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The Connector Podcast - Unveiling Risk Intelligence in Central Asia's Corporate Landscape with ClearPic's Alexei Panin
Discover the enthralling world of risk intelligence as we sit down with Alexei from ClearPic, who guides us through the labyrinth of corporate information within the emerging markets of Central Asia and the Caspian region. His 15 years of experience unveil a realm where data is both a hidden treasure and a complex puzzle. With ClearPic's innovative approach, Alexei illustrates how, even in seemingly opaque markets, there are insights to be uncovered that can transform the way businesses and advisors navigate through the murky waters of corporate data.
Venture with us as we dissect the challenges of accessing reliable information in regions where traditional methods fall short and explore the critical importance of understanding local contexts—where sometimes cash flow control overshadows formal shareholding structures. Hear firsthand the geopolitical significance of these markets and how ClearPick's expertise in risk advisory is leading the charge in making sense of Central Asia's intricate and often underestimated economic landscapes. Alexei's comprehensive knowledge and the company's dedication to data discovery present an invaluable conversation for anyone interested in the interplay between regional nuances and global economic dynamics.
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Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com
#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech
Welcome to the Connector podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen van der Hoidong as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Speaker 2:And here we are again for another podcast, and today I'm with Alexei from ClearPick. Would you tell us a little bit more about yourself and also the company that you work for?
Speaker 3:Sure hi, hi, real pleasure to be here today. I come from the risk intelligence, risk advisory background. Been doing this for like 15 years now. Time flies, doesn't feel like that. It's been a lot of fun. Some stress, but it's like everything in life is probably a mixture of that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:We've been doing risk advisory for a long time. Started our own company in 2016. And then, a few years later, we actually realized that there is so much data, even in those places that people believe are low transparent and they are, but still the data exists. So we started to requiring this data from various sources. Everything's public domain and sort of playing with that scene how we can make it better, more navigable, more friendly. And several years later, here we are ClearPick.
Speaker 2:And Alexei, you mean data. Which data are we talking about?
Speaker 3:Sure, it's basically all types of corporate information, business related information, like excerpts from corporate records, like all this usual stuff the name of the company, business activity, the date of registration, capital. Well, sounds probably boring, not as much when you see the full picture. Also, ownership directorship, various business activities, watch lists, state procurement, litigation, so basically everything that describes daily operations of business from all possible angle.
Speaker 2:And where are you based, Alexei?
Speaker 3:The company is based in Riga. We also have representation in London in the UK, and the development team is all over the place, like often happens these days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, exactly. When we met the first time, which was basically in Riga, you told me that you have a strong focus on Central Asia and the Caspian region. Why is that?
Speaker 3:For many reasons. Really, in our advisory days which I mean we're still doing a lot of advisory we have done lots of work in this region and we realized both the challenges and the opportunities in the region, like in some places like Turkmenistan, like Tajikistan, like Uzbekistan, until recently it was really really difficult to get information, to get reliable information, up to date information, and even more difficult to make any conclusions based on that for various challenges. So for us it was difficult I mean doing proper work in those regions and we realized that we are not alone in this journey. So we started doing this because we, fundamentally, we know all the difficulties on the local landscape. We know them by heart. It's also a very important region and increasingly important in its own life, like 80 million people, growing economies.
Speaker 3:In recent years, this recovery after the COVID pandemic and all the lockdowns, all the restrictions. There have been also various legacy issues. I mean it plays differently in different places, like but those included child labor, forced labor, so quite serious stuff really. And also, obviously, these days the region is even more tropical with all the geopolitics in place the China influence, interests of the European Union, the US, russia. So, yes, it's an interesting journey, particularly this day.
Speaker 2:And you talked about challenges that you have encountered. So what were typical challenges that you would have in that region that you may not have in the rest of the world?
Speaker 3:Well, first, like UBO, which is a professional term, meaning Ultimate Beneficial Ownership or Honor, depending on the context, finding out that is already a massive challenge In some places. The corporate records this is really the first place you go to to start building a company profile is not easily accessible, and also you need to understand the context. Like in the West, for example, ownership does mean ownership because those rights are respected, they are protected and people place serious emphasis on that. Not as much in that part of the world sometimes, if you control cash flow as opposed to shares, because shares don't mean much, this is where the real control lies. And also corporate structures are not always formalized. Like you have 20 companies ostensibly connected to each other, but in reality they basically represent the same operation. So it is both contexts, like knowing the soft differences and also having access to quality data.
Speaker 2:Interesting. So you showed me how you actually work on a very interactive floor like UBO mapping. So how can you marry, then, the difficulty with the map and can you also explain what your affiliation mapping does?
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. So basically there's two challenges here First, to get this information and second, to make sure that the connections and affiliations are visible, Because in that part of the world you have all these language complications, challenges, like in some countries they used Roman script, now they are making the transition to sorry, they used Cyrillic script, now they're making this transition to Roman script. Also, there are in both. There are two variations, like standard, say you, like crucified or like English, and also with local variations, like letters that are slightly different, like in umlauts and so on. So for standard search engines, obviously those would be different names.
Speaker 3:These results in having probably and this is not an exaggeration, we have seen such examples Like the same person may have several dozens of variations of their name. So if you basically just look at that and you try to conduct searches manually, you will. There is only one thing you are sure of you will miss something. So the challenge is to make sure those variations are properly recognized, they are deduplicated and when someone or something is connected to more than one entity, you have to make sure that all these connections are visible on the platform.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that sounds like very complex stuff. What's the answer? Is that expertise, or is it technology? Or maybe a combination of both?
Speaker 3:It is both. Really Expertise is not always easy to digitalize, so sometimes the project comes with your sort of human interaction, as always.
Speaker 3:But we're particularly happy with the technology we have. Like, the first pillar is the graph databases and we partner with Neo4j, one of the industry leaders in this field. We're really proud of that. We are part of their startup program and it helps a lot. Like the technology is something we. This technology is something we can build upon our own product, and we do that. It's been a real pleasure to work with them. And then the second pillar we have is Reset Text Analytics, and they are now part of Bible Street.
Speaker 3:We use their solutions for entity resolution and records matching, and they have this deep learning technology. This technology enables us to identify similar names of individuals, basically what I just told you. Obviously, these languages that we deal with in Central Asia and the Gaspin region are so-called rare languages. There are not massive body of text in those languages available for analysis, so for that reason, we also have to work with this technology, adapting it to our own needs. So it's not just basically buying packaged solutions and integrating those in our own platform. It is taking all the advantages of these brilliant products but also a lot of work to make them applicable to the challenges that we face, yeah, so there is a lot of tweaking involved and probably machine learning.
Speaker 2:We're almost at the end of this podcast and what I'm very interested about. Alex says that you gave your picture the very nice product, but what's in shop for the future? Are there any things that we can expect to come?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. We basically have two directions. First is making more products with the information in the countries we have already. So basically new applications, maybe developing a new product for state procurement, not just from the risk point of view but also from the point of view of business development for various teams that can build presence on the local markets through state procurement. It's basically the same data but delivered in a different way. There's a lot of commercial application in that. But also we have other markets, other regions that we would love to tap into for many reasons. Central Asia, for example, is now a vital part of so-called Trans-Caspian transit rule and it's a challenging task. But on the other hand, you have committed to investing that. China been there for a long time.
Speaker 1:And if we?
Speaker 3:just go along this transit road. We have another 10 jurisdictions to look at, from other Caspian region countries like Georgia, like Armenia, to even some of the parts of the European Union, like Bulgaria and Romania, and also Turkey. If you take Turkey out of the map, there is no way you can deliver goods from China to Europe by land. So 24 promises to be an exciting year for us and we're looking forward to what we can do in the next 10 months.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, and I wish you obviously all the best. Where can people contact you if they've got questions or they want to work with you guys? How do they contact you? Well?
Speaker 3:all the contacts are online. I'm happy to talk to people on LinkedIn or using the website. Also, if anyone happens to be in the rig, always a pleasure to grab a coffee and discuss business.
Speaker 2:And it's a beautiful city. I can say that. Thank you, alex. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you also to the audience and please stay tuned. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to another episode of the Connector podcast. To connect and keep up to date with all the latest, head over to wwwjointheconnectorcom or hit subscribe via your podcast streaming platform.