Positive disruption in finance: A new perspective

Episode Transcript:

Brandon  00:00
Brandon, hello and welcome to the Guernsey finance podcast, where we bring you interviews with leaders from the global finance industry, as well as news and developments from Guernsey's financial services sector. My name is Brandon Ashplant, and I am head of technical here at Guernsey Finance. For those of you who aren't familiar with Guernsey, the island is a leading global finance centre. The success of the industry here is underpinned by economic substance, political stability and asset security, and we are committed to the cause of sustainable finance. To find out more about Guernsey's success in sustainable finance, tune in to our sister podcast, the Sustainable Finance Guernsey Podcast. Today, though, I am delighted to be joined by Jay Goss, Chief Commercial Officer and board member at Aston, which has a mission to put people ahead of profit and in a tangible way, Aston offers both personal account, foreign currency services and business account, corporate payments, an independent, privately owned and debt Free solutions provider. Aston is, in their own words, committed to finding new ways of helping their customers make more of their money. On this episode, we'll be discussing Aston's original take on doing business, which doesn't conform to the norm. The firm's recent relocation to Guernsey, and how Aston views itself as a positive disrupter against more traditional competitors. So without further ado, welcome Jay. 

Jay  01:23
Thank you. Nice to meet you.

Brandon  01:24
Great. Great to have you on. So just to start, how does one go from a serving Royal Marine officer to founding a positive disrupter in Aston?  Wow.

Jay  01:35
Wow. Great. First question, having studied economics University up in Edinburgh, and after, I guess, an intense and successful five year career as a Royal Marine officer, I was ready for a change, and my best mate from school, James, had recently set up a wealth management firm. And we decided that our differing strengths played well together, and we went into business over 14 years ago now, and this led to us identifying that many of our clients were not receiving the level of care and attention, specifically with their foreign exchange exposure, which ultimately led to us purchasing a UK regulated foreign exchange company around 10 years ago.

Brandon  02:19
And for those who are less familiar with Aston and sort of your business model. Just outline, you know, what is it you offer? And how are you sort of different? 

Jay  02:26
Super simple. And rather than that, it taking months to open accounts. We look at doing it in days, and while we're still able to offer multi currency accounts and payments to 145 currencies, to what over 200 countries, and we're seeing that there have been increasing challenges in the offshore market to open accounts, and we're helping to meet this demand. 

Brandon  02:57
Now, positive disruptors can, of course, be very good for the economy, and not least for customers and clients who receive better service, more cost effective solutions, often, more often than not. What are some of the challenges for these traditional institutions? And how sort of Aston proposing to positively, positively disrupt? 

Jay  03:17
I guess the majority of banks have legacy technology and systems with high overheads that make their costs go through the roof, and implementing any new capability is often very expensive for them, and furthermore that, I guess, they have comprehensive, complex product Suites, which require many people and at Aston, with our cutting edge technology and an ability to clearly understand our clients requirements, we're able to provide a cost effective, personalized solution to each of their needs.

Brandon  03:49
I mentioned in the preamble, and I got it from your website, actually, that Aston describes itself as independent, privately owned and debt free. Perhaps the advantage on debt free is a pretty obvious one, but I guess the question from my side would be, what are the benefits that are derived from being independent and private and compared tonot I guess.

Jay  04:12
I guess again, very simple, we could be nimble and adapt quickly and effectively when we see an opportunity or identify a threat to our market. I guess the case in point was seeing the opportunity in Guernsey. We were asked by a number of our clients a couple of years ago whether we could open accounts offshore, and at the time, we could only do it in the UK, and we'd only a few months we'd identified the jurisdiction that was most attractive, ie Guernsey, built a business case, met the key stakeholders on the island and became regulated. I guess that's something I think that you'd be challenged to do within a large organization which has many stakeholders and decision makers. I guess probably make it sound all very easy. I promise it was a lot of hard work and.The team to put it in place, you know, in such a short space of time, but it's been incredibly exciting and and worthwhile. 

Brandon  05:06
Yes, and, and, I suppose there's something to be said about that, you know, being nimble as a, you know, as an independent firm, where you can sort of just make those decisions. And obviously it would have been a lot of hard work for you and your team, but once you, once you've made the move, it's actually quite a, you know, fairly hopefully easy transition, compared to those larger institutions that have to sort of take much more bureaucratic decision decisions to get over the line. 

Jay  05:29
Yeah, absolutely, I guess we've, we've tried to keep things as simple as possible by creating, I guess, an intuitive, easy to use payments platform which allows a client to collect, convert and pay. I collect funds that are owed to them, convert them into a foreign exchange, foreign currency, if required, and pay them out where necessary. So keeping it things super simple,  Yeah. And you know, as you say, a key aim of Aston is, you know, beyond being innovative and dynamic is, when compared to these sort of larger institutional competitors that you have, is to offer that simplicity. 

Brandon
Can you explain, if you don't mind the pun, what this means in practice? Obviously, you just touched on that there. But what can that look like for your clients and your customers on the receiving end? 

Jay
Really basic. It's, you know, I just like, we always use the phrase collect, convert and pay, and that's exactly what we do. You know, sort of that the Ron seal of payments platforms, to use that branding phrase, we do exactly what it says on the tin. You know, when a client wants to take in money, they've got a platform and an account that can do that in multi currency, you know, 14 plus currencies here in Guernsey, if they need to convert it, if they we can do that simply via the platform, and then they can make the payments out. So it's all very simple and easy to set up. And if they've got lots of different users on that, need to have different entitlements on the platform, different permissions, we can do that as well. So exactly what the market's demanding here on the island.

Brandon  07:08
You mentioned earlier about your move to Guernsey, I have to ask you, of course, more about this. You were, as you say, previously, based in London. You sort of launched there and founded the firm there. What is it about Guernsey that made you decide to sort of relocate to the Where should I start? 

Jay  07:24
There's loads of different areas. I guess on the business side, we've always made it clear that the island is open for business. You know, from the regulator, who's been flexible and interactive with us and coming to the island, you know, open to new, just disruptive ideas to to help keep the financial industry, financial service industry, running smoothly here, I guess, to yourselves at Guernsey finance, who have helped, helped us, and particularly me, in sort of settling in and navigating through the different organisations and personalities on the island And to the wider business community, who have been, I guess, super supportive in accepting a new entrant into the market and and also, I guess, on a personal basis, I love the outdoors, and living in Guernsey has been incredible for me. You know, allow me to train for long distance swim events, sort of open water swim events, and with very experienced individuals who are already here. And, you know, on a personal basis, I've made some great friendships that will last me a lifetime.

Brandon  08:27
Brilliant, and you sort of touched on that there. But beyond the benefits that you know, you clearly probably identified as a firm before, you know, making the move, or deciding to make the move, what have you know, if there have been any sort of additional pros that you discovered since moving to the island. I mean, obviously there's the quality of life and and, you know, the abilities to sort of, you know, make it, make it your own. I mean, it's always one of those. You can always be relaxed, or is sort of unrelated, if that's a fine way of putting it, as you like, on the island. But um, in the business sense, was there, um, was there any sort of, you know, market dynamics you sort of identified early on into the moves that you hadn't sort of recognised before. You know, before?

Jay  09:03
 Sure, I guess, I think the main Pro was the extent to which the business community locally is is willing to accept a new entrant into the market. So we've been really fortunate in that, and also that we've been willing to put a lot into the community here, and we get a lot back from that. And, you know, I've also managed to put on a few pounds with the excellent restaurants, which I guess can only benefit my cold water swimming.

Brandon  09:33
Definitely. Yeah. And how was the process of actually moving to the island? Because, you know, there's one thing, once you've decided to leave and you and you're here, and it might be good on both ends, but the actual transition might be, might be difficult. It might be easy. You know, was it smooth? And can you tell us a bit about?

Jay  09:49
Yeah, so super smooth, super simple. Locate Guernsey and population management have been super supportive in helping me, personally, physically move to the island and getting established and getting the right permit so that I could get accommodation, particularly and, you know, I was lucky enough to have, I have a local friend, or meet a local who could introduce me to a landlord to find accommodation. And now my three young children love coming over to the island and spending time here on holiday. It's sure is a world away from the hectave life that they have in London.

Brandon  10:25
No doubt about that. Let's talk about the market more broadly. We've seen incredibly high levels of inflation around the globe, you know, not least, by, you know, brought on by, you know, war returning to Europe and other another sort of economic ramifications surrounding other sort of global, you know, implications around that and other things. How have these sort of market conditions affected, you know, Aston's offering more broadly, and maybe the banking sector more broadly, actually, as well, from your perspective?

Jay  10:53
Great question. I guess we've been fortunate throughout the economic term, all of the last sort of 10 plus years to be broadly insulated. Clients will always require accounts to manage their flow funds, and they will always need to buy and sell foreign foreign currencies. The market volatility that we've seen in the last decade is, I guess, led to our clients more and more looking for support in managing these exposures, either protecting themselves or taking advantage of the market situation. And I guess we've been super well positioned to facilitate this for our clients. And you know, having the other benefit of being able to offer offshore accounts increases this capability for ourselves. 

Brandon  11:33
Yeah, and what type of if you don't mind me asking, sort of corporate and personal clients do you typically deal with?

Jay  11:38
Really straightforward in the corporate space, we focus on the financial service sector, specifically investment funds, fiduciaries, family offices and insurance firms. These require accounts opened offshore, often at speed, with the ability to have multi currency capabilities. Whilst on the private client side, we generally deal with the High Net Worth International individuals who are looking for offshore accounts with competitive rates of exchange. 

Brandon  12:06
Yeah, and just a final question, Guernsey has historically been quite popular with attracting sort of first time managers and founders to the island. I think that's something the island's sort of financial services industry prides itself on. You touched on upon earlier this point that actually, you know, existing players are quite open to positive disruptors looking to, sort of, you know, muscle in but work cooperatively within the marketplace. What is the most important piece of advice you'd give to a founder who's perhaps looking to come to Guernsey? 

Jay  12:38
I think it's, that's a really good question. I think it's to spend time here with the different stakeholders. I think if you're just tripping in, you know, on a monthly basis for a couple of days, it doesn't really work. I think you have to really put roots down on the island, build relationships, because it's very much a relationship driven Island, which I think, for a small you know, founder led businesses is fantastic, and is a great opportunity to thrive in 

Brandon  13:06
and and just to probably a tiny, tiny, slightly more additional question onto that. If you don't mind me asking, what, because it's always interesting to get people's responses. What is the most important piece of advice you'd give to a founder, just generically, because obviously, you sort of founded the firm going back 14 years now. So what would be the piece of advice along your journey that you'd give to a founder sort of looking to do?

Jay  13:27
Don't quit. Keep going. You'll make mistakes. Learn from them. Move on. 

Unknown Speaker  13:31
Brilliant,

Brandon  13:31
Brilliant, excellent. Well, thank you very much for joining us on the podcast. Thanks also to you for listening if you enjoyed this discussion. We have a backlog of interviews on the Guernsey finance podcast channel. You can check them out by searching for Guernsey finance on your preferred podcast platform. We also have links to Jay and Aston in our show notes, so check them out to hear more from them. To find out more about Guernsey and its specialist financial services sector, head over to our website, guernseyfinance.com. We look forward to welcoming you back to the podcast soon, but until then, it's goodbye from Guernsey.