Exclusive: Maxima Compliance to “readjust” to meet changing compliance technology environment

Maxima Compliance has undertaken a broadbase readjustment of its operational model to become a product-led organisation with hived-off B2B and B2C departments, EGR has learned. Speaking exclusively to EGR, the London-based compliance consultancy’s CEO, Antonio Zanghi, lauded the firm’s development as culminating in “incredible growth” but suggested there was still more to do. “We are readjusting our trajectory in line with our three-year strategy to become a product-lead organisation,” Zanghi told EGR. “We have two very strong products in DataVault and Complitech, so we realised that was the direction we wanted to take the business into. “Technical compliance services are the core of the consulting services we offer but we’ve completely removed Maxima from the regulatory services division, which will be placed into a separate joint venture business focusing on B2C compliance services. “We are also building a more technical team that is able to not only advise on what the compliance aspects are but also technically how to achieve compliance,” Zanghi added. As a result of the organisational changes, seven individuals from Maxima’s services team have been made redundant, Zanghi confirmed, and their roles will not be replaced due to an organisational focus on these new technical services and  the US market. EGR has learned Maxima’s new organisation will include two VPs – VP services, implementation and governance, led by Catalin Zaha, as well as VP services, technical compliance, led by a senior hire due to join the firm on 1 October this year. “We wanted to be able to respond to the changing nature of our clients and adapting our business to match, and these actions will allow people to move to different roles which fit within their skill set,” Zanghi told EGR. “In the coming months we will be not replacing but growing those themes in the directions we are now taking. “We’ve also focused on product in respect of the US side; we recently released 12 new jurisdictional updates and Complitech updates which is a major milestone for us. “It was important for us as a firm to have a lean structure and refocus in the right direction,” Zanghi added. Zanghi, who formerly worked for IGT and Yahoo!, founded Maxima in 2018 and has built the company from the ground up, making key hires and augmenting the compliance consultancy with international expansion and the addition of new products including Complitech and the Maxima data vault to its offering. In March, Maxima launched its first US-based compliance product with the expansion of the Complitech product into the lucrative and ever-expanding US market. For Zanghi, however, it is not just a case of following the money with Maxima’s readjustment, but also responding to gaps in compliance around the sector. “Of course, the direction we’re taking is one based on where the revenue is, but also the trends we’re seeing in both the US and Europe are really a lack of knowledge about complex compliance issues, as well as a need to develop technology to make that compliance possible,” he told EGR. “There are key aspects of compliance in both markets where we see difficulties being encountered by B2C and B2B operators to understand how techniques will be developed to address them. “Things like information security aspects, things that really require more than just a policy or a tickbox-style approach require substantial operational technology, or even to negotiate day-to-day compliance changes at a business level. Zanghi continued: “In the last 12 months, we’ve been speaking with a lot more CTOs and technical teams that we have and compliance teams, because they are the ones needing guidance, and we want to meet this because we are a technical compliance consulting firm. “This is about technology that goes beyond compliance, this is technology to serve a compliance environment and that’s exactly the direction we’re taking, because we realise there is a huge gap, because we’ve been attempting to fill that gap, but we want to go further,” the Maxima CEO concluded.