Financial Planning fintech Dynamic Planner has recruited a new managing director for Europe to lead expansion on the continent.

Seasoned European executive Christophe Ponette has been hired to lead the company’s EU expansion after two years of research into the European advice market, the firm says.

He was previously MD of Avaloq, a European banking and wealth technology provider for Benelux.

He speaks multiple languages and has over 25 years’ experience working in sales and management positions in European markets, including The Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

The company has spent two-year investigating the needs of European financial services firms, asset managers and clients as a result of MiFIDII and other regulatory changes.

He will work in collaboration with Simon Colboc who has joined Dynamic Planner in a non-executive capacity. Mr Colboc has 25 years’ experience in financial services, including executive positions at Fortis, BNP Paribas and Prudential Plc.

Dynamic Planner has also signed an agreement with The European Federation of Financial Advisers and Financial Intermediaries (FECIF), an independent non-profit organisation for financial advisers and intermediaries in 27 EU countries plus the UK and Switzerland.

Dynamic Planner has already completed the localisation of its risk and sustainability profiling tools for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

The company aims to localise its functionality including: reviews, goal based cashflow planning and suitability reporting to provide one Financial Planning system to European clients.

Ben Goss, CEO, Dynamic Planner said: “Backed by almost two decades of experience of Dynamic Planner in the UK, we are now taking our leading Financial Planning system to the Continent.

“Europe is in the foothills of an enormous shift in the way that advisers help households manage their finances and prepare for retirement in terms of the investment risk they need to take and the regulation that they face. The market feedback we have had is that we can help financial services firms successfully meet these challenges as we do in the UK.

“This is a natural progression for Dynamic Planner and an incredibly exciting time for us as both a team and a business.”

Christophe Ponette said: “Large organisations in Europe face many challenges – ageing populations; low savings rates and clients with assets held across different institutions. Above all there is a need to create a culture of investment, improving the overall customer experience and establishing a better and more efficient integration of the Financial Planning process. We believe Dynamic Planner can provide the answer to these challenges.”

• As part of the exploratory process, Dynamic Planner’s head of psychology and behavioural insights Dr Louis Williams, conducted a large-scale analysis study of the populations in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain to understand attitude to risk (ATR) and views on sustainability. His study found key differences between the five European countries and the UK including that Belgium and Germany have significantly higher average levels of risk tolerance on investments compared to France, Italy and Spain and all European countries appear to be more risk averse than the UK population.