Nicolas Mackel

Nicolas Mackel, the CEO of the Luxembourg for Finance development agency Luxembourg for Finance and considered as the de facto ambassador of Luxembourg’s financial sector, speaks to Investment Officer’s Raymond Frenken in this IO Talks podcast.

Luxembourg is hoping its long, friendly relationship with China can help keep the superpower on a path towards more investment-friendliness instead of sable-rattling with the US. Levels of investment in China by Luxembourg-domiciled investment funds dipped during that country’s difficult Covid times. Some institutional investors are staying away due to darkening US-China relations. Hopes for a resurgence depend on peace.

A Memorandum of Understanding on financial services agreed between the EU and the UK, published on 19 May, could elevate the tone of the discussions and lead to a more productive relationship. “It’s a very encouraging confirmation that the relations between the EU and the UK are warming up,” said Nicolas Mackel, the CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the public-private Luxembourg agency for the development of the financial sector.

Luxembourg’s financial institutions need to swiftly make significant changes in order to keep up with the changing labour market if they want to continue attracting top talent, Luxembourg for Finance said in a new report on the job market.

Despite there being a deal now, Brexit will never be done. Even if the end of the transition period can be navigated with minimal disruption, the lack of an institutional underpinning to the UK-EU relationship points towards decades of negotiation over dozens of policy areas, including financial services. Welcome to long Brexit.

‘Taxes are poison for companies hit by the crisis,’ Xavier Bettel told a Luxembourg for Finance online panel on Thursday. He added that when seeking to restore balance to state finances ‘we want to avoid any tax rise.’ Instead ‘maybe we’ll have to cut or delay some projects.’

That said he had no regrets about the government’s aggressive support measures for the Luxembourg economy. ‘This money has been some of best investment we could do,’ he said.

‘Cod quotas traded for Mifid equivalences,’ is how Luxembourg For Finance CEO Nicolas Mackel humorously characterised how the on-going Brexit discussions might unfold.  He was introducing the Focus On Brexit webinar hosted by LFF on 13th October, in which industry insiders traced some possible future scenarios.

Some 60 financial firms have announced relocations of activities to Luxembourg since the referendum in 2016. The final number will probably top 75 firms, as some have not yet made their plans public, Luxembourg for Finance CEO Nicolas Mackel said in an interview with Investment Officer.