What exactly is it that Ethidex does?
"Everything is about technology nowadays. So there is a new segment called RegTech, which is regulation and technology combined. (The main functions of regtech include regulatory monitoring, reporting, and compliance.) As a RegTech firm, Ethidex works with different law firms which technically simplify the regulations for us and bring them in a certain way that we can package and sell them to financial institutions and clients. It’s all about a simplified solution for a very complex business. It takes time to explain this because „compliance“ is very new in Germany. When we speak with the prospect clients, most of them think compliance is only a part of a big picture, whereas in North America, Canada Great Britain and many other countries it’s a huge new industry. That is why we want to be the player in Germany."
There are many markets and countries in the world where you could have settled. Why Germany?
"When I joined Ethidex three years ago, my priority was to make Ethidex international, because international banking is my background. Going international was always on Paul Paquettes (President&Founder) mind and he was waiting for the right time. So we shook hands, everything was fine and naturally, just because of the geography, we first took a look to the U.S. market. That was complicated for many reasons – different regulations, different levels and different states. So we decided not to spent any time, money and efforts on the U.S. market. Instead we were looking in other directions, such as Europe. Compliance is related to regulations and in a country like Germany there is certain developed regulation-culture which does not change within months. As everyone knows when you look at Europe there are two markets – it’s either London or Frankfurt, just because the European Central Bank is here. There are lots of financial institutions based in Frankfurt. So the decision for us was pretty much UK or Germany – and then Brexit came and made everything cloudy. We did not know what would happen after three years. A market entry without seeing the future clearly is like gambling."