As an experienced compliance professional, Darren Cade knows how rigid structures and processes can help prevent financial crime and keep organisations compliant. Now, as the new CEO of Arctic Intelligence, he is on a mission to help businesses fight money laundering, terrorism financing and other types of financial crime.
Darren Cade has just stepped up as the new CEO of Arctic Intelligence, the RegTech scaleup enabling businesses and consultants to strengthen their defences against financial crime. While he has been with the company for years, he can’t wait to take the next step for himself and the venture.
“When I joined, Arctic had just launched its first product and gained its first customer so it was an exciting time to join,” Cade remembers. “The chance to build and grow the business was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
Over the past four years as chief operating officer, Cade has thrived in the role, working alongside Arctic Intelligence founder Anthony Quinn to scale the company.
The Australian venture, which provides financial crime risk assessment technology, has grown across the world. Today it has clients in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Brunei, Europe, the UK, the US and Canada.
Cade has enjoyed the journey so far. “Working in a startup and trying to scale can be challenging and feels like more of a rollercoaster when compared to the bigger organisations I’ve worked in, but I’ve enjoyed building the team, seeing individuals develop and grow, and helping our customers,” he says.
The company has also been recognised for its efforts. It has picked up several prestigious accolades along the way including the Australian Founded RegTech of the Year 2020 and Exporter of the Year at the 2020 RegTech Association’s annual awards ceremony. Arctic Intelligence was also recognised as a Rising Star in Deloitte’s Technology Fast50 at the end of 2019. Now it has also claimed a spot in FinTech Global’s coveted RegTech100 list of the 100 most innovative RegTech companies in the world. “I’m very proud of the team we have here at Arctic and what they have achieved to date,” Cade says.
In early November, Cade stepped up to the CEO role. “I’m excited about the role, the potential ahead for the business and by the goals we’re looking to accomplish,” Cade says. “I feel very fortunate to have been given the responsibility and mandate to lead the team into our next phase of growth.”
Cade’s first priority as CEO is to focus on the continuing rollout of AML Accelerate, a money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment platform used by hundreds of customers to govern their AML programmes. The company is looking to grow its financial services customer communities particularly in Australia, the UK and North America. They have seen strong engagement from mid-tier banks, credit unions and wealth management businesses, all of whom have looked for a smarter way to undertake their enterprise wide risk assessments.
Cade will also be focused on helping existing and new customers with risk assessments across broader financial crime topics, such as sanctions, bribery and corruption, fraud, tax evasion, modern day slavery, human trafficking and wildlife trafficking, via its newest technology, the Risk Assessment Platform.
“Risk assessments are the cornerstone of any compliance programme but present many challenges,” Cade says. “We will roll out content to help our customers in 2021 and continue to enhance the technology to deliver significant efficiencies for any organisation but particularly the larger banks and consulting firms”
So, what does 2021 look like for Arctic Intelligence? “It’s all about further enhancing our offering and helping more customers,” Cade says. “There are a huge number of organisations globally that are regulated for financial crime and we believe we have market-leading risk assessment platforms that will continue to evolve and change the way risk assessments are conducted in the future.”
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