Luxembourg (Europe)

GFCI: LUXEMBOURG FINANCIAL CENTRE RANKED NUMBER 1 IN THE EU

The Financial Centre
Luxembourg has once again been ranked as a leading European and global financial centre according the latest edition of the Global Financial Centres Index 28.


The leading position of Luxembourg within the EU in the index reflects the international financial centre’s stability and expertise, especially during times of crisis.

Luxembourg has moved up 6 places in the overall index, now ranking as the 12th financial centre globally. The country remains the largest investment fund centre in Europe, second largest in the world, and the leading global fund distribution hub. Furthermore, the Grand Duchy is committed to financing a sustainable future, connecting businesses of today with the needs of tomorrow’s economy. Indeed, the country is ranked as the 2nd financial centre worldwide by the Global Green Finance Index according to the GGFI 5, reflecting the quality and depth of green finance within the Grand Duchy, a key priority for the EU.

Luxembourg continues to serve as a global hub for cross-border finance, with leading international traditional and alternative asset managers, banks and insurers serving the European Single Market. The country has shown its strength in this space, with more than 60 financial institutions selecting the Grand Duchy as their post-Brexit gateway to the EU single market.

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Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group, has confirmed Luxembourg as the location of its European hub.

The confirmation was made during Luxembourg Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna's mission in China this week (9-13 September 2018) which focused on sustainable finance and the strengthening of ties between Luxembourg and China.

After having attended a series of meetings in Beijing, first with his Chinese counterpart, Liu Kun, on the macroeconomic situation and risks of protectionism, and then with the leaders of several Chinese banks, Pierre Gramegna met with the President of Ant Financial, Eric Jing, in Hangzhou to discuss the company's international development strategy and the role that Luxembourg could play in this context. At this meeting, Eric Jing confirmed that Ant Financial, the parent company of Alipay, China's largest mobile payment platform, has chosen Luxembourg as a European hub to help connect their Chinese customers with merchants established in the European Union.

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PingPong a choisi le Luxembourg pour établir son siège européen. La fintech chinoise vient de recevoir l’agrément nécessaire pour son activité: les paiements en ligne entre les acteurs chinois du e-commerce et leurs clients européens. 

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The University of Luxembourg's faculty of law, economics and finance ended the academic year by gaining a certification of standards for the third straight time, striking global partnerships and introducing a new programme on inclusive finance.

The faculty's dean, Professor Stefan Braum, who has been in the post for five years, presented a review of the past year. Professor Katalin Ligeti takes over the position from September.

European law and building contacts with the financial sector and its emerging fields has been a focus for the faculty.

In January it launched a new professional education programme -- the certificate in law and regulation of inclusive finance.

There has been further research within the FinTech sector to compete on the same level as other global financial places.

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The Finance Sector is the biggest source of GDP for Luxembourg. In terms of value creation and international competitiveness, there are important and largely untapped areas where financial innovation will help consolidate and grow the industry in the country, while also helping to transform the corresponding segment of ICT providers to the Finance Sector.

To this day, the industry has demonstrated that purely technological discoveries have not been enough to transform its services, reduce continuously rising costs or avoid the collapses experienced in the cyclical crises of the industry. Opportunities from digitization still remain mostly untapped.

In line with its mission to transfer innovation and accelerate economic impact for the industry, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology is therefore pleased to announce the creation of the Finance Innovation Technology and Systems Centre (FITS).

Luxembourg’s new FITS Centre comes to fill a significant gap in applied research and innovation for the Financial Services industry in Luxembourg and related ecosystems, including the ICT sector.

The measure of success for FITS will be its impact and its ability to bridge a gap between research and industry actors. Its working approach is based on two critical business principles:

Systemic interdisciplinarity: financial innovation challenges cannot be based on Fintech aspects alone but need to be addressed in an integrated and holistic manner as a combination of people, practices and processes.
Industry segment focus: Instead of targeting financial services as a whole, FITS will focus its applied research solely on subjects that generate tangible economic value for the local finance industry.

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Luxembourg is becoming a serious contender among nations bidding for business to come their way after the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, as insurers, asset managers and financial-technology companies are interested in setting up shop in the Grand Duchy.

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The Grand Duchy has been ranked the 2016 best-performing brand in a new report, having increased its value to $85 billion (+43%) year on year. Nevertheless, not all is rosy...

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Le Global Financial Centres Index classe cette année la place financière luxembourgeoise au douzième rang mondial. Il s’agit d’un gain de six places par rapport à la précédente édition.

La Place luxembourgeoise vient de monter en flèche dans le classement 2020 du Global Financial Centres Index paru ce 25 septembre. Classée désormais en 12e position, elle réalise un bond de 6 places par rapport à la précédente édition. Ceci dit, elle était 14e en 2017 et a reculé par la suite.

Si l’on excepte Londres, qui ne sera bientôt plus comptabilisée dans l’Union européenne, Luxembourg est donc la Place la mieux placée au niveau mondial parmi les vingt-sept dans le classement du GFCI, publié par Z/Yen Partners en collaboration avec le China Development Institute.

Luxembourg peut faire valoir sa deuxième position mondiale dans le secteur des fonds d’investissement. Le classement met surtout en avant la véritable expertise développée par le Grand-Duché dans le capital humain.

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The Luxembourg government is set to bring more flexibility in how financial institutions outsource certain activities. The Bill of Law 7024 aims at facilitating the implementation of outsourcing arrangements and related handling of sensitive client data. We’ve surveyed several business leaders to see what kind of outsourcing strategies they have or are planning to put in place.

Catching up with neighbouring countries
The strict regulation of professional secrecy requirements has well served its purpose over the last decades. It has supported the development of Luxembourg as one of the leading financial services hubs in Europe. Although confidentiality and risk management remain priorities on financial institutions’ agenda, the changing European context requires a new framework.

With neighbouring countries having had laxer outsourcing policies in place for at least ten years, restrictions can be counterproductive for the Grand Duchy’s attractiveness. The Government has therefore decided to bring some flexibility for outsourcing models and the treatment of client confidential data.

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Die Luxemburger sind generell Freunde des sichtbaren Geldes. Laut einer Studie hat jeder Bürger des Großherzogtum im Schnitt 75 Euro im Geldbeutel. Damit liegen sie hinter der Türkei (79 Euro) auf Rang zwei im europäischen Vergleich. Aus einer Studie vom April geht zudem hervor, dass nur 28 Prozent der Luxemburger auf Bargeld verzichten würden.

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Das amerikanische Finanzunternehmen Northern Trust will seine Europa-Geschäfte von Luxemburg lenken.

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Luxembourg's Minister of Environment Carole Dieschbourg and Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna signed off on the launch of the first stage of the Climate Finance Accelerator on Monday.

A feasibility study, financed by the government, showed strong demand for an accelerator giving technical support to the managers of green finance funds.

The accelerator aims to help to fund managers wishing to invest in projects that have a highly measurable impact in terms of mitigating or addressing climate change.

The ministries are set to finance the accelerator with €2 million over three years.

"The launch of the Climate Finance Accelerator, together with the Ministry of Environment and eight private actors, marks an important step in developing green finance in Luxembourg and makes our financial centre a pioneer in this sense," Gramegna said.

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Nicolas Mackel, the head of Luxembourg for Finance, has said that so far, a dozen companies have confirmed to him that they will relocate to the grand duchy in the wake of Brexit.

In an interview with public radio 100,7 on Friday 28 April, Mackel confirmed only the names of companies who have made their decision to come to Luxembourg public:

“Some 5 or 6 bigger companies have already made their decision public, and others have not yet done so. Currently there are a dozen companies--banks, insurance companies, fund managers--who, as far as we know, have decided to come to Luxembourg.”
Among those already confirmed are:

“AIG, the biggest US insurance company, FM Global, another US insurance company. In the funds industry, MMG, a larger management funds group, has said it would relocate. Articles have been published which say that Blackstone and Carlyle, the biggest equity funds company, also decided to come.”
Luxembourg for Finance

The CEO of the industry promotion body stated that:

“LFF is partly financed by the state, partly by PROFIL [Luxembourg Federation of Financial Sector Professionals, whose members include the Aca, ABBL, Alfi and Chamber of Commerce, among others]. It is not directly financed by banks or insurances, but by their associations. We are not a lobbying organisation which is active on the political level, but is focused on business development and communication. Our role is not to comment on Luxembourg politics, but to sell the financial centre internationally.”

Selection criteria: talent
Mackel stated that they tailor their arguments to the clients. Some companies have 20, or even 40, criteria on where they will relocate to:

“Our arguments depend on the sector, but the principal argument in favour of Luxembourg is its stability. Stability is a huge selling point in a world where there are considerable political and economic uncertainties.”
Lloyd’s of London recently decided against the grand duchy, who was only up against the Belgian capital.

“In the end, for Lloyd’s the final selection was between Luxembourg and Brussels. We don’t know what the weighting of these criteria was. For MMG, AIG, etc., Luxembourg performed better on their criteria. These are individual decisions.”

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Could the fight against climate change become a real financial issue? The Luxembourg Stock Exchange definitely thinks so.

It's the first to list a "green bond", destined to finance only projects that meet strict criteria and are beneficial to the environment. 

Today, it created the Luxembourg Green Exchange, the first of its kind in the world.

This platform is the first ever to certify green financial instruments, intended only to finance green projects.

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