Fast growing journey continues for FinTrU in the North West

Greg McCann and Kathleen McDermott tell CONNECTED how the RegTech company’s global success highlights the talented workforce in the region

Greg McCann saw the 2008 world banking crash from the inside so the FinTrU executive director and head of its North West base knows all about challenging days at the office and what it takes to survive and excel in business.

Greg’s career has gone from manufacturing to RegTech via economic development and banking – and he is set to become the next President of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.

McCann exudes energy, positivity and ambition. People in the North West “want to show that positive change can happen”, he says. To prove his point, he cites the rapid expansion of financial RegTech company FinTrU, which works with the world’s leading global financial institutions offering technology-enabled services in risk, legal, compliance and know your customer (KYC).

“We have people located in our business in Derry/Londonderry who are working straight into Wall Street – that didn’t exist five years ago,” he says.

“When we expanded to the North West in 2018, we had an office of 20 people

– now we have 400 working in the city having announced plans to create an additional 300 jobs in February of this year. What this city needs is more of that – more investment. FinTrU has shown that the talent is here, the capability is here and the connectivity is here to do these highly skilled, value-added roles.”

Also joining us for this interview is FinTrU executive director, Kathleen McDermott. Her role focuses on client delivery for the global financial institutions that FinTrU works with every day. She leads teams across Derry/ Londonderry, Belfast and Letterkenny.

Kathleen is also the Senior Sponsor of the company’s Women in Finance Committee, whose mission is to promote gender balance in what is a traditionally male-dominated financial industry – as well as to develop female leaders for the future. FinTrU recently won the ‘Diversity & Inclusion’ award at this year’s Belfast Chamber Business Awards.

When asked what advice she would give to someone starting out in their career, Kathleen was keen to share her experiences.

“Resilience is a key skill, the world of employment is constantly evolving and changing, and you need to be agile and pivot utilising your transferable skills. One thing I’ve learned to build resilience is to move around internally within a business. It’s important to keep it fresh, you have transferable skills, and moving into something new allows you to test yourself and widen your experiences. It enables you to build a broader perspective of the business.”

Recently, FinTrU welcomed a cohort of more than 100 new graduates in Northern Ireland. On a ‘meet the leadership’ session, the graduates asked “what advice would you give people starting out in their career?”

Kathleen says her advice was “connect with others in the office and role model the behaviour of other people”.

Kathleen adds: “Find someone you look up to, someone you feel you can learn from, and ask them to be your mentor – someone who will support you but also make you push outside your comfort zone.

“We appreciate that recent graduates have not had the same in-person engagement due to remote learning during Covid. We support them during their transition into the workplace as we truly believe they will benefit from a rich experience by working side by side with colleagues in a thriving and high-performance office environment.

“There is a transparent career pathway at FinTrU, and we have an expression which is ‘what got you here won’t get you there’ in terms of the next level. So, it is vitally important that you do not stand still as the complex nature of our industry is always challenging us in a positive way. You must be flexible and pick up new skills all through your career to continually develop professionally – which for me is exciting.”

Greg also highlighted the importance of resilience: “I’m nearer retirement age than recruitment age! I’m still learning. You need that willingness to keep learning new skills at all stages of your career.”

FinTrU helps global investment banks and financial institutions to fulfil their regulatory obligations and combat financial crime. Prior to FinTrU, Greg was the head of financial risk at Ulster Bank which gave him a great insight into the financial regulatory space.

“Banks have been increasingly regulated since the crash in 2008 and that’s a huge challenge for them,” he says. “Google ‘bank fines’ and you’ll see numerous banks in the world incurring large fines for having inadequate systems and controls. There are criminal individuals and organisations trying to beat the system through money laundering activities, fraud, bribery and corruption. It’s the responsibility of banks to understand what’s happening with their own systems.”

Kathleen adds: “FinTrU has a niche in the market because we blend both a people solution and a technology solution to do that forward-thinking on behalf of the banks. We have the financial and technical expertise, and we work with our clients to define their problems in order for us to create the solutions. We are being responsive to their requirements and working in a collaborative manner – which ensures that we target their highest priorities.”

The Financial Times has named FinTrU, which has a 1,400-plus workforce at sites across the UK, Ireland and now Portugal, as one of Europe’s fastest growing companies in recent years. Proud of its strong sustainability credentials, it runs a fleet of electric vehicles powered by energy from solar panels at FinTrU House in Belfast. All its paper is recycled, its pens are wooden and their branded hoodies are made from organic materials.

FinTrU has a highly progressive people-focused culture. For example, the company has an

‘early births’ policy to help parents whose baby arrives prematurely and a menopausal policy to support employees.

Another benefit is ‘FinTrU Unplugged’ which is a four-week paid sabbatical for those who reach five years of service at the company. Greg himself recently returned from ‘four weeks unplugged’ inter-railing around Europe. “It is a fantastic benefit for our people which rewards commitment. It enables you to unplug from the system completely and log out take a break from your work,” he says.

“Retention of staff is a huge thing for all businesses now – getting your talent is one thing, keeping them is another. If people don’t feel valued, they’ll leave. We work very hard in FinTrU at making our people feel valued. Our business is our people.”

The break has certainly fired his enthusiasm for the year ahead as Chamber President: “We had the North West US trade delegation here in October, which was great, but obviously a fully functioning Executive would help maximise these opportunities. I am looking forward to building on FinTrU’s success in the North West. We are a very good example of what is achievable – a local business performing at the highest level on the global stage.”