Jesper is a financial services leader with extensive product, risk, compliance/financial crime compliance, and financial sector knowledge gained over 25+ years working in diverse institutions, from J.P. Morgan to Nordea, Carnegie, a law firm, and the Danish FSA.
1. First off, what does your role as Head of Risk and Compliance at Payset entail? What do you get up to on a daily basis, and how does your work affect Payset clients?
My role, together with my great team located across the United Kingdom, Romania, Denmark, Israel, and Spain, is to ensure that Payset complies with our complex regulatory requirements in the most effective way and that we stay within our risk appetite while ensuring our clients, regulators, auditors, and banking partners maintain their trust in us.
Our purpose is to build (together with our fantastic colleagues at Payset) a first-class EMI servicing our clients’ needs while handling the inherent risks of digital payments. Simply put, we are finding the secret formula whereby clients can open an account in an easy, secure (and fast) way and where their transactions are only stopped or queried when necessary, following a risk-based approach and meeting our regulatory requirements.
Clients might mostly see compliance as a pain or a necessary evil, but they are impacted positively by our work when, for instance, they have an easy onboarding process or when their transactions go through quickly without being stopped or flagged. Even higher-risk clients benefit from our risk-based approach as their onboarding and execution of transactions are much more seamless than what they would be used to at other providers.
2. What are the key things people need to understand about risk management and compliance when using a payment services provider like Payset? Why is it so important?
Compliance and Risk are the foundations of our success, the pillars of our house, you might say. A lack of proper risk management could destroy us if we are not thoughtful in our approach. We need to meet our regulatory requirements to stay authorised and keep the trust of our clients, regulators, auditors, and banking providers.
More importantly, though, we view Compliance and Risk as a competitive advantage – together with our exceptional Research & Development and client service teams. We enhance the client experience at onboarding and when executing transactions, including for higher-risk clients, while ensuring that we safeguard clients’ funds and keep their payment data confidential and safe.
3. Payset is in the process of securing an EMI license in Denmark (in addition to our current UK license). Could you talk a bit about what avenues this opens up for Payset and what kinds of things it makes possible for those in the EU or elsewhere who would like to use our services?
When we get authorised in Denmark as an EMI, we will be able to market our services to Danish and EU clients. That will be a breakthrough for us and something that will benefit, in particular, small- and medium-sized companies and individuals in Denmark and the rest of the EU as they will become aware of a first-class and price-effective alternative to their current providers. We will give them better opportunities to execute their cross-border or even domestic transactions in a fast, safe, and seamless way. In addition, our already-impressive growth will be accelerated, and we will continue to expand our product offering and improve our services for the benefit of our current UK and future EU clients.
4. Are there big differences between how the FCA in the UK and the FSA in Denmark (or in the EU in general) handle the regulation of e-money institutions? Is one region or the other more open/favourable to evolutions in fintech?
There are small and big differences in the interpretation of what an EMI can do and how the same regulations (founded in European Union Directives and Regulations) are being interpreted between the United Kingdom and Denmark. The United Kingdom has the widest interpretation (but also the toughest requirements in some areas). Both regulators, however, are world-class regulators with a favourable approach to fintech – and both regulators’ requirements support us in delivering the best (and safest) services to our clients as we meet the highest regulatory standards where they benefit our clients. We are very happy and proud to work with both regulators and see our regulatory relationships as pivotal to our continued success.
5. You’ve worked in many institutions. What inspired you to join Payset? Is there anything unique or strange about being on the Payset team that our readers might find interesting/entertaining?
In addition to being a regulator at the start of my career, I have spent (and enjoyed) most of my career in executive positions at very large and well-known institutions like J.P. Morgan and Nordea – supertankers that don’t change course easily and where the Compliance and Risk processes and controls would benefit from a Big Bang, a complete reset.
When speaking with the founders of Payset, I was immediately excited by their competencies, personalities, approach to Compliance and Risk, and the prospect of being an important part of building a first-class EMI from scratch, more or less. In particular, I enjoy designing, building, and implementing our Compliance and Risk framework, together with my very capable (and eager to learn) team and colleagues across Payset, and I am excited to see that already today we are a leading EMI, with a world-class approach to Compliance and Risk and everything else we do.
I am sure my colleagues at Payset would call me strange as I love working with Compliance and Risk and because I am very Danish (read direct) and demanding in my approach to work/what we want to achieve and how we will achieve it. But that is echoed across Payset. We are all strange/unique. We make the right decisions, not the easy decisions. We benefit from our differences across many locations and our different personalities and capabilities at Payset – and we have a culture (inspired by our founders) to show passion, ownership, and ambition while building something unique for the benefit of our clients.
