Action and Agility in Financial Services Innovation (and why I love Luxembourg)

Action and Agility in Financial Services Innovation (and why I love Luxembourg)

“Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time”. 

When I am thinking of financial technology, 'Fintech', and innovation more broadly, these words from Bill Gates spring to mind. We are now living in a world where everything goes fast even to the point where it becomes difficult to cope with and adapt to the flow of information, new trends and latest changes. Technological progress is opening the doors to a whole new world hoped to be more fair and prosperous. Luxembourg is taking a lead in shaping this world.

Luxembourg - a leader in financial services

 Luxembourg is the number one financial services centre in the Eurozone – potentially the no.1 centre in the EU in less than two years :). It is an EU hub and international competence centre in banking, capital markets, investment funds and insurance. It is Europe’s largest fund management centre, and second in the world only to the US. Couple all that with Luxembourg’s accessibility (both to Europe and to senior decision makers in financial services firms), talent pool, funding assistance, strong community engagement and trilingual capability in business (meaning that you can speak and apply to the Regulator in English, do business in English and write your contracts in English - as well as French or German), and you have an ideal foundation to build an exciting and thriving innovation environment and, more specifically, a top-tier financial technology ecosystem connected and collaborating with the rest of the world. Luxembourg is a great place for Fintech.

 Luxembourg - a leading innovator

Luxembourg has a long track-record of innovation and is ranked among the top 10 most innovative countries in the world. It is leading Europe in several sectors, for example, in satellites, and further, in the activities building around asteroid mining. SES, at the forefront of satellite communications, commend the extraordinary commitment and agility of the Luxembourg Government whose support is and has been so critical in driving innovation forward. The Luxembourg Government’s commitment to advancement has also been demonstrated in their role fostering and supporting the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (the LHoFT) initiative to help steer Financial Technology innovation within Luxembourg’s financial services community.

 Luxembourg - a leading financial services innovator

Innovations in analytics, artificial intelligence and automation through RegTech solutions, a burgeoning competence centre in Luxembourg, are creating performance and productivity opportunities for business and for the economy, reshaping employment and the future of work. Digital flows, which were practically non-existent just 15 years ago, now exert a larger impact on GDP growth than the centuries-old trade in goods and Luxembourg is making sure it has the infrastructure to embrace and enable these flows as they continue to expand. Infrachain, a private node blockchain network, hosted across highly secure data centres in the Grand-Duchy, is being implemented to serve as a utility for cross industry use cases and will eventually be expanded to the rest of Europe. Again related to Blockchain, Luxembourg has two advanced initiatives, FundsDLT and Fundchain, delivering blockchain based market infrastructure for the global fund management industry to drive efficiency and cost savings. These are just some examples of the quiet efficiency with which the country and the financial services industry innovates towards the agreed vision of 2050 through the 3rd Industrial Revolution (do check out the excellent Jeremy Rifkin study and proposals commissioned by the Ministry of the Economy, the Chamber of Commerce and IMS Luxembourg). 

 Luxembourg - Innovation strength through agility and community

Luxembourg is a relatively small country but has achieved incredible things. The strength of Luxembourg, to me, lies in its agility, driven by collaboration, dialogue, and a solution-oriented approach inside the community. Nowhere have I head business leaders, be it many of whom are foreign nationals, state similar to: “Let’s do something great for Luxembourg.” Everyone here feels vested in pushing Luxembourg forward, has a stake in making positive change happen. It makes me so excited for the future and what we can achieve together. I have lived and worked in many countries, including most of the major financial hubs, but I have never met such accessible stakeholders and decision makers ready to engage as I have met and work with in Luxembourg, stakeholders that truly commit to openness, collaboration and engagement as a core to progress.

Horizon Conference:

https://www2.deloitte.com/lu/en/pages/horizon-conference/events/horizon-conference.html 

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