Why Moving Faster Starts With Slowing Down | ClearBank’s Emma Hagan

Emma Hagan (0:00)

I think even if you have unlimited funds, it doesn't make everything the right investment choice. Does it advance or does it help us achieve our big strategy, our big goal, our big vision or objectives? Is it something our clients want? And then is it either profitable or does it help achieve some aim financially for us?

Tony Clark (0:16)

What do you see as sort of pros and cons of self-propelled growth versus going back to the market and raising more capital?

Emma Hagan (0:22)

Raising a new round is delictive. If you're looking at whether you want to raise a new round, is there something transformational we want to do that we could accelerate with that or not? And it would be worth doing the extra fundraise because we've got a really clear use for it that would deliver the returns, that would make it meaningful to the business. Like, would it 10X the growth or 10X the sustainability or 10X the reach?

Tony Clark (0:46)

This is The London Fintech Podcast, bringing you practical insights and approaches, stories and inspiration from the innovators who are building the new world of financial services.

Every leader listening has something waiting for approval. A product, a market, a partnership, and many of us tell ourselves the regulator is the reason it is slow. My guest today spent her earlier career as the person who said, not yet. Emma Hagan was Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at ClearBank, the UK clearing bank that launched in 2017 Now she is its UK Chief Executive and she has to make it go fast. Emma, welcome.

Emma Hagan (1:23)

Thank you. Great to be here.

Tony Clark (1:26)

So you used to be the Chief Risk Officer. Now you run the place, or at least run the UK. What do you see differently about growth, perhaps from when you were in the risk seat?

Emma Hagan (1:38)

I think a lot of it is just different angles on the same issue. And I think part of this, certainly for me in looking at joining ClearBank in the first place, as you say, originally as the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, was I think if you join that kind of environment, I think you are the kind of risk professional that enjoys growth because that's the environment you're walking into.

So I look at it as kind of two sides of the same coin, which is a lot of people focus very heavily on the risk role being about controls and the not yet, and how can we minimize or mitigate risk. So there's a flip side to great risk management, which is really how do we support the strategic objectives of the organizations? How do we grow safely and sustainably? Also, how do we support that, find ways of doing it in a way that would help us achieve our aims? And so if you like moving to the CEO role, it was a lot of using the same things that I was talking about focused on before, but now looking at how can I use that knowledge and insight that I gained over that time, and to actually look for the opportunities as well, more proactively rather than kind of looking more internally focused and it's definitely part of the role I've enjoyed a lot. But I think the broad angle of risk roles prepares you actually quite well for CEO roles ironically.

Tony Clark (2:59)

Yeah, I like that. So risk management, governance and controls as an enabler.

Emma Hagan (3:04)

Absolutely, yeah.

Tony Clark (3:06)

So when ClearBank wants to launch something new, what actually takes the longest?

Emma Hagan (3:13)

I think it varies. I've seen, I think one of the exciting things, again, particularly at ClearBank, and particularly if you work in the FinTech, is sometimes you're doing something really innovative. And so the thing that can hold you back is that no one really knows how to do the thing that you're trying to create. So, and that's a good and a bad thing. And it's good in that you're forging a new path. And so to some extent, you're trying to work out how to launch this thing. And it's a lot of collaboration across the company. And on the other hand, there isn't a blueprint you can follow.

So the area where you're figuring it out, you're talking to people, you're asking questions, you're trying to see where it could go wrong or where the opportunity is, that takes a lot more time when you're in the kind of pure innovation space.

I think kind of looking at things where you're launching in areas where maybe there is a trodden path, I think the thing I've seen historically that can slow you down the most is when you need a certain expertise or skill set and you haven't got it internally, particularly if you're going in a new area, because you don't know what you don't know. And you want to make sure that you're building that in a sustainable way and having someone or a group of people who really knows that space very well, to me is kind of what often helps you go faster at the outset and also kind of stops it from getting in the way because you find a last minute problem that you could have anticipated had you had that expertise and perhaps.