk. The ESG is like, yeah, it's something very, very, very interesting because it has put the matter on the agenda of boards. And we all know that the awareness issue is enormously important. We, you know, likely, if I may allow myself to tell it, that we do audits, we go to boards, and then we are assured that business continuity and resilience is on console. But when you audit it, you see, okay, it's it's paper based, it's manual. So you have no, I don't judge that it can be right, the right things in there. But how you will really use it at the moment of crisis. That's, that's the challenge. This is where and of course, now, board members will say, okay, that paperwork, the manual way is maybe not enough. Yeah. And also, anyway, the regulator,

Koen Vanderhoydonk  16:01  
well, it feels like, as if resilience as a as a service is evolving. It's maturing on its own right. And that's something that you also see with other regulations and other best practices, like and KYC, you now have perpetual KYC, rather than a one off? KYC?

Marc Tielemans  16:21  
Yes. And I think it's really beneficial to the entire ecosystem of a company. And also, it's interesting to mention that companies start to do it themselves. So I know, and I'm not putting names here, but I can tell you, I have I heard a big insurance company saying, Look, we will exclude everything, what's not ESG from our portfolio, there you go. And that's, yeah, be happening in the near future. So you see that the tendencies, if you don't address it, or you face, you face exclusions, and, and if you're not ready to manage the crisis, anyway, the hammer of control, regulatory control may come.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  17:10  
For me, one thing became clear that if I want to be prepared, I'll need to contact you and real CGR. Just on the practical side, Mark, where did where can they contact you? How can they find you?

Marc Tielemans  17:21  
Yeah, that's great. Cool. Thank you. You just the easiest way is, of course, the website. That's read cgiar.com. Very easy, very lenient. Or info at Rich jar.com. And I'm sure anyone wanting to connect you. The connector can also do really CGIAR. Of course, with pleasure. Yeah. And we react, of course, very quickly. Cool on market questions.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  17:53  
Thank you very much, Mark. Thank you also, for all your insights around ESG.

Marc Tielemans  17:58  
Well, it was very nice guy. And I must say during this podcast, and thank you for your trust in us by asking us on your podcast. And I hope it's a pleasure. Yeah, I give I hope we gave the good takeaways to your audience here.

Koen Vanderhoydonk  18:14  
I'm sure you did. I will see what by the comments of the audience. So with this, I would also like to thank the audience and please stay tuned with the next podcast of the connector will come back to you soon.

Outro  18:27  
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