The financial centre is one of the central strengths of the Grand Duchy. How is it doing today?

– “Our core activities’ numbers show impressive growth in recent years. Brexit relocations have been a live test of businesses’ perception of Luxembourg’s appeal. Job creation has been steady over the last decade. Over the past ten years we have managed to develop pioneering, and even global leadership positions, in some of the industry’s major trends, including sustainable finance, payments or China-related business. Notwithstanding all these successes, the industry faces, however, also major challenges.

What could the Luxembourg financial centre look like by 2030?

“Eight years may seem like a rather short period of time but consider what has happened in the past eight: the Euro crisis, Brexit, negative interest rates, the Covid-19 pandemic, major changes in international tax framework, new opportunities through sustainable finance and investments in digital assets, etc. Luxembourg will need to embrace further changes and gear up for them. In particular, we need to make sure we climb the value chain and are capable of offering higher added value activities.

To guarantee the competitiveness and sustainability of the financial industry in Luxembourg, what do you think should be the main actions to be taken in 2022?

“In order to continue attracting global businesses, we need to ensure availability of talents required by ensuring Luxembourg is appealing to foreign talent and by investing strategically into training, in particular in areas such as ICT. Without jeopardising our reputation as a responsible financial centre, we need to ensure tax competitiveness with our peers. We need to push for further integration of EU markets and leverage Luxembourg’s role as a unique cross-border centre of excellence for international finance.”