Press Release: FCG Expands in Europe and recruits top risk expert
The Financial Compliance Group, FCG, with operations across the Nordic region, today announces that it will expand its operations into Europe by establishing an office in the financial capital of Europe, Frankfurt. Experienced risk expert Jonas Ljungqvist has been appointed to Head of the International team with a mission to expand FCG’s business in Germany and, over time, across continental Europe. Jonas joins from Ikano Bank, where he was their Chief Risk Officer for 5 years.
Established in Stockholm in 2008, FCG is the leading Nordic specialist service provider of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) services, primarily focused on the financial sector. FCG has grown rapidly over the past years to become the largest dedicated GRC team across the Nordic region, with deep expertise across the regulatory frameworks that are relevant for the financial industry. Given the depth and breadth of competencies required to ensure internal control and compliance with financial regulations, many financial institutions, both small and large, are increasingly seeking external support from specialist service providers.
Over the years, FCG has worked with several international financial institutions, and many of the established Nordic customer relationships have operations outside the region. This, combined with the fact that regulatory frameworks are largely the same across Europe which means that FCG’s competencies and services are exportable, makes this initiative a natural extension in FCG’s continued growth journey. FCG is now building a high-quality local team in Frankfurt, with Jonas as the first addition, and we are excited by the new capabilities that this will provide to the group.
”We have viewed a German establishment as a natural first step for our continental European expansion strategy, and have known Jonas for several years, and rate him highly. He shares our culture and passion for providing deep regulatory expertise to clients. With the upcoming Brexit, we believe that Frankfurt will more clearly be positioned as the financial capital of Europe, with an estimated 50 banks moving core parts of their businesses to Frankfurt. We see a clear lack of available resources in our core competency fields, i.e. hands on experience in risk management, compliance and financial regulations, combined with a constantly increasing demand for these types of services as well as a rapidly changing regulatory environment.”, states Jimmi Brink, Partner and Head of Sales.
Jona Ljungqvist joins FCG on January 1st 2019, and will initially seek to build the international team out of Frankfurt together with Nordic team members, and will over time expand operations across continental Europe, including France and the Benelux region. Jonas comes with broad experience from the financial services market, including 16 years at Swedish bank SEB focused on risk management and control with senior positions at group level as well as for SEB’s German subsidiary. Since 2013, Jonas has been the Chief Risk Officer at Ikano Bank, and has during this period worked to strengthen the risk management framework and risk culture in the bank. Having lived and worked in Germany the last 10 years, Jonas is well established in the German market and understands the local aspects and interpretations of European regulatory frameworks well.
Jonas Ljunqvist says: “I’m excited to join FCG, and see a great opportunity to establish a specialist GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) services provider focused on a customer centric approach and deep expertise across regulatory frameworks. In the past, German financial institutions have been quite conservative when selecting service providers within the GRC arena, focused primarily on the already established large consultancy firms. However, given the complexities of the regulatory landscape and the impact they have on core business processes for financial institutions, we see that this is changing. Financial institutions are increasingly looking to partner with best-of-breed service providers that not only provide the relevant regulatory expertise, but also understand clients’ businesses and seek to improve their core operations. With a strong people and competency focus within FCG, we believe that we will have a competitive edge in recruiting and retaining talented people, which in the end is what counts when helping customers tackling their challenges and optimizing their business.”