Magazine BEAST #16 2019
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#Business | FinTech<br />
27<br />
WE CONNECT YOU<br />
«According to 2018 CSSF annual report, banks’ general expenses<br />
grow by 6% year-on-year, for an average of 7,3% since 2014.<br />
It therefore becomes urgent to build platforms allowing banks<br />
to achieve economies of scale via the mutualization and<br />
industrialization of regulatory and compliance activities. A great<br />
example of such platforms is LUXHUB, created by banks sharing<br />
a superior vision and joining forces to address a new regulatory<br />
obligation (PSD2). Likewise, ABBL is launching a call for partners<br />
to raise funds for the creation of a reporting hub for shared<br />
regulatory and prudential reporting services for banks. We at<br />
Grant Thornton, are involved in these RegTech initiatives, and<br />
we truly believe that relevant categories of service providers (in<br />
finance, advisory, IT…) must genuinely collaborate towards the<br />
highest value creation for the whole finance ecosystem.<br />
LIONEL GENDARME, Advisory Partner, Grant Thornton<br />
Luxembourg<br />
«With the advent of Open Banking, some players concentrate<br />
on distribution or product manufacturing, while others deal with<br />
onboarding and compliance: every single player therefore needs<br />
to find its own place in this new environment in order to help the<br />
community grow. There are numerous benefits to collaborating:<br />
better absorption of costs, medialization of tech and compliance<br />
knowledge, better understanding of customer expectations,<br />
improved time-to-market, etc. At EY, we advocate collaboration<br />
and we are eager to contribute to the development of the local<br />
Fintech ecosystem, which, by definition, mixes ICT and finance.<br />
In our opinion, collaborating is the way to go in today’s period<br />
of transition.»<br />
GAEL DENIS, Partner, TMT and Fintech Leader, EY Luxembourg<br />
«The global economy is rapidly becoming the “platform economy”<br />
driven by the so-called GAFAM tech giants. New business models<br />
are emerging around platforms that provide many of the products<br />
normally associated with financial services (FS), from payments<br />
to insurance. To stay relevant, competitive and profitable in a<br />
market characterized by agility and low margins, traditional FS<br />
players need to integrate valuable ecosystem players on their<br />
own platforms especially in an open and dense environment like<br />
Luxembourg. We can overcome the “two-speed challenge” of<br />
competing with faster and more agile digital natives by investing<br />
in their own business agility and partnership capabilities to grow<br />
new revenue streams while working on digital decoupling and<br />
API first set-up to foster growth potential and faster time to<br />
market.»<br />
ADRIEN KIRSCHFINK, Managing Director, Banking Lead,<br />
Accenture Belgium & Luxembourg<br />
«In a world of uncertainties, with a more and more complex<br />
financial environment, there is a need to find new solutions in<br />
order to stay relevant, find synergies and increase differentiating<br />
factors. Luxembourg has a tremendous expertise and a vibrant<br />
financial hub but needs to continue harvesting to progress.<br />
A strong collaboration with other actors such as Fintech but<br />
also other financial institutions could help in many different<br />
ways: mutualize effort and cost on non-core businesses and<br />
create new value streams for the various financial industries and<br />
especially in the asset and wealth management industries and<br />
banking sector. The proximity of actors in Luxembourg (private<br />
and public), its international setup are great assets to foster this<br />
collaboration. New actors such as “Financial service Hubs” are<br />
also entering the market and can play a key role to accelerate<br />
the access to technological innovations.»<br />
PATRICE WITZ, Partner, Digital Leader, PwC Luxembourg<br />
«With the rapid shift toward open banking and platforms but also<br />
in a world marked by lower profitability in banking, it`s essential<br />
for banks to consider cooperation between them – sometimes<br />
called coopetition – to improve their efficiency and to support<br />
their digital transformation. In this space, LUXHUB has been<br />
extremely successful, being ranked – after only two years – the<br />
Top 3 Open Banking Platforms in Europe. It says a lot about<br />
the need to keep investing in those shared services. At Deloitte,<br />
we strongly believe in the power of open eco-systems and the<br />
collaboration between incumbents and Fintech. In this sense, we<br />
strongly believe that LUXHUB has a unique position to build a<br />
local champion serving the global market, not only by extending<br />
its current range of services but also by entering new innovative<br />
areas. This would once again position Luxembourg as one of the<br />
most innovative places in the field of Financial Services.»<br />
PATRICK LAURENT, Partner, Technology & Innovation Leader,<br />
Deloitte Luxembourg<br />
«Collaboration is the new competition. Today’s competitive<br />
advantage isn’t driven by the resources you own or control — it lies<br />
in the talent, technology and information ecosystems available to<br />
you. Remaining agile and innovative in a fast-paced environment<br />
calls for new ways of working together, while at the same time<br />
differentiating on customer experience. For example, refrigerator<br />
manufacturer Refrigerants Naturally recently brought together<br />
PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Red Bull — along with Greenpeace and<br />
UNEP — to develop more sustainable refrigeration technologies.<br />
However, there’s no room for improvisation when collaborating.<br />
Instead, clearly define what you can do together, track and<br />
publish your progress and openly share what you learn. The<br />
KPMG Hub for Entrepreneurship (KHUBE) brings the very best of<br />
Luxembourg’s financial services center’s ecosystem together. We<br />
believe that building alliances between Fintech and incumbents,<br />
for instance, is the bedrock of offering the right services in terms<br />
of innovation, quality and trustworthiness to clients.»<br />
PASCAL DENIS, Partner, Head of Advisory, KPMG Luxembourg<br />
<strong>BEAST</strong> MAGAZINE <strong>#16</strong>