INTRO What is the impact of CoronavirusÂ
Given the Cross-sector nature of Fintech,
on the Financial Industry in
the task forces provide a multidisciplinary
Luxembourg? Are there any business
approach, giving a broader perspective on
and technological opportunities from
technological applications that can solve
this crisis that is disrupting our lives
major pain points in the financial industry,
both personally and economically?
but also identifying strategic Fintech
Launched in January 2020 by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), four Fintech Task
initiatives in the ecosystem and anticipating future trends and opportunities for the Luxembourg financial services sector.
Forces, composed of industry experts
With the COVID19 crisis, the four Fintech
and Fintech innovators, have started
Task Forces have continued to meet and
initiating projects to accelerate
work remotely, each Task Force identifying
innovation in these key areas: banking,
the top five impacts of the COVID-19
asset management, insurance and
pandemic on their respective areas of
blockchain.
focus and pinpointing interesting opportunities that may arise. The Fintech Tasks Forces are also working alongside other industry association’s groups, focusing on a global and coordinated approach. As always, in Luxembourg we work together to get ahead, and the Task Forces are playing their part in helping financial services and Fintech move in the right direction.
BANKING Roger Krämer
Tristan Mckee
Head of Business Innovation
Capital Markets Leads
at BCEE (Task Force Chairman)
at CrossLend
Vlad Centea
Christian Gillot
CEO of Morfin.io
CEO of Tetrao
Vincent Him
Frederic Weimerskirch
Business Development Director
Programme Manager at LHoFT
at DUCO
(Task Force Secretary)
“This crisis has brought a new perspective on how we work, collaborate and run our business. Home working, online collaboration and use of cloud solutions would have been unthinkable within most banks. Now, more than 60% of the financial industry is working from home. All the usual excuses for not investing in new technologies, like risks or regulation can’t be used anymore. Today we have the perfect opportunity to push the digital transformation of our institutions further and to innovate even more because there’s no excuses for not doing it anymore.�
Roger Krämer Banking Task Force Chairman
Home-office working is accepted,
75% of physical branches are closed,
might become the norm. 60%+ of
other 25% are working on a “meeting with
banks’ workforce are working
clients� basis. The situation and mode of
remotely today.
operations might force the banks to rethink the relevance of physical branches sooner.
Total rethinking of work
Introduction of new tools for collaboration,
processes, with the goal to limit
forcing banks to adopt new working methodolo-
physical presence of collaborators.
gies, increasing agility, increasing acceptance of digital and perhaps even changing the culture.
Delays to collaboration with startups, on innovation projects, in the short term. But an increase in collaboration with Fintechs on digital transformation in the mid-term.
Consumers have changed how
Technology has been key in coping with the
they use financial services. Banks
crisis and adapting processes and opera-
need to quickly adapt their offer
tions. Investing in innovation will be even
and services to match those new
more important in the future, collaboration
behaviours and needs.
with Fintechs will be strategic and vital.
Home working and virtual
New working tools will drive efficiency but
collaboration might become
will also change the mindset and the
the norm, opening new ways of
culture of financial institutions.
working, collaborating and running businesses, in a more efficient way. The financial sector has adapted very fast to a new reality; the Government and the financial regulator should do the same. We need guidance and new rules for this new norm.
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Alexandre Colin CEO of Behave
Cristina Ferreira
Paolo Brignardello
Head of Regulatory Solutions and
Head Product Management and
Innovation at State Street Bank
Marketing at Fundsquare
Luxembourg (Task Force Chairwoman)
Laurent Denayer
Bert Boerman
CEO of ume
CEO of Governance.com
Yoann Jagoury
Daniele Calderai
CEO Alto Advisory
Marketing Analyst at LHoFT (Task Force Secretary)
“It was incredibly positive to witness and experience the speed with which global financial institutions adapted their operations across continents in order to continue serving their clients. It just shows that when Governments, Regulators and Financial companies work towards the same goal; in this case preventing the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining financial services; opportunities can be transformational and who knows‌ long-lasting. â€?
Cristina Ferreira Asset Management Task Force Chairwoman
The financial industry will see even
Asset Managers are facing consistent outflows
more pressure on the cost side
with immediate effects on their profitability.
due to the low margins on assets
This will only accelerate through the economic
in the deleveraging cycle.
and financial evaluation of underlying assets.
Pending contracts are frozen
Past regulations have been extremely
and the launch of a systematic
costly for the industry and will most likely
innovative equity fund is postponed
be unsustainable going forward given the
without a foreseeable new date.
economic implications of this pandemic on the financial services industry.
This unprecedented situation has highlighted the slowness of intermediaries in digital transformation and the inefficiency in today’s Asset Managers distribution channels.
Enhancement of the regulatory
Review of regulations to adapt and more
framework around digital assets
easily enable digital tools for financial
to accelerate introduction of new
services (e-Signatures, AML/KYC digital
asset types and create new product
documents, contracts, administrative
opportunities with lower operational
documentation, digital board, cloud and
costs.
use of DLT) and to ease the barriers imposed by taxation and social security.
In the mid-term, we will see an
Government should support, potentially
increasing demand and need for
finance, a sand box for industry proof
more private pension schemes.
of concepts in order to accelerate exciting and high potential digital market concepts.
In the effort to help the companies on the aftermath of this pandemic, the government of Luxembourg could boost their presence in new markets to attract new talents and skill sets from abroad.
INSURANCE Marc Hotton
Christophe Bianco
Innovation Lead at Foyer
Founder, Managing Partner
(Task Force Chairman)
at Excellium Services
Jean-Baptiste Pleynet
German Castignani
Co-Founder at Ibisa
CTO and Co-Founder at Motion-S
Thomas Friederich
Antony Martini
General Manager at
Engagement Manager at LHoFT
EarthLab Luxembourg
(Task Force Secretary)
“Since the beginning of the Covid19 breakout, working from home has become the new norm leading to new behaviours and needs, hence different and new risks. Our discussion has led us to believe that new coverage demands will eventually follow after a drastic multi-facetted change starting from a reduction in consumption and transportation methods like cars, coupled with behavioural changes linked to the confinement. New challenges will arise to distinguish between work and private life-related risks to cover. Therefore, Insurance companies and their stakeholders will have to evolve and seize opportunities while adapting their services to new risks linked to lasting changes in both private and work environments. �
Marc Hotton Insurance Task Force Chairman
Delays in the execution and
The pay-per-use business and revenue model
decision-making or suspension and
for insurance companies is disrupted due to
cancellation of innovation and
low consumption and usage of goods and
pilot projects with startups
private transportation methods.
cross-sector. Drastic changes in priorities from
Difficulty to clearly distinguish the private work
end-users influencing the demands
environment from the person’s private sphere
for new customized insurance
and how to cover those specific risks
products, rendering some current
separately.
products less convenient. Adapting to deploy less workforce to execute on indispensable missions and tasks has forced employees out, to become unemployed. The agricultural sector and its crop insurance business have strongly been affected.
The generated and collected data
Startups, in particular, can make use of
by end-users will lead to potential
their agility to create new deployable
new business models post-covid19
solutions and leverage their adaptability, as
for insurance incumbents.
remote work is already part of a startup DNA.
A new market post-Covid19 can
More digitalization for all stakeholders
emerge with new tools to be
can lead to strong and global business
developed. (new pricing models;
opportunities in cybersecurity.
from data to disaster protection and monitoring). A higher level of productivity among already tech-savvy employees while working from home, should be an encouraging factor for remote working.
BLOCKCHAIN & DIGITAL ASSETS
Nadia Manzari Partner at Schiltz and Schiltz
Laurent Marochini
Guillaume de Vergnies
Head of Innovation at SociĂŠtĂŠ GĂŠnĂŠrale
CEO of Stampify
(Task Force Chairman)
Alexander Tkachenko
Philippe Van Hecke
CEO of VNX
COO at Tokeny
Maurizio Bello
Tobias Seidl
Business Development & Customer
Product Lead and Co-Founder
Onboarding at HQLA x
at Stokr
Daniele Calderai Data Analyst at LHoFT (Task Force Secretary)
“It was very impressive to see how companies in the financial sector have been able to adapt to the crisis, by adopting teleworking but above all by speeding up digitisation. Agility and creativity were the key success factors. Regarding the blockchain ecosystem, it’s too early today to assess the impact of the crisis. However we are convinced that these emerging technologies have a fundamental role to play in the economy, even more now than ever, particularly in terms of transparency and traceability .
Laurent Marochini Blockchain Task Force Chairman
�
Many projects regarding blockchain
Financial institutions will be more focused on
implementation and deployment
essential short and medium-term processes.
will be delayed. Liquidity issues for startups will
For startups going through a funding process,
arise as new projects are on hold.
this crisis will delay their funding and will make it more complex to scale and be successful.
Acceleration of businesses linked to what can be done in a remote basis: i.e. electronic signatures, the digitalization of board of Directors and teleworking.
The Government should keep
Drive and incentivise change and digital
focus on the development
transformation like the use of electronic
of new regulation for digital
signature or digital onboarding, with
assets, even during the crisis,
blockchain, which have shown to be
in order to stay in line with market
efficient during the crisis.
and technology potential. DLT could be promoted as a safe
There is an argument to accelerate the
and transparent technology to
building a central bank for digital
be used even during uncertain times,
currency given the situation, and the
with the result of a faster develop-
actors from the industry should act together
ment of startups working on it.
to show the European Commission and the ECB its value and importance.
The Luxembourg Government could emphasise internationally all the great work that is being done to support business to demonstrate that Luxembourg is a “Great Place to Live and Work�, attracting much coveted talent in the blockchain field.
ABOUT US The LHoFT Foundation is a public - private sector initiative that drives technology innovation for Luxembourg’s financial services industry, connecting the domestic and international Fintech community to develop solutions that shape the world of tomorrow. Senior executives from 13 leading private sector institutions sit on our board as leadership circle partners alongside representative from the Luxembourg Government, such as our Chairman, Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg Minister of Finance, as well as leaders of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, Luxembourg for Finance and PROFIL, the Luxembourg Financial Industry Federation. We are incredibly grateful for the support and engagement of our leadership circle partners.
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