The Covery blog is back — with a bang! Over the past few years, we’ve set ambitious goals and made significant strides toward achieving them. A cross-platform, cross-industry, one-stop-shop risk management platform, Covery supports businesses in solving multiple tasks — from KYC/KYB/AML automation to preventing account takeover, friendly fraud, synthetic identity fraud, card-not-present fraud, and other scenarios.
We’ve further enhanced our technological capabilities, undergone the necessary certifications, and formed strategic partnerships to support our sustained growth and enable exquisite customer service. As a part of this effort, we are proud to announce our partnership with Stephen Quinn, a UK-based fintech craftsmaster with broad expertise and an even broader vision. Today we are introducing Stephen to you, and this will not be the last time you hear from him.
So let’s start by explaining what Stephen does for Covery.
- My role at Covery is CRO, my remit is to accelerate the growth of the business, nothing more complex than that. Over the past few years, Covery has been investing heavily in its technology, ensuring it has a product that delivers value to our customers.
2025 is a huge year for us, as the focus has shifted 100% to our growth phase and meeting the potential our product allows. After 20 years in this space, having served at C level for numerous businesses, it is exciting to play a part in the Covery story.
What are your most notable achievements in the field?
- Over 20 years, it’s difficult to pick out one. However, I have delivered growth and improved effectiveness in all the businesses I have served. My eclectic experience has enabled me to understand what value looks like to investors, customers, and consumers.
From your experience, what challenges do companies most commonly face in the risk management/KYC domain?
- As the saying goes, the only constant thing is change. The challenges that companies face are constantly evolving, as fraudsters/bad actors become ever more sophisticated due to advancements in technology. The global nature of commerce today means that a business needs to be able to protect itself 24/7.
The ever-increasing cost of living means friendly fraud is on the constant rise. Moreover, in regulated markets businesses need to meet their obligations to monitor traffic, customer behavior and authenticate identity, all with as little as possible friction in customer experience. This means it has never been more important to have the right partners to enable you to manage all of this.
What are your thoughts on the current regulatory landscape? Does it develop toward satisfying the business needs and should we expect any positive/negative changes in the future?
- Over my 20 years in this industry, the regulatory landscape has changed unrecognizably. Today, it’s extremely complex, and depending on your business, you may have to balance compliance with multiple legislative briefs from regulators.
Brexit had a tremendous impact on fintech businesses in the UK and EU, and some harmonization to reduce costs would be sensible. But will this happen? Let’s see.
At the core of regulation, its purpose is to protect consumers against financial crime and money laundering. However, the increasing burden for businesses is making it more challenging to find the balance between managing risk, compliance, and delivering a competitive product. I say smart tech is the future to solving this situation and this is where we see Covery is well placed.
What do you expect of the current situation in the risk management industry? Are we in for growth in gambling/dating/financial operations? Or can political uncertainty affect these domains too?
- In my view, political uncertainty impacts on confidence. Confidence for consumers in their spending and in businesses to invest to improve their services. So there is of course a knock-on effect in terms of growth. Gone are the days of growth at all costs, profitability is key and so managing risk and reward is vital.
Whether you are a gambling operator or a financial services business, managing this becomes ever more important. In my opinion, utilizing technology like AI and machine learning to do this is the future. I believe that all of the above businesses are resilient, are used to the challenges and so will continue to grow — however, I do expect more consolidation as has been the trend for the past few years.
What does Covery have to offer to deal with the challenges mentioned above?
- Covery takes a holistic view of our customers’ business, automating as many of their manual processes as possible, and utilizing AI and ML technology to anticipate threats based on learning models that have experienced millions of transactions.
We assist in managing existing customers using the most recent data available in the markets. We get into the heart of our customers’ business and ensure they have the balance right to achieve their operational goals, meet their regulatory responsibilities and protect their business from avoidable loss — our UVP is our knowledge backed up by technology that delivers on its promises.
Are there plans or updates you would like to share with our customers?
- 2025 is a massive year for us, we are proud of the tech we have built and expect to double our revenue in 2025. We have multiple new product enhancements, which we will announce over the next few months, and have some major new customers going live and we are very excited to be making those announcements.
We will be attending all major events, looking forward to meeting customers, and partners old and new. I am often asked what success looks like. For 2025 success is consolidating our market position and being recognized not just as market leaders, but also as subject matter experts driving the conversation around fraud and risk management.
Thanks for your time and insights. Should our readers have any questions or comments — share this interview on your social media and ask them there. We are sure Stephen will gladly respond.