Our participation in Globaliser 2020 helps us walk in lock-step with new EU money laundering and terrorist financing directives.
A few weeks ago, we were selected to participate in a 12-week program called The Globaliser. Specifically, we’re participating in The Cyber Security Globaliser 2020 — a program designed to support us in our endeavor to expand internationally, across the Eurozone.
Also a few weeks ago, we held our first ever BusinessForensics anti-money laundering webinar. Participants joined us from many different countries, including Germany, France, The USA, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, and of course, The Netherlands.
We fielded questions surrounding EU regulatory compliance, case studies outside the Eurozone, and we gained insight into which issues matter most to participants, depending on their country.
In the meantime, million euro fines have become the norm and the European Commission has taken a decidedly tougher stance on policing financial and economic crime (see video).
So how do we plan to make a bigger impact in helping banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies across the EU prepare for the many legislative updates and regulations? Through our secret weapon: The Globaliser.
What is Globaliser 2020?
Globaliser is a program created by DutchBasecamp and InnovationQuarter, in collaboration with The Hague Security Delta (HSD), The municipality of The Hague, and the province of South-Holland.
DutchBasecamp has assisted more than 600 companies, in one way or another, with their international go-to-market strategy. A few notable organizations that have received their guidance are SwipeGuide and Felyx.
And while different Globaliser programs exist across an array of disciplines, our specific program is centered around cyber security. BusinessForensics was one of eight scale-ups selected to participate in the program and we’re excited because we believe now, more than ever, is a great time to help banks and insurance companies safeguard themselves against possible regulatory violations and subsequent fines.
So, what does the program look like? And, how will we use it to help you?
Session 1
To help us prepare for the first session, each participating company was assigned a coach for periodic check-ins. In addition to the coach, we received access to the digital guide, the DutchBasecamp Internationalisation Canvas — an in-depth resource, written by the team at DutchBasecamp.
The objective of the 38-page guide was to help us better capture a few key takeaways:
- Understand the steps needed to move into a new market
- Identify where we are on our current journey and plan next steps
- Learn how each phase of the process connects with the bigger picture
- Address specific pains to avoid missed opportunities
These key takeaways have a clear focus on aiding us in putting ourselves in the shoes of our potential end-users and future clients in other countries across the Eurozone.
For the coaching, at least one participant from each company conducts periodic one-on-one sessions to delve more deeply into the various assigned topics and homework related to our strategic internationalization roadmap.
Tames, our CEO, meets for consistent one-on-ones with our coach.
Since we’re in the “time of Corona” things were kicked off virtually and, almost expectedly, via Zoom. Here’s a snapshot DutchBasecamp shared of their team and the participants from that kick-off event.
Once introductions were out of the way, topics focused on the do’s and don’ts of scaling internationally, relevant founder stories, and sharing initial target countries between program participants.
Homework
For the first homework assignment, we were asked to determine why our company wanted to scale internationally, and to lay out some of our goals and expectations for the next few years. Luckily for us, scaling across the Eurozone has been quite the hot topic for the BusinessForensics team, so much of this information was top-of-mind and, in many cases, prepared in advance.
Even with an extraordinary level of preparation for this type of program, it still felt great to re-evaluate, challenge initial assumptions, and explore the rationale, logic, and data we originally discovered with external objectivity.
Crackdown by The European Commission
Which brings us to the European Commission, and why our international expansion is perfectly timed to help our current and future clients get on track with the latest AML (anti-money laundering) and CFT (Countering the Financing of Terrorism) guidelines.
While there are six anti-money laundering directives that have, sequentially, been handed down over the past handful of years, it is most recently that the European Commission released an action plan to take the next step in unifying the approach EU member states need to take in order to effectively combat dirty money.
The action plan derives from these six pillars:
- Effective implementation of existing rules
- A single EU rulebook
- EU-level supervision
- A support and cooperation mechanism for financial intelligence units
- Better use of information to enforce criminal law
- A stronger EU in the world
While some in the industry feel the action plan may not be tough enough, the fact remains that many EU member states have been slow to fully comply with the many new mandates and guidelines handed down by the European Commission for AML and CFT.
In fact, in many cases, not only will companies need new or updated software that helps them stay abreast of changes and requirements, in real time, but many companies will also need a partner that walks with them every step of the way to ensure the tools that help them prevent fines are set up for their specific environments.
Session 2
The second session was another virtual session. This time, things moved quickly.
After the obligatory discussions about market opportunity and business models, the session seamlessly pivoted to the nuances that differentiate various countries from one another, including cultural and regulatory differences.
For example, if we want to use our solution to assist German banks with AML and CFT, we should likely know a thing or two about Germany’s Money Laundering Act, the Geldwäschegesetz (GwG).
Members from each company were able to share some of the similarities and differences they’d personally learned and experienced, and videos were played that contained helpful first-hand knowledge and information from CEO’s of Dutch companies who’ve successfully expanded internationally.
Homework
The homework assignment for the second session was two-fold. First, deep-dive into the business aspect of our internationalization strategy. Second, get granular on cultural and regulatory differences in each expansion country, and gain a better understanding of how we plan to roll out with these nuances in mind.
What’s Next?
So, what’s next? Our first in-person session at The Hague Security Delta, this week.
