fintech

As Luxembourg’s financial ecosystem adjusts to the open finance revolution, wealth and asset managers must navigate a range of hurdles to stay competitive.

When investors buy a company’s share, conventionally, they hope for the stock value to climb and maybe pay dividends. But there’s another way to make money on your shares – lend them to other investors to use for their own purposes, for a fee. This hasn’t been previously possible for most investors in Luxembourg. With help of a fintech, one bank has committed to make it happen.

Globally active Accelex has set up in Luxembourg to sell its next-generation software as a service solution aimed exclusively at private markets because of the country’s leadership in private assets. The UK-headquartered company sees itself playing a key role in the maturation of the private assets market, including through the increased availability of such funds to retail investor clientele.

Young investors are seen as a bit of a wild card by the investment industry. But look closely and it’s obvious that many young investors are fundamentally cautious due to their financial circumstances, while sympathising to a greater or lesser extent with rebellious social media elements intent on taking the financial industry down a notch or two.

Luxembourg companies from small to large are taking strides in the realm of virtual assets. This market is still under construction and regulatory and infrastructural elements are still pending. Several companies were represented at the recent Luxembourg For Finance Digital Capital Raising webinar, along with a representative of Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF.

There are a lot of opportunities in finance (particularly in Asia), but you have to leave the beaten track. And stock market operators are the most important fintech companies today. There are also plenty of disruption opportunities in Fintech 2.0. So says William Pang of Capital Group in an interview with Investment Officer.

A cross-industry working group in Luxembourg is seeking new ways to enable financial technology to thrive in Europe’s tough regulatory environment. Updating the country’s financial services outsourcing rules could help unlock the potential of open banking.