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Renoy Kundukulam, CEO of Finmark Capital: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Renoy Kundukulam (LinkedIn), CEO of Finmark Capital. Edited excerpts from our conversation:
I’m a career banker who would like to be remembered for having created a legacy in terms of what I have done in the industry here in the region. I was assigned the task of setting up the wealth management unit for Noor Bank, an Islamic bank which got merged into Dubai Islamic Bank. It was a small local bank, almost seven or eight years old by then. Before then, I used to head the wealth management business for Standard Chartered, managing the Levant region, which is the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon, Oman and Bahrain.
I can proudly say that in the six year journey that I had with Noor Bank before I moved into DIB after the merger, we had created a brand name within the wealth management fraternity in the country that was reckoned with. The big established Islamic banks, like Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank or Emirates Islamic Bank or Dubai Islamic Bank would really envy us in terms of the kind of products and innovative solutions we would bring to the table. There were a lot of barriers that were broken. I transformed it from a loss making business in 2013 — with AED 13 mn of losses in six years — to one with a topline of about AED 120 mn and a bottom line of AED 40 mn.
After the merger, I convinced a set of people within my organization to see the vision I had for Finmark. It was a covid baby — we decided to jump into it at the peak of the pandemic. We took that bold call at that point in time and were able to convince investors to support us. With the hard work of people today, I can say we’ve had three full financial years and every year, our bottom line has been in the black. We made profits right from the first year of operations.
When I was at Noor Bank, I had teams traveling to markets like Switzerland, Pakistan, Africa, and the GCC. What we found was that the business of wealth management via an intermediary is pretty huge. Of the 3 tn business in Switzerland, almost 45% of the business happens through what we call independent asset managers or external asset managers. We used to visit these intermediaries and they would bring their clients to us — because I was on the other side of the fence at that point in time — and they said, we manage client wealth and we want to diversify geographically for the client, as well as from an asset class perspective.
We are in essence an intermediary, or a multifamily office. We sit between the high net worth client and the bank. We’re all ex-bankers; most are certified investment consultants. We service the client and we provide advisory for products like stock, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, derivative solutions, warrants, options, or even alternative investment options. We partnered with about nine different institutions across various geographies like Switzerland, Singapore, UAE, Mauritius. With the single point contact being the UAE, you can access the world in terms of where you would want your portfolio or your money to be. Our client doesn’t have to visit any of these jurisdictions to get things done; we make it happen and we open and manage the account.
We have a system where there are 17 different investment banks which are plugged into the platform, sort of like an Amazon or Booking.com, and the client gets to choose where it can get the best pricing and product. For example, if I were to bank with Citibank, I would see Citibank’s pricing. But this option allows you to buy a product from any bank and custodize with your bank. We offer that value of negotiating with the bank and finding our clients the best product. We also offer continuity, especially for clients in Africa who see banks close down. We can simply move the portfolio to another bank we’re partnered with.
We also offer legacy planning for our clients, and capital advisory for lending solutions like trade finance, bridge or mezzanine finance, for corporates looking for short-term financing needs.
Our sweet spot is to look at clients with a liquid net worth of between USD 2-20 mn. We believe that these clients are disserviced at private banks, which usually like to focus on clients with a net worth of USD 25 mn and upward, and don’t have the expertise or knowledge to cater to this type of client. 70% of our clients are resident clients, and 30% are non-resident, mostly from the region, as well as Africa, Asia, and Europe.
I meet up with the HR manager once a week to understand what kind of administrative aspect needs to be looked at; employee engagement, plans to take the team out, etc. I also focus a lot on our social media marketing. The third element is sitting with the compliance team once a week to understand the status of the periodic review, how many cases we are getting, etc.
I also sit with the portfolio analyst to discuss client portfolios, issues, etc, and with the sales team. Then I sit with the service team to understand in charge of our pipeline for bank partnerships, and I meet with the top management, the head of sales and my CIO.
I also meet with people in the industry, people like me, unit heads and relationship managers to gauge any opportunities in the market. For example, we identified FX as an opportunity which is missing in our current scheme of business, so we have now applied for the license to be able to provide that service. We’ve also applied for an ins. intermediary license.
My morning routine is probably a bit of a disappointment [laughs]. I’m not a morning person at all. I start my day a little late, and come into the office around 9:30. I hit the gym three days a week with my trainer in the morning.
When I come into the office, I look at my schedule. My week is always scheduled early on, with weekly meetings, board meetings, and town halls all penciled in. I check if there are any urgent emails that I need to reply to, and then if I’m meeting some people during the day, I would have my meetings. I’m engaged with the team during the day; it’s an open door policy. Anybody can walk in at any time.
I’m always available for client calls or discussions. Any client that is getting onboarded, I ensure that I myself go through the entire KYC before I approve it. I don’t just let compliance handle it. Towards the end of the day is when I pick up Financial Times or longer reads on the markets, when I know that most of the people from my office have gone. One thing I make sure I always do before I leave my office is not to leave any unread emails.
I wind down at around 7:30 in the evening. I have my dinners at eight and then go for a walk at around 10, and then watch something on TV or Netflix and retire around 12.
I feel the idea of a work life balance is a bit of a myth, because it’s presented as something like a yin yang or, or a hero-villain kind of thing. When life is the hero, you are essentially saying work is a villain, which is not the case. The terminology is self-defeating. If I’m able to enjoy the work that I do, that is part of my life.
I have a hunger in terms of what I want to do on the professional side; I know I could probably do a lot more, whether that’s both growing this business or looking at what else I can do. On the personal side, I have liked the fact that I’ve been able to be more fit than what I was a few years back, so I want to work continuously on that.
I’m also working out the digital aspect of wealth management, because scalability is very important. The tech adaptation aspect in this industry is not as simple and straightforward as in others. It’s a highly engaged model; you need advisory and not everything would be easily available online, so it’s that juncture that I’m trying to figure out. What is that next big thing that will be talked about maybe say five or 10 years from now? That thought keeps me awake at night sometimes.
I’m currently reading Atomic Habits, which I find quite interesting. It tells you to establish a system, not just a goal, because then you have a routine that becomes your true identity, instead of just an end goal to achieve.
One piece of advice that I tend to carry with me is to always question the status quo. I will always challenge my team and urge them to aim high. A lot of people I worked with told me they used to be skeptical about some of the steps I took, but now they tell me to keep doing that and to trust my intuition and break barriers.
