Technologie

A survey conducted among 300 investment institutions, including asset managers, asset owners and insurance firms, has found a mixed understanding of digital assets among investment professionals. The results point to different levels of readiness to using digital assets and investment technology.

Les technologies de communication poursuivent leur développement rapide, mais elles sont inévitablement affectées par le monde qu’elles servent. Elles doivent donc faire face à des préoccupations en matière de durabilité et à l’impact de la situation économique, ainsi qu’au contexte juridique. L’émergence du ChatGPT, une nouvelle forme d’intelligence artificielle, peut être très prometteuse, mais elle risque d’abuser du contenu d’autrui, affirme Deloitte dans ses perspectives pour les télécommunications, les médias et la technologie, ou TMT.

The European Investment Bank has issued its first natively digital bond denominated in British pounds. The EIB raised 50 million with the bond, which has a duration of two years and bears a floating rate of interest.

BNP Paribas, HSBC and RBC Capital Markets are the joint lead managers. The syndicate was advised by Allen & Overy. EIB was advised by Clifford Chance.

High hopes for crypto’s ability to revolutionise the financial world were dealt a harsh reality check with the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange last year. With Luxembourg having early on placed a bet on crypto, some have suggested it could suffer reputational damage. New regulation including the European Union’s MiCA regulation however may offer a way to do crypto safely, Thursday’s debate at Swissquote’s Luxembourg event heard.

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.

“Supporting the presence of Green FinTechs and their collaboration with Luxembourg incumbents should be viewed as a high-multiplier investment against the backdrop of the country’s sustainable finance ambitions,” a report by Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, or Lhoft, and Deloitte Luxembourg said.

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.