Firing lineOct 23 2020

Artificial intelligence can boost IFAs' business

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Artificial intelligence can boost IFAs' business

Warren Vickers is a man who has always marched to the beat of his own drum – quite literally. 

Although these days his hands are full working as the commercial director for TCC, in the past, his hands were used to tinkling the ivories.

In fact, he even studied music at Royal Holloway, University of London and pre-lockdown could be seen performing with the Royal Choral Society during his down time.

So how has such a musical man ended up being one of the big players in the world of financial compliance? Well, after deciding that the musical lifestyle was not quite right for him, he opted to follow in his father’s footsteps and enter the corporate world.

Luckily, the music world’s loss has been the financial industry’s gain because he now spends his days championing the importance of good company culture through the use of TCC’s innovative Hemisphere service.

The 35-year-old started his career as a consultant at Hydrogen Group in 2007 and has built up more than 12 years’ experience within financial services and regulation.

He managed to secure his role with the TCC Group thanks to his international network in the compliance world – having also spent two years in Singapore. This was firstly with Eames as a senior consultant and then with Empiric Solutions as head of risk, audit and compliance.

Culture change

Having started his working life during a global banking crisis to now working through the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Vickers believes one of the biggest changes he’s witnessed in the finance industry is how the focus has shifted to prevention rather than cure.

He says: “When I first started working, it was a bit of an anxiety-inducing time when we saw images of staff at Lehman Brothers being marched out of their office with their boxes. But I was fortunate enough to join the compliance side of things, which has been growing in importance ever since.

“In the early days there was a lot of firefighting going on in financial services. Huge amounts of money were being thrown at compliance. Slowly over the past few years there has been a bit of a stock take going on and businesses have realised that they need to stop patching up wounds and instead stop them before they happen. And that is why having a good company culture is so important.”

The importance of company culture has been gaining ground within the financial sector thanks to a stark warning from the Financial Conduct Authority earlier this year, when it warned companies that fail to support a good business culture to expect “increased supervisory scrutiny” from the regulator. 

Since then, the regulator has published a series of industry papers on its website, heralding the start of a much larger conversation surrounding “purposeful cultures” within the financial services sector.

Mr Vickers argues this is where tools such as Hemisphere can help, by enabling companies to meet FCA expectations faster.

Understanding behaviour

Hemisphere is a sophisticated data analytics programme that decodes a company’s culture.

It works by deploying artificial intelligence and using a mix of employee surveys and analysis of a company’s communication systems to help businesses understand what their culture is actually like. This then provides them with evidence and data to make any relevant changes to improve their systems.

Mr Vickers believes this can not only help financial services, such as IFAs, comply with FCA rules, but also boost business.

He says: “We’ve always believed that strong compliance and, ultimately, commercial success starts with company culture – it’s the backbone of everything in an organisation.

“The FCA has done a brilliant job at making firms focus on culture in its supervisory activity. People used to think having a good company culture was just about employee engagement and if you see people looking happy, then everyone must be happy. But the FCA has helped sharpen and focus minds on how good company culture can stop breaches before they happen.

“When things have gone badly wrong in the financial services industry, it has often been the result of people breaking the rules.”

“It takes just one person to be seen to be getting away with something to make others more comfortable to take that same risk. 

“If you look at the past, fines have not stopped bad practices, so what you have to do is tackle the culture of a company.

“Understanding how poor behaviour can imbed itself in a team, business and entire industry is key to ensuring bad practices can be a thing of the past.

Mr Vickers says you can prevent a lot of people from “misbehaving” with good culture. Ultimately, that will help the financial sector to support society.

In more recent times, attention has fallen on how companies can promote diversity and create a more inclusive environment to enable women, as well as black and ethnic minorities, shatter the glass ceiling and take on more leadership roles.

Mr Vickers believes the use of artificial intelligence can help companies bridge the gap by making their leaders aware of issues they may not have realised even existed.

He says: “As humans, if you’re not affected by a particular problem directly, then it is difficult to see how other people may be affected by it. 

“What Hemisphere does is gives leaders a chance to see how people are actually feeling. It helps them see what’s been happening and how to make changes, because unless they can see it, and almost feel it, taste it and smell it, then it is hard to see what needs to happen to change.”

Aamina Zafar is a freelance journalist

 

Career highlights

2017-present: Commercial director, TCC Group

2013-2017: Associate partner, Danos Associates

2011-2013: Head of risk, audit and compliance, Empiric Solutions

2009-2011: Senior consultant, Eames Consulting Group

2007-2009: Consultant, Hydrogen Group