In this episode of The Connector Podcast, host Koen Vanderhoydonk interviews Sylvie van der Velde, Isabel’s business‑development and communications lead (joined Nov 2023). Sylvie explains Isabel’s origins as a 1995 joint‑venture of Belgium’s four major banks, its evolution into a multibanking B2B payments platform (Isabel6), and the 2023 strategic refresh that added two new domains: verified corporate data and trust services. The conversation then focuses on Cube, Isabel’s new verified‑corporate‑data product that acts as a digital corporate passport and enables KYB/KYC mutualisation across banks – a company’s data is shared silently between banks, reducing duplicate onboarding. Sylvie notes that Cube already contains 300 000 companies and will later open to corporates, adding ESG data to support voluntary SME reporting. The discussion moves to how Cube is governed: the four major Belgian banks lead projects, then the solution is shared with a broader banking community (500+ banks on Isabel6, 20 member banks, European open‑banking platform RPZ2). Expansion ambitions are European, with interest from Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the Nordics. Sylvie recounts an early blockchain‑based prototype (2018‑2020) that was abandoned in favour of more suitable technology. The episode also touches on regulatory trends (AML, upcoming Omnibus ESG reporting) and how Isabel plans to make ESG data accessible for SMEs. Looking ahead, Sylvie stresses the shift toward ecosystem thinking – leveraging partners (≈200 software firms) and AI capabilities, fostering win‑win‑win solutions, and encouraging community interaction through events, webinars, and a newly refurbished office space. The interview closes with an invitation to join Isabel’s events and follow their innovation journey.
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Welcome to the Connector Podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks, and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen Vanderhoydonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Welcome to another podcast here live from the offices of Belgium Fintech and I've got with me another guest, Sylvie from Isabel.
Hello.
Hello. Hello, Sylvie. Can you explain a little bit about yourself and also about Isabel?
So my name is Sylvie van der Velde. I work at Isabel since November 2023, so quite new, and I'm responsible for business development, marketing, and communication. And before Isabel, that's why I was also in your podcast a few years ahead. I was working for 7 years at It's Me.
Yeah. And can you tell me a little bit more about iSabel? I know a lot of people know about it, but I guess for the international audience, it's kind of interesting to hear what that's all about.
So iSabel is a joint venture for the 4 major banks in Belgium. We are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year.
Wow.
So created in 1995. It's like another world, '95. But so 30 years old, and it started as a multibanking payment platform for corporates. So it's multi-banking B2B payments, and it still is. So that is our main product. It's called Isabel6. And since then, so in 2023, we revamped actually the company with a new vision and mission. So we have 3 domains of activity. So it's payments and financial data, verified corporate data, and trust services.
So some say you're the oldest fintech in Belgium.
Indeed, we we don't like to be mentioned as a fintech because it's it seems a little bit weird when we see what we are doing because now we want to create actually ecosystems. So fintech sometimes at the banking community doesn't have a good reputation.
So you're the oldest financial ecosystem in Belgium?
Indeed. Well, thirty years old is not that old.
No, no, that's true.
But it's one of the first indeed in Belgium. We have the we had a lot of joint ventures, so it's actually. It's really a Belgian thing and it's the oldest one. Let's say it like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, very recent, when you talk about strategy, there was a strategy session which I was pleased to be at there as well. And a lot about the conversations was about Cube. And yeah, what is Cube?
So Cube is one of our new products and it's about verified corporate data. So it's about not the money flows that we're doing in the payment world, but it's about data flow. And Qobee is an exchange platform so that actually we can exchange amongst the banking community, but also afterwards, larger verified corporate data. So it's a little bit like a digital passport of a company.
I think a lot of us would call it, you know, your business KYB.
That's the first use case indeed, because you need to have customer data to do the KYC process or the KYB. So that's the first use case we're going to handle. And thanks to Kube, actually, we are going to mutualize the data. That means that a company, when you're a client at 2 banks, you don't need to do the KYC process 2 times. So you will do it at the first bank, and then actually the second bank will reuse the process that the first bank has done.
And can you walk us a little bit through the mechanics? So you say the first bank does it and then the rest can benefit. But how does it work for the actual bees, the businesses?
Well, actually, they don't know that their data is shared on Cube. So that's a benefit, it's actually a hidden benefit. Today we have already 300,000 companies that are available on Cube. So I'm sure that the companies, well, I hope they felt a difference. And so for the company, it will be in the future that they will also see the data that is available because we want to open it up for them. But today it's actually hidden benefits that the banks are using for their companies.
And in the future, when it's opening up, would it then also become a two-way street for the businesses?
Well, we will going to open it up because we will add some other data. We will add ESG data, and there we need the corporates to give us the data that they have about their sustainability reports. So that's why we're going to open it up towards them, and they will see actually the data that is already available within Cube about their identity.
So you're making a jumpstart in a way?
Indeed.
Well, I'd like to take you back a little bit to the bank side because you mentioned that the big banks in Belgium are part of the Isabel initiative and therefore also Kube. But how would it work then for other banks? I mean, there's more than 4 banks in Belgium. There's a lot of banks in Belgium. So how do they collaborate in the adventure of Kube?
Actually, we're always working for the banking community. So most of the time, The starting point are the 4 major banks. And once we have reached a project at a certain level, then we share it with the other banks to have their feedback. So it's not closed to the 4 major banks. It's, of course, for the whole banking community. For example, in the payments, for the payment on Isabel6, we have actually more than 500 banks that are available through the platform. So we have like 20 member banks. So they're Belgian but also foreign banks. And for Ponto, this is RPZ2, an open banking platform there we have, of course, all the European banks. So it's always about the community and it's not only for the 4 major banks. Most of the time they kickstart the project and then we can open it up.
Well, you almost give me the next question as a natural flow. How does that look with Cube? Because you mentioned a lot of times Belgian companies. Is there an ambition to make that European or even global?
I think the European will be possible because we are working under the AML legislation. So the anti-money laundering, and this one is on European level. So we are doing it first On our home base, so we're doing it first in Belgium. But we have already received requests from from Luxembourg and from the Netherlands because they're always looking. Well, we're looking at what they're doing. They're looking at what we are doing. So there is a possibility, of course, to go broader. There were some initiatives in in the Nordics. It's always we are always looking at the Nordics. They had one that was similar to Cube, but they stopped it. I think it was last year ago.
Yeah, yeah.
They unfortunately or I don't know if it's unfortunate a lot, but they stopped it. So, we're also looking at them, like what failed there, so that we don't make the same mistakes.
No, no, sure. I think that's a very obvious one.
Indeed. But we did it, we asked.
There are actually more initiatives like this, like SWIFT also tried it.
Indeed. But it's very difficult because it's always about finding a common ground between major players. So, that's always— it's not about the technology. And I know that my technology friends don't like when I say that. Technology can solve a lot of problems, but the first thing you need to be sure that you have a common ground, that you say, okay, we go for that kind of dataset, that's the process we want to follow. And we have— when you have that, then you can build the right technology. Not always easy.
I would even argue it's common ground, but it's common benefit.
Indeed. That's the first part. If there is no common benefit, then there is no reason to, to build an ecosystem.
Well, talking about technology in the very early days, very early days of CUBE, when it was not even called CUBE, to my knowledge, It was a 100% blockchain initiative.
Yeah, indeed.
I don't think it is today, is it?
No, no, no, indeed. It started, I think it was 2018, 2020. It was a blockchain, it was a project, blockchain project. It was hype. And back then the objective was actually we want to use blockchain. Which process could we, uh, solve by using blockchain? And so the KYC for corporates, or KYB, was the, uh, was the use case. And we turned it around. We said our objective is having a better QA.
You serve the client rather than— Indeed.
And which technology do we need? And today there is no blockchain involved anymore because it was not the right technology and the right choice.
So it makes sense.
We tried it out. At least now we know.
Yeah. So tick the box of the testing and now we really have a solution that works.
Indeed.
Exactly. Maybe back on the ESG part while you open it up to the businesses. How do you look at what's currently being discussed at Omnibus? And that's very recent, some discussions where I guess they're trying to lower down the barrier for, for companies, smaller companies to also report on ESG. Does that have an effect?
We will look at it because Omnibus will be, of course, validated this summer. So what we see, and I think in the spirit to lower the barrier is a very good spirit. I think we need to make it as accessible as possible for the businesses. In certain way, there will be more because the Cube ESG project is only for the voluntary SMEs, that's our focus. So as the omnibus will change the number of SMEs that will be bigger, for us, it's actually an opportunity to connect more companies. But you have other profiles of companies because you have small companies, of course, and you don't have an ESG manager internally. Bigger companies has one. So also the interaction with that kind of companies might be different.
Mm-hmm.
So we are going to see how it looks like and what kind of companies will join. will be using our product and we adapt it to their needs.
Yeah, it sort of makes sense. And we had a little bit of a discussion earlier and I like the fact that you make it available on a voluntary basis for the companies because there's probably a lot of companies that want to start that journey in sustainability regardless what the laws and regulations say.
Yeah, we see that a lot of companies, it's part of, or it's part of their DNA or they want to do it differently or they want to say, okay, I want to position myself differently towards the market. Sometimes in tenders or in RFP, you want to make a difference with the competitors and you say, I'm a sustainable company, and you want to prove it. Or even for employer branding, you want to attract new talents. You have a lot of young people, they look at it, can I have an impact? What is the way you look at sustainability? So we really look at it like, how can sustainability reports benefit the company on a business level, but also on the branding and positioning Well, if you look at Isabelle, 30 years, that's building of ecosystems that has been serving the markets.
How do you see Isabelle continuing serving the market in a sort of fast-paced digital world with a lot of AI and stuff like that? How do you see the role evolving and what do you foresee to come in the next 5 to 10 years?
Well, I think the switch that we made last year is looking at ecosystems. I think when you build ecosystems, that is also a more sustainable Way to look at things, then everybody can has his specialty. Some people will be very focused, or some companies will be focused on AI. Then you can use their AI capabilities, and you will focus on something else. So it's about finding the right combination and also building ecosystems so that it's a win-win-win solution for the different companies. So we were looking at in that way. It's about working together. It's a it's about finding the good parties, and then you can have a mix from big and small companies. Because sometimes a new technology is in a startup or is in a scale-up, and it's about finding the good business model where everybody will win.
And would you say that innovation within ISABEL, is it driven by the ecosystems or is it driven by the particular banks that are in it?
I think the innovation is driven by the need in the markets. Sometimes it comes from a company, sometimes it comes from one of our partners because we We have, of course, a partner network from about 200 software companies that's integrated the, well, the banking services that we have. So we are for embedded banking. Sometimes they have a need, they see an opportunity, and they contact us because they don't want to go through the whole regulation that a bank needs to go or that a service—
Which regulation?
I don't know, I don't know. Maybe DORA could be one of them. But so it's quite heavy. And then so they count on us to do that part, but they have another part of the puzzle. Sometimes innovation comes from a bank where they say, okay, we want to solve that, but we need to have a community to solve it or an ecosystem. So, it can come from different ways, sometimes even from legislation or compliance. There you have also innovation and opportunity that's come up. So, it's about looking to the outside world and opening your ears to see what's happening and then to see if we are the right party to solve it. So, we say if we can solve it for a community, so larger than one company, then it might be something for Isabel.
So what you're saying, Sylvie, the door is open indeed for conversations. And how do they actually enter through the door?
Well, actually, we are looking to refurnish our offices, but it's also part of the switch. Like we want to have also a more community-based where it's— we can have some, some interactions the way that you have come. You can have breakfast or after, after work where you can open conversation, where you can discuss things, where you can connect with with people. I think you will love it.
Oh, I like connecting.
You should try. It's lovely. But we, we do know that it's about sharing ideas or sometimes sharing needs or frustrations where new ideas pop up. So we're looking into it. We did a few events last year and this year we just celebrated with our customers and our partners our 30th anniversary. So it was a great event with 200 people in the room. It was, it was, yeah, it was great. then you can exchange ideas and also about what people are looking at and what they're expecting. So we're going to have more events soon, that's for sure.
Everyone just look out on the website, I suppose, to see when the events are happening.
Indeed. And we will do webinars for the digital version, but we love the physical ones too.
Yeah, I understand. Well, I think this is a brilliant note to stop our podcast for today. So people, if you're interested, go and check on the website, join the events, connect.
Indeed. On this, it's an open invitation.
Exactly. Sylvie, thank you very much for your contribution today.
Thank you.
Thank you also to the audience. And again, I love to see you more. We're going to do more stuff on innovation in finance. See you soon.
See you soon. Thank you.
Bye-bye.
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