17.02.2026

Strength in depth

Meet the Advisory Board shaping Cense for the future

Sitting in his office overlooking the Amsterdam skyline, Arjan Bol is contemplating a crypto market fundamental. “In the end, it all boils down to trust”, he says. “Cense is making sure that the connection between the new world and the old world can be trusted.”

In common with his fellow Cense Advisory Board members Kelly Mathieson and Dr Firas Nadim Habach, Arjan – a self-confessed ‘payments geek’ with 16 years of global payments experience behind him at ING and MasterCard – believes that trust underpins every decision.

“If a crypto party wants to connect to a traditional bank, the Chief Risk Officer basically gets very nervous”, he notes. And in this context, Cense has what he calls “a big future” ahead of it. “Step by step they are getting the right customers… and this is the best way of proving the proposition”.

Bol met the Cense leadership team via mutual friends at a conference and bonded over coffee. Now, a year later, he is effusive about his advisory role and the possibilities ahead. The team has the right attitude, the right spirit. They’re open to feedback and advice… and they’re very proactive.”

Charting the path to growth

For Kelly Mathieson, an American financial dynamo who cut her professional teeth at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, one of the biggest challenges ahead is around mindset; a paradigm shift in how people think about markets, data and control.

“People struggle to imagine a world where compliance is real-time and data is synchronised across participants”, she observes. “There’s a concern that automation means fewer people are needed. In reality, it enables organisations to support higher volumes of higher-value transactions and more complex activity. So this isn’t just about cost savings, it’s about growth. It allows firms to scale activity safely and efficiently.”

In other words, Cense technology isn’t simply an enabler of better, faster, easier compliance, it’s a potent engine of compliant new business growth at the heart of tomorrow’s banks, operating in real time, all the time.

Kelly, too, spies opportunities in the near future. “Digital capital markets cannot scale unless risk, compliance and control infrastructure evolves at the same pace. Large financial institutions will not participate at scale without robust, real-time controls. Within five years, compliance will no longer be about determining after the fact whether a transaction was acceptable… it will be part of the transaction itself.”

Adapt to compete

In conversation, the third member of the Cense Advisory Board, Dr Firas Nadim Habach – currently MLRO for Central Europe at Revolut – also takes a regulatory and technological perspective, but it’s one that comes laced with a warning for those institutions reluctant to change.

“Since the introduction of early EU Money Laundering Directives, the monitoring burden on financial institutions has increased significantly,” he argues.

“For too long, the industry response has been to ‘throw bodies at the problem’, relying on human resource expansion to counter increasing complexity. This approach is unsustainable given the varying levels of sophistication and the risks of human error.”

Now another paradigm shift is at work.

“Technology is shifting from a supporting role to the very backbone of financial infrastructure. Over the next decade, institutions that adopt machine learning and automated models will maintain resilience, while those relying on manual processes will face mounting costs and diminishing returns.”

So for Dr Firas, the choice for financial institutions is a stark one: either adapt and remain competitive, or stay wedded to old labour-intensive ways of working and wither.

Three experts. One purpose.

Arjan, Kelly and Firas have come together at Cense with a clear sense of purpose, applying their diverse talents, broad networks and specialist expertise to guide the business as it scales, with a collective role that involves much more than attending quarterly meetings.

Their input is as constant as it is proactive; responding to market events and regulatory developments as they unfold, providing strategic guidance and building bridges worldwide. “Being part of a team that combats financial crime while enabling legitimate business to scale is a professional journey I find deeply rewarding,” notes Firas.

Future focus

Looking ahead to the continued evolution in the market for digital assets, the three are unequivocal that Cense should head into tomorrow without diluting the fundamentals of its offering.

“Sometimes you will face dilemmas between growth and quality,” observes Bol, “but Cense should not compromise on the standards and the quality of their solution and proposition.”

For Firas, the key to success is a laser-focus on the most pressing issues. “As the organisation scales, it must never lose interest in solving the specific, evolving problems of the industry. Maintaining their collaborative spirit and high calibre of personnel is what will ensure Cense remains a trusted leader in the compliance space,” he says.

Kelly concludes with a three-layer manifesto for the future of Cense: “First, it’s about trust and credibility. Do what you say you do. Be a safe and reliable partner. Second, privacy and control. Financial services require privacy-preserving solutions. And third, subject-matter expertise. Cense stands out because it builds specifically for financial services, with regulation, privacy and operational reality in mind.”

“Those principles should never be compromised.”