FinTech Interview Series: Andrew Patrick White of FundApps
As part of a continuing monthly series, RiskSave will be sitting down with some of the leading thinkers and entrepreneurs in FinTech to get the benefit of their insights. First up is Andrew Patrick White from FundApps.
Biography
Andrew Patrick White is the Founder & CEO of FundApps, a company which provides cloud-based regulation monitoring to the fund industry. FundApps was recently voted onto the "FinTech50" - a list of 50 European businesses who are transforming financial services. Before FundApps, Andrew created the compliance monitoring software MIG21 at Aquin Components GmbH. He went on to become the Managing Director & Head of Business Development for Aquin International before exiting with a trade sale to State Street in 2008. Andrew holds a degree in Computer Science, Linguistics & German from Trinity College Dublin.
FundApps was founded in 2010 from a spare bedroom in south London but has since grown to 25 people and currently monitors over 3 Trillion USD of assets every day, servicing 2 of the world's 10 largest hedge funds and 2 of North America’s 10 largest pension funds..
Tell us about yourself
Hi, I'm Andrew, CEO & Founder of FundApps. We combine regulatory expertise with innovative technology, to provide automated compliance services to financial institutions across the globe
Tell us about some of your awards
We've been nominated to the FinTech50 three years in a row, also we were selected to the Future Fifty. We've been mentioned as "groundbreaking" by Wired.com as well as the World Economic Forum.
You’ve been in FinTech for a while – how has the environment changed in the last decade.
The adoption of the cloud while slow at the start, has really increased in pace during the last 12 months. At the same time the velocity of change in regulation has increased dramatically, as has the complexity of the regs.
Does AI have a place in the evolution of regulation.
I think so. Turning complex regulatory concepts into algorithms is something we are automating day by day.
You’ve created a truly international business, was it necessity or ambition?
We have clients around the globe as financial regulation is truly global in nature. We opened an office in New York in 2016 to ensure we could service our North American clients even better.
How has Brexit affected you?
To be honest it hasn't really. Regulatory change is good for our business. Although it hasn't been a great motivating factor for all our EU employees.
Which cities are the most attractive alternatives to London?
New York (obviously), in Europe it depends, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt probably in that order.
Are the wheels coming off the FinTech bandwagon?
I certainly think a little hot air has escaped out of the balloon (to extend the metaphor).
What are your favourite FinTech innovations
Not Blockchain. The companies that are disrupting most aren't doing anything truly innovative, they're just improving & perfecting existing processes.
What are the biggest trends in RegTech to watch for in 2018?
I'm not sure there are any "trends" per se, but the continued and increased use of RegTech, more and more AI being deployed and the last barriers to widespread cloud adoption being removed.