The role of the Indian GICs changed from labour arbitraged, to developing high-end capabilities.
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Anand, Managing Director, Equiniti India
- Give me a brief introduction of Equiniti India
Equiniti (EQ) has been a reliable and innovative Fintech provider for some of the largest companies in the UK and other countries for nearly 20 years. Our clients trust us to manage 70 million shareholder records, process £90 billion worth of payments annually, servicing 1.1 million share plan investors, and interact with 27 million shareholders and pensioners. Our technology and services encompass share registration, share plans & governance solutions in the UK, equity compensation & related services for North American corporates, regulatory technology & services for credit, remediation & risk/fraud, pension administration, payments, and software. Around 70% of the FTSE 100 and 15% of the NYSE companies rely on us to help them address the challenges of an increasingly complex and regulated landscape. We do this by offering specialist solutions, powered by technology, which are delivered by more than 6,000 employees across geographies.
EQ India is EQ’s Global In-house Centre (GIC). We are an extended arm of our global business and employ highly competent professionals delivering complex transactions. EQ India operates with our entities in the UK, US, and Poland seamlessly and is the fastest growing geography in the group providing financial technology services to EQ’s clients. EQ India provides sophisticated processing and payment services and effective technology solutions for increasingly complex and regulated markets.
- What are your plans and projections for the Indian markets? Are you planning to increase your headcount?
EQ India has been growing from strength to strength over the last few years and we continue this exciting growth journey. We are a high-performance team of 1300 people in India and we continue to grow at a rapid pace of 20% YoY. While headcount growth is important, we also believe in growth in the quality of work that we do. To develop an organization, it is important to keep our teams motivated with challenges, which will come from doing more interesting and challenging assignments rather than just operational tasks. This is the direction in which EQ India is headed.
- The IT sector is the worst hit during the economic slowdown. How should one prepare themselves for turbulence?
Business cycles of ups and downs are a reality and the best way to keep one prepared is to keep learning and up-skilling. Business models are continuously changing because of economic factors and Digital Transformation is enabling these changes. It is important to keep abreast of these changes and have the right skills to tackle these changes. It is also important, particularly for people just joining the industry, to focus on acquiring domain skills and understanding the businesses they service. Knowledge of just technology without domain understanding will not be as effective when technology is being used to solve business problems. Lastly, after every trough comes to a peak. Rather than focus on the lows, it is important to look into the future and prepare for it.
- Amid the looming recession fears in the global economy, do you think your business in India or at the global level will be impacted?
We are market leaders in our business in UK and US. Hence, any recession will certainly impact us. However, this recession is not a surprise and has been in the works for a while. As a result, it has given us enough time to prepare ourselves. We have ensured we have a strong business model with plans in place to deal with economic realities. The pandemic has also taught all of us a lot of lessons, which are useful in the current environment. 5. What are the upcoming or the latest trends emerging in the fintech space? Today, fintech is a huge Digital play that gives more power to the user in a DIY mode. Hence, the key is the ease of use and user convenience. At the same time, since it is the world of finance, it warrants a very high level of security and risk management. This interplay with more power to the users and managing security, regulations, and risks at the same time needs smart designing skills and execution. Further, for a fintech like EQ, which is highly specialized, it is important we marry technology skills with domain understanding, to help us make our platforms better. This trend of domain tech specialists is increasingly gaining ground. The other key trend in fintech is the Engineering aspect. Considering the fact that it is a fast-changing world, product engineering with an eye on the future is a key measure of success. From a fintech GIC perspective, the key trend is – the role of the Indian GICs is changing from being labour arbitraged, low-cost operational centres to centres that work on business outcomes, through design thinking and developing high-end capabilities.
