Q&A with Arsalan Haque – former FX Options Trader at ING to Head of Trading Product at AssureHedge.
Did you know that you wanted to move from Banking to FinTech?
Yes & no. Being honest I wouldn’t have made the decision to move in to FinTech from where I was as the pay gap was too large but my hand was forced after a redundancy. However, that did allow me to think about what I wanted to do and FinTech seemed a great transition using new and old skills in a high growth environment.
ING was at the forefront of innovation at the time and I took full advantage of that by through the ING Innovation Hub, Its innovation labs and Innovation ventures. I had acted as a sounding board for a couple of companies and was regularly involved in the innovation bootcamp, an annual ING competition where one year, I developed a successful pitch for a PropTech solution that used a centralised digital ledger to connect investors to social housing tenants and democratised affordable home ownership.
I was in Singapore at the time and during my gardening leave I was meeting 5 or 6 people a day, not necessarily trying to find a job but networking and that’s how I ended up in an FinTech consultancy role for a period which naturally allowed me to do more research on companies and the market.
How did you find out about AssureHedge?
When I was at ING I always thought about the huge FX Market for SMEs that we never chose to service. I developed a pitch to build a platform that allowed SMEs and retail clients to access FX Hedging Strategies via a low-touch platform. When I left I had more time to uncover the size of that industry and a client segment ignored by regular banks, albeit for various good reasons.
I actually found out about AssureHedge as I signed up for a demo via their website. At the time they were pretty small and didn’t get much inbound traction so I got a call from the CEO asking why an FX Option trader was fishing around on their platform. He was actually concerned I was trying to pick them off.
After speaking with their team, I ended up doing various bits of consulting work for them. When they came to the Singapore FinTech event I ended up spending the entire week on their stand making introductions to them from my APAC network. I considered myself semi-retired after leaving ING and was in the process of moving back to the UK but I feel I still had valuable skills. When the CEO contacted me asking if I would like to join full time I jumped at the chance.
What kind of preparation did you do for AssureHedge / what skills did you try to evidence you had to join a much smaller firm.
You use a much broader skillset in FinTech, you just have to be willing to throw yourself in and get stuck in to problems. They were initially concerned about whether someone from a larger institution had the right level of energy and mindset. In my case, nothing could be further from the truth. If you are thinking about moving to a FinTech, ask yourself if you are someone who relies on infrastructure or someone who likes to build infrastructure. You have to be the latter.
I would also add, don't get too hung up over your initial salary if you do genuinely want to transition. I came in very light for my experience because I was genuinely interested in the offering, I shared the vision but could learn a thing or two about execution. In the first 4 months I was involved in rebuilding a risk system, credit modelling, sales, product development and revamping our back office processes. Within a year, I had made enough of an impact to be able to negotiate a substantial pay rise.
What’s the biggest difference between ING & AssureHedge?
When working at a Bank, you’re so specialised in what you’re doing and surrounded by other SMEs. I had an in depth knowledge of FX Markets. When I moved to AssureHedge there were more generalists. The in-depth FX knowledge was crucial but so was the broader understanding of banking operations, and you would be surprised how much value you are able to offer in those areas. The work is really varied and cross-departmental.
There is generally less politics and the politics that does exist definitely feels different. Banks are hierarchical in structure and very pyramid shaped at the senior management level, whilst FinTechs are quite a bit flatter. Everyone has a voice and people are listened to more but there is also a lot of chaos and broken systems, it does take time to get used to.
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