Finance operations manager
Technology innovators are forming new financial companies at breakneck speed, but in that haste comes the risk of losing sight of cash flow, which can sink a business before it can get off the ground. That's where Alina Ciocan is launching her own innovatives, tackling the challenge of financial data shortly after arriving at Kani Payments in 2019.
Ciocan, Kani Payments' finance operations manager, helped lead development and implementation of the company's reconciliation program. She also sparked a new awareness of the importance of not only occurring data, but providing a sophisticated understanding of how the management and analysis of financial processes impact a fintech's economic health.
"It's even more important in the context of the pandemic to make sure these businesses can make decisions that are well founded," Ciocan said.
Kani Payments' clients are fintechs, a broad term that includes companies that ply mobile, the cloud or other digital rails to provide financial services, payments, and services for other financial companies. The 2010s were a boomtime for fintechs, particularly in the U.K. where Kani Payments is based. And the crisis has brought new opportunities and pitfalls as fintechs participate in
These are new lines of business for many of these fintechs, requiring a better understanding of balance sheets, pending and past transactions, and how this information can inform a new product launch or a strategic adjustment.
"They need to understand where there are breakdowns and how they can fix those to avoid losses and become more cost effective and profitable," Ciocan said.
Kani Payments' reconciliation platform is designed to reduce the manual work involved with crunching data and accessing information that arrives or is stored in multiple formats. By combining data into a single location through a digital platform, it's easier to view on a dashboard.
She has demonstrated the behaviors of a leader, a collaborative and supportive peer who cares about others succeeding and growing, while delivering her own work to the highest standard.
Ciocan works directly with customers, advising them on how to use Kani’s reconciliation tool and adapt it to their requirements, work that involves training and consulting with fintechs and other firms as they move into payment reconciliation. She also works with developers in ensuring products are delivered in a timely manner.
It's a strategy Ciocan draws from her experience working with Kani Payments' CEO Aaron Holmes. Ciocan worked with Holmes earlier in her career at Flex-e-card, a U.K.-based payments company. When she joined Flex-e-card eight years ago, it didn't have a reconciliation process. "We worked together to implement one, a first glimpse of what was ahead for Aaron and Kani Payments," Ciocan said.
The project has already produced results. Kani Payments has expanded its reconciliation payments volume from £500 million in 2019 to over £4 billion in 2020. The firm has been busy, and Ciocan has had to ensure she and her team maintain a sense of balance between the hard work and recharging.
"Initially, when starting to work from home, I tended to work longer hours, making it harder to separate my free time from my work time," Ciocan said, adding she shared that concern with the team and found it was a common problem for the staff, which was working largely from home.
There were a few steps they took as a team to address this, including reminding each other to take regular breaks. "We implemented a rule to turn off notifications at the end of the day, to ensure work didn’t bleed into our personal time," Ciocan said. "Further to this, we undertook group mindfulness classes together that equipped us with the tools to take care of our personal wellbeing."
Nominating executive:
Aaron Holmes, CEO
What he said:
"She has demonstrated the behaviors of a leader, a collaborative and supportive peer who cares about others succeeding and growing, while delivering her own work to the highest standard."
