Stuart T we have developed software that helps banksand other financial institutions to prepare the reports required under the BIS accords. The software is bespoke and we tailor it to suit a clients requirements. We do not deal with the bigger banks but those that are smaller. Meeting banking regulations can be an expensive business. Like many institutions nowadays they are keen to outsource anything that cuts their cost base.
I am an accountant by profession with many years experience in risk management in banking. Before you ask no we did not have to go cap in hand for bailout money during the banking crisis. We did have emergency provisions with the BoE but never drew on them. Prior to 2008, I had many battles with our treasury division over these exotic instruments that they wanted to deal in. In a little way I always think that unknowingly contributed to us avoiding some losses.
I left in 2009 and moved to Turkey as I was sick of working 80 hours a week during the crisis. It was not doing my health any good and due to the stress and poor eating habits I finished up with Type 2 diabetes. Although I had left arm I still kept up to date on regulation. The boring winter nights in Ovacik and it gave me something to do. In 2011, I came back to the UK on holiday and met some friends 2 techies and another accountant and we were just discussing ideas and we just came on this. The techies worked for a major UK bank and were already working on the software and were made redundant. We did not trespass on any intellectual rights that there previous employer may have had.My wilfe was homesick and missed the grandchildren so it was a great opportunity to return home. For a while after returning I kept referring to Turkey as home.
If the best alternative is to move within the EU we will encourage the staff to relocate. 12 of our staff are based in France, Spain and Germany. They are needed because they speak their native language.
We run the business more on the lines of co-op. Staff and directors enjoy exactly the same benefits. Same healthcare, same holidays and same bonus payments. Me and my fellow directors have not taken a penny in dividends. All profits are ploughed back into the company. We have a young staff and we were selective when choosing them. We encourage a very open culture but we expect professional standards at all times. We have core values and staff are required to abide by them. Now that me and my fellow directors have got our investments plus a reasonable rate of interest back we have transferred 20% of the shares into a trust for our employees. This allows the staff to appoint a director to attend board meetings. In the next
Our business is EU based because there are more regionalised banks and their regulations are stricter than the UK with more reporting requirements. By the end of this year a whole new raft of reporting has been introduced under Pillar 3. Although we do have programmers we outsource a great deal of business to the US. If we tried to do it all internally we could not cope and as quick as we did.
The problem for us will be when the UK leaves the single market we could have a whole load of regulation to demonstrate compliance. The idea of the single market is to ensure conformity across the whole of the EU. A ludicrous example would be that a CD disc that we sell to a client we would have to demonstrate that it complies with EU regs.
There you are you have my life story.
