Financial technology specialist, Binu Paul, has left the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to take up a senior digital asset role for a London-based firm.
Paul joined the FMA as full-time as fintech leader in September 2020 after consulting to the regulator for several years on the sector.
During his almost two-year tenure at the FMA he established a cross-government panel to help budding fintech firms negotiate regulatory and legal hurdles on the way to commercialising product ideas.
The fintech forum provides feedback to would-be entrepreneurs from the FMA, the Reserve Bank of NZ, the Commerce Commission, the Department of Internal Affairs, Treasury and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Previously, Paul served for more than two decades both in the traditional investment sector and, more latterly, in the emerging fintech space as a business founder and industry cheerleader.
He founded the innovative KiwiSaver research website, SavvyKiwi in 2014 and co-founded another financial product comparison service, Pocketwise, in 2017.
Perhaps ahead of their time, both businesses failed to fire (although SavvyKiwi was poised to enter the UK pension market in a move foiled by COVID in 2020) but Paul sparked wider interest in the local sector after launching the first NZ fintech conference, Finnotec NZ, in 2016 and as founding member of industry body, FintechNZ.
Before turning to fintech, he was head of business strategy and development for Tyndall Investment Management NZ (now known as Nikko) and led the seminal research house, FundSource, for seven years, leaving soon after its sale to the NZX.
FundSource was later sold to Australian research firm, Zenith, which shuttered the NZ service in June – although it is understood the business may emerge under a new owner shortly.
The FMA created the specialist fintech lead position in November 2020 (along with another ESG-related role) to “reflect the regulator’s support for innovation in financial services and commitment to supporting New Zealand’s transition to an integrated financial system, which looks beyond financial returns to also take account of other critical non-financial factors”, according to a release issued at the time.
Currently on a big recruitment drive for multiple roles, the FMA will likely add new fintech resources to the list.
Meanwhile, Paul will jet off to London near the end of September to begin a new reign in the burgeoning digital asset world.