What key competitive advantages allowed the international success of the Luxembourg financial centre?

Geoffrey Dezoppy. – “Luxembourg’s financial sector combines a strong reputation as an established hub with forward-looking regulation, political stability, modern infrastructure and a strategic location in the heart of Europe.

Luxembourg is home to a high concentration of banks and wealth managers, including many international firms for which Luxembourg serves as a gateway to the European market, as well as a diverse range of fintech players. This in turn creates a robust financial ecosystem and a strong competitive landscape.

A stable political environment and regulatory certainty provide a secure foundation for financial activities, reassuring both domestic and international investors and businesses while further enhancing the attractiveness of the country as a financial hub.

Luxembourg has successfully diversified its financial services beyond traditional banking, incorporating a wide range of investment funds, private equity and insurance services. This diversification enhances the resilience of the country’s financial sector.

What do you think have been the key milestones in the history of the Luxembourg financial centre?

“Following years of instability and volatility, Luxembourg’s financial sector has proven its resilience and ability to adapt to change. Thanks to strong support from policymakers, regulators and industry bodies such as the ABBL, Luxembourg has experienced a surge in assets under management ten years after its landmark decision to end banking secrecy.

Recent milestones, which I believe will help secure the leading position of Luxembourg’s financial centre, include the country’s commitment to sovereign cloud. This signals a progressive approach to cloud technology, which will be essential for the region’s banks and wealth managers to efficiently scale their operations and compete with global peers in the future. In addition, Luxembourg has consistently taken a pioneering approach to blockchain technology, listing the first digital bond on the Luxembourg stock exchange. The core focus of Luxembourg’s strategy is to ensure investor protection while fostering constructive use cases for blockchain technology.

What is your own role in the success of the Luxembourg financial centre?

“Avaloq has been committed to the Luxembourg market for over 15 years and has established itself as a leading provider of wealth management technology – particularly in the country’s private banking segment.

Thanks to our recently announced partnership with BlackRock, our clients can combine Avaloq’s core banking, client relationship management and digital banking services with the Aladdin Wealth’s risk analytics and portfolio management capabilities to enhance the entire client journey.

Finally, we help our clients to optimise their operations through our business process as a service (BPaaS) offering. This gives our clients the option to outsource all or parts of their back office, from income processing and tax services to reconciliation and reporting, for high straight through processing rates and service accuracy. This reduces the administrative burden on advisers and relationship managers so that they can focus more on delivering personalised service, especially as their client base continues to grow.”