Chinese trade delegation visits United
On Tuesday 7 May, a Chinese trade delegation paid a visit to United’s Amsterdam offices. The eleven entrepreneurs, investors and government officials were in the Netherlands briefly on a trade-related tour of Europe initiated by the Chinese government and the province of Guangdong. United was one of two Dutch organisations selected for a visit, which was due in particular to United’s reputation as a fintech front runner.
The tour encompassed Frankfurt, Berlin and Luxembourg, key financial centres for Asian investors. Besides establishing trade contacts, delegates were in Europe to learn more about the European legal and financial regulatory framework, and to get a taste of innovative service models, particularly in the financial space.
Full suite of legal and financial services
With the aid of an interpreter, Marius de Groot (Managing Director United Amsterdam) and Mark Lamers (Chief Operations and Transformation Officer United Group) spoke for two hours with the visitors. De Groot focused on the legal and financial aspects of investing and doing business in Europe and the main differences between various jurisdictions. He also explained United’s origins, growth and vision, and how these uniquely enable the group, unlike competitors in this sector, to offer its clients the full suite of legal and financial services across multiple jurisdictions.
Latest in fintech
Lamers highlighted the two pillars supporting United’s service offering: client centricity and IT as a business driver. This gave him the opportunity to update the delegation on the latest developments in fintech, which United has been helping to drive since 2008. An excellent example he presented was the decision support module Pascal recently developed by fintech start-up Vartion. By applying various Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence models, this compliance tool can quickly and accurately assess data of new and existing clients and meet the regulators’ continuous compliance monitoring requirements.
Economic powerhouse
The Chinese trade delegation included some of the most successful business people of the city of Guangzhou, as well as government representatives. Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton), is the capital of the province of Guangdong in southern China. Guangzhou City is home to 14.5 million people, but combined with its suburbs, it is the world’s biggest metropolis with a population of 62 million. Guangzhou – since 2005 one of China’s five national central cities – owes its prosperity chiefly to its port, one of the four biggest in the world. The international airport Guangzhou Baiyun is one of China’s most important air traffic hubs.