Vic Martin is Head of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs here at 10x Future Technologies.
In this episode of a #OneVision podcast, Theodora Lau and Bradley Leimer talk with Vic about her experiences, insights and work. With leading roles in risk, compliance, and regulatory matters, as well as time spent at 11FS, ClearBank, Octopus, Tandem Money, and RBS among them, the conversation covers a lot of ground.
“It is a very exciting time for fintech and regulation in the UK at the moment,” says Vic.
What are some learnings around managing risk amid a global pandemic?
“We need to acknowledge this is now a new way of working. In London there is not a rush for people to go back full time. At 10x, we are looking at teams going back one to two days a week so it is something now we have to accept and work with.
“From a risk and compliance perspective, one of the things that is so key is maintaining clear communication. I work very much on a basis that with my team and the business we have to have that element of trust where we have open communication.”
Vic recommends being selective in meetings to land the right balance between managing oversight and detail, and using the right tools for your organisation.
“One of the things I have seen work really well at 10x is we have embedded Jira as part of our risk management. We can easily link risks and issues with some of the tickets that the engineers are working. That has been a neat way of ensuring we have proactive risk management without having to have another meeting. Another thing that I have seen work really well is using Miro boards for retros – it means you can have open and clear conversations.
“My last point would be, be patient … everybody’s objectives have changed as part of the pandemic. It might take several attempts for you to land a point. It is not as easy doing it over a Zoom call or a Slack message so I think just be really patient and be really clear with your communication.”
Big Tech, regulation and banking: how do you see it playing out?
“I think the regulator will start going to more of an enhanced oversight model with some of the big tech companies. At the moment if you are a bank and if you’re outsourcing to a third party, essentially you have something called material outsourcing. So, if you are outsourcing a particular operation that is going to be fundamental to how you run your bank you need to declare it to the FCA. Now, the actual oversight that the FCA does for that institution is fairly minimal. The burden is very much held with that bank and how they are managing that relationship.
I think it will be interesting to see whether tech … has a light supervisory model around it, particularly where you are see the big four banks starting to move legacy architecture on to new tech providers.”
What does the future look like for 10x?
We are at a really exciting time for 10x. We are about to go live with three clients in the next couple of months so it is a very busy time for us to support those clients.”
