CREDS • MIDDLE EAST UPDATE
Speaking at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Valentin Vincendon, Chief Product Officer at BCB Group, explains how BCB is contributing to the region's rapid innovation. Tier-one regulation drives BCB’s UAE push
Valentin Vincendon Chief Product Officer BCB Group
You build something that might not be perfect or particularly polished at first, knowing that the next iteration will be significantly better. In other places, you may still be discussing and drafting, while here you’re already on a third iteration. WHAT’S NEXT FOR BCB GROUP IN TERMS OF GLOBAL EXPANSION? It really felt like a no-brainer to move to the UAE, as it has become a centre of gravity for finance between Europe, the US and Asia. We also continue to have a strong foothold in the digital assets industry, with several clients that are highly crypto-focused. The UAE remains by far the most crypto-forward country in the region, while some others are not engaging with it at all and some are still at a very early stage. As a result, and because we need to ruthlessly prioritise where we deploy our resources, the UAE is our absolute priority. From here, we expect to serve a much broader ecosystem and, over time, look to expand into markets such as South Africa and Canada. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE HAPPENING THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE? We’re working on a number of very exciting infrastructure projects. We’re working with Circle on several highly strategic initiatives, including its payments network. For us, this is strong validation that we’re pursuing the right strategy and building the right products, as it allows us to be part of a new way of moving money globally, very much aligned with our mission as a cross-border payments infrastructure company. To put it broadly, we’re working to rework the rails that currently power the global financial system. The reason we’re able to work on these projects is because of our state-of- the-art, tier-one regulatory framework. That level of regulation is something many infrastructure providers are reluctant to invest in themselves, and instead they prefer to partner with best-in-class, regulation-first players like us. This ensures their rails are supported by institutions that other market participants deeply trust.
HOW IS BCB BUILDING MOMENTUM IN ABU DHABI, AND WHAT ARE THE KEY DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS ENERGY, CLIENTS, PRODUCTS, AND REGULATION? Valentin Vincendon: I've been trying to talk to key prospects, potential partners, other people building infrastructure here, because the region is really looking at building infrastructure that can compete withEurope, the US and the rest of the world. ADFW is the perfect way to gain perspective from Dubai, to better understand the various projects being developed and reviewed by the regulator and government. In the UAE, we currently have two full-time employees, with plans to double the team in the coming months. HOW HAVE YOU FOUND A CLIENT BASE IN THE UAE AND WHAT ARE THEY ASKING FOR? I think the market here is much more fragmented. There’s a lot of activity, but many players are trying to build their own solutions. While this happens globally, it’s even more pronounced here. As a result, there’s a need to bridge emerging solutions, since institutional clients are seeking end-to-end offerings. For example, if you want to handle on- and off-ramps with stablecoins, you often need to work with two or three different providers to achieve
your goal. In the UAE, there are ongoing stablecoin projects that
purely business focused, which is true everywhere to some degree, but even more pronounced here. Beyond that, it’s a very multicultural environment, perhaps even more so than Europe, due to the influx of talent from all over the world in recent years. Everyone brings very different experiences, whether it’s someone who has exited from a payments company in Japan or someone who has built something innovative in Nigeria. This brings a lot of richness to conversation. There’s also a very high expectation to build things quickly, which reminded me of when I moved to London 10 years ago. Today, London feels a bit more settled, with a slower pace. Here, everything, from buildings to software, is being created rapidly, and people expect to move fast. WITH FEWER LEGACY SYSTEMS THAN IN EUROPE, HOW DOES THAT SHAPE THE OPPORTUNITIES OR CHALLENGES YOU FACE IN THE UAE? There’s much less attachment to working processes. It really feels like if something is better, faster, or should be built a certain way, there’s much less concern about how things have been done in the past. I think that partly comes from the top, given the very different political system and a more top-down, enlightened leadership approach.
contrast those in Europe in terms of regulation and denominations. It’s a very different ecosystem in many ways.
CAN YOU PROVIDE AN UP-TO-DATE INSIGHT ON THE REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT HERE? There are different levels of regulation. At the emirate level,
there is the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai. In Abu Dhabi, there’s the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) within Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). At the national level, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates serves as the country regulator, which involves an entirely different level of interaction. Because of the complexity of the services we aim to provide, our core value to customers, including custody, exchange, settlement of assets, and enabling payments across various regional payment rails, we require multiple types of licenses. This makes our timeline ambitious, but we are working extremely hard to achieve it. What’s the working environment like, how does it differ from Europe, and how are you adapting to it? Vincendon: I think, first and foremost, people here really value in-person interactions much more than in other parts of the world. Relationships start on a personal level rather than being
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