Gregory Kennedy

Luxembourg should take a page from Ireland’s playbook and deepen its relationship with the United States. The European Union is gradually eroding the regulatory flexibility and pragmatism that once enabled Luxembourg to attract international investors and dominate the fund industry.

The cold, wet, and miserable weather does nothing to dampen Jason ‘IPO’ Lee’s spirits as he arrives at Findel after a grueling journey from Hong Kong. He has chosen Luxembourg as a launchpad for the European arm of his AI fund.

Benny Bürocratie is exasperated as his wife drops him off at the Trier bus station. His daughter has been rehearsing for months for today’s school play. Fortunately, his wife can attend and record the event, but Benny has to be in the office.

Gregory Kennedy reflects on cross-border commuting in Luxembourg, where once attractive border towns now face eroding quality of life.

Daisy Mae faces a complex journey launching a railway investment fund in Luxembourg amidst regulatory challenges and tight deadlines.

While tourists flock to locations steeped in history, investors take the opposite approach; they flock to locations focused on the future.

According to Nicolai Tangen, head of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Europe is less hard-working, less ambitious, more regulated, and more risk-averse than the US. Yet, the average European is also likely to live a healthier, happier, and longer life than the average American.

So why should Europe become more like the US?

“Fund managers are making record bonuses” is a headline often heard in London, Frankfurt, and Paris, but rarely in Luxembourg. While we dominate in back-office services, these jurisdictions excel in providing front-office services, an area Luxembourg’s fund industry needs to develop.

Over the past five years, the Luxembourg fund industry has experienced a slowdown in the growth of AUM and the number of funds, which has been detrimental to the economy. The solution is to grow the industry via horizontal or vertical integration.

Every now and then, my development team informs me that they need to take a pause from future developments to refactor code. Refactoring is a process where they restructure existing computer code without altering its external behavior.

Over time, small incremental changes to the software’s code base degrade maintainability, readability, and performance. The purpose of refactoring is to enhance code performance without affecting existing functionality, as a clean code base facilitates the addition of new features.

Ireland’s competitive tax policies and workforce have attracted numerous fund promoters, propelling the country to become the EU’s fastest-growing and second-largest fund domicile. Despite these impressive achievements, Ireland faces challenges in overtaking Luxembourg as the leading destination for funds.