From Wall Street Compliance to Building Her Own Firm: Seung Earm on Founding Ibex Compliance
Seung Earm never planned a career in compliance. She set out to study international relations and languages with her sights on diplomacy, only to discover her interest in finance during her Master's degree. That pivot led her through Merrill Lynch and into investment banking at Goldman Sachs, right as the compliance function began its rapid rise across the industry. Nearly three decades later, she has worked across central compliance, research, sales and trading, and asset management at firms including Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas, along the way serving as an FCA-registered Chief Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer.
That long career gave her a front-row seat to a recurring problem: smaller and growing firms are often forced to choose between an under-resourced junior compliance hire and the high cost of a large consultancy. Alongside her business partner Mark, Seung set out to close that gap, founding Ibex Compliance to deliver senior, practical expertise without the traditional overhead. Leaving a secure, successful role was, in her words, one of the biggest risks of her career, and also its proudest and most rewarding decision.
Today, Ibex Compliance works with clients navigating everything from first-time regulator interactions to full financial crime framework rebuilds, taking an agile, business-first approach rather than a generic one. Looking ahead, Seung and her team are focused on fast-evolving sectors including cryptocurrency, fintech, and payment services, as well as helping AI and technology-forward firms build compliant foundations from the ground up.
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Q: What inspired you to co-found Ibex Compliance, and how did your almost three decades in compliance across firms like Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas shape that decision?
My path into compliance was not originally planned. I had intended to work in diplomacy or the foreign office, which is why I studied international relations and languages at university. My interest in finance developed during my Master's degree. That led to an internship at Merrill Lynch, then a role in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. I moved from investment banking into compliance just as the function began its rapid growth across the industry. I have not looked back since.
Over almost three decades, I have worked across central compliance, the control room, research, sales and trading in FICC (Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities). In later roles, I covered asset management, insurance, consumer lending, invoice financing, car leasing, and real estate, at firms including Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas. Watching business practice and regulation evolve together taught me a great deal. I also benefited from excellent teams, managers, and mentors throughout my career.
That experience showed me, repeatedly, that firms — particularly smaller and growing ones — often cannot access senior, practical compliance expertise when they need it most. They are left choosing between an under-resourced junior hire and the cost of a large consultancy firm. We have each held regulated roles ourselves: I have served as a Chief Compliance Officer registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA, the UK's financial regulator) and as a Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO). That gap in the market, combined with our own experience, is what led my business partner, Mark, and me to found Ibex Compliance. Leaving a secure, successful role to build something of my own was a considerable risk. It has also been the proudest and most rewarding decision of my career, and one I could not have made without a strong business partner alongside me. That said, running my own business is a different skill set from being a practitioner. I still feel I have a great deal to learn.
Q: Can you share a specific example of a compliance challenge you have helped a client navigate that speaks to Ibex's approach of agile, expert-led solutions?
One example illustrates how we work. A client was preparing for its first direct interactions with the United Kingdom's financial regulator and had limited prior experience of navigating that relationship. We helped build the right connections and prepared key messages and talking points. We also supported several Senior Manager Function (SMF) authorisations through to approval, including preparing individuals for their FCA interviews.
Beyond the authorisations, we delivered firm-wide training on the areas the client needed to strengthen. We also developed a suite of policies tailored to its business model and risk profile. In a separate but related piece of work, we rebuilt a client's financial crime framework from the ground up following a major remediation programme.
What ties these engagements together is our approach: we take the time to understand the business, prioritise what matters most, and move at the pace the client genuinely needs, rather than applying a generic, one-size-fits-all methodology.
Q: What is next for Ibex Compliance?
We are focused on expanding into fast-growing sectors where regulatory expectations are evolving quickly. These include cryptocurrency, financial technology (fintech), and payment services. We also see opportunity among firms registered under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR). These firms have historically faced relatively light-touch regulatory oversight compared with fully authorised firms, though scrutiny is now increasing as the regime matures. Firms in all these areas need compliance partners who understand both the commercial pressure to move quickly and the regulatory detail required to do so safely.
We are also exploring closer work with artificial intelligence (AI) and technology firms. Compliance is changing rapidly as firms adopt new technology. We believe the future of our industry lies in partnering with technology-forward businesses, helping them build compliant foundations from the outset. We can also help established financial services firms use technology, including AI, to strengthen their own compliance functions. This is an area in which we are looking to grow.
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