Technology

Swissquote Bank Europe has become the first Luxembourg bank to be able to offer depositary services to digital asset investment funds, having obtained CSSF regulatory approval to act as a depositary bank for Luxembourg-domiciled funds along with its status as Vasp, or regulated Virtual ASset Provider.

Tokenisation has served as the “acceptable face” of blockchain, with its association with cryptocurrency, with its slightly tawdry reputation. While critics say that using blockchain over a simpler tech solution involves spending unnecessary money, time and effort, others say it opens up interesting possibilities and can actually bring you benefits. Many innovative companies embed the technology in their business plan. Luxembourg has made a tremendous push in this area, including introducing new supportive legislation.

Fintech firms see a role for themselves in assisting and enabling the Luxembourg financial centre’s strong move towards sustainable investing, but call for collaboration and support from the financial industry and the Luxembourg government to make this work.

A Kenya-based fintech-agritech firm called Hello Tractor has emerged as the winner of the fifth edition of Catapult: Inclusion Africa, a week-long financial inclusion bootcamp that is part of an accelerator programme developed by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology.

The head of Luxembourg’s new private sector cyber-risk protection agency has defended the grand duchy’s approach against suggestions that it’s too fragmented and that it’s difficult to know who’s in charge. On the contrary, Luxembourg’s decentralised approach is finding a following elsewhere in Europe, starting with France, Pascal Steichen tells Investment Officer. “It’s a heterogeneous way of working. It is by design.”

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange on Tuesday launched a new, simplified post-trade settlement model that no longer requires a clearing membership. The exchange has partnered with Italy’s BFF Bank to provide the new service.

The new model simplifies the post-trade process of Luxembourg’s bourse, also known as LuxSE. The change “allows for a more streamlined and efficient settlement of securities transactions made on a channel encompassing 21,500 tradable instruments”, it said.

Demand for instant payments, an area in which certain corners of Europe have lagged other parts of the globe, is, according to PwC, disrupting Luxembourg’s payments ecosystem, as well as putting strain on the existing infrastructure. At the same time, innovation in B2B payments the new frontier of payments.

These changes in payments and others are taking place against the hugely increased profitability of the Luxembourg banking market, which collectively recorded a 2021 net profit of 30.8 percent.

BlocHome, a Luxembourg blockchain real estate investment platform, has arranged a guarantee that will allow it to finance the first security token-based residential project in Europe, an eight million euro housing project in Luxembourg known as the “Clapton Residence”, without waiting for further fund-raising. The guarantee was arranged after the firms’s first project attracted 2.15 million euros in tokenised investments from 280 investors.

Inheritance planning is one area where tokenisation can provide benefits, the experience of VP Bank in the Alpine state shows. The bank’s specialists recent spoke in Luxembourg to explain how tokenisation can be applied once the EU MiCA regulation enters into force.

Romain Swertvaeger has been appointed as head of fintech at EY Luxembourg. He takes over from Gaël Denis, who earlier was appointed as chief operating officer at the firm.

Swertvaeger will lead EY’s fintech practice, which provides services ranging from digital transformation, process management, regulatory compliance and audit, fundraising and valuation support, to tax services and technology risk management.