Magazine BEAST #16 2019

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