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Editorial Cover Story A publication of the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association LuxEMbourg banking QuarTErLy 2015 03 EditoriAL Innovation In fInancIaL coVEr storY sErvIcEs After dot.com, E-commerce, cloud computing, Big data, internet of things, Fintech – beside digital banking - is © ABBL © the new buzzword. its rise is due to a ABBL © combination of disruptive technologies, Marc Hemmerling radical consumer behavior changes as (Member of the Management Board, ABBL) well as cultural and social evolutions. FinTech Mr Hemmerling, what does Why is FinTech important for the the most important and most visible technological development “FinTech” mean? ABBL? in recent years is the ever-growing broadband capacity enabling First of all, ‘Fintech’ is a word that is used quite often at the ABBL defends their members’ interests and support their mobile devices with their increasing processing power to become the moment; it’s a lot of hype. however, it has a meaning: development. Moreover, as already mentioned, Fintech could the personal assistant to an ever growing population all over the ‘Fintech’ is an abbreviation for financial technologies and raise a problem to banks, which is why the ABBL sees it as world. with the consequence that for the first time this year more a collective name for disruptive IC technologies used to their goal to inform their members on the topic of Fintech and people access the internet via mobile devices than with desktop offer a large variety of financial services, such as payment to provide guidance and support. it is about the transforma- computers. More and more mobile solutions are launched and applications or ordering systems. ‘Fintech’ could therefore tion of the bank we know today so that it can survive tomor- enable customers to handle everyday life situations. Being able to be equated with innovation in financial services, for instance row. Bill gates once said: ‘Banking is necessary. Banks are pay goods and services, to transfer and manage money anywhere offering more modern and user-friendly services through not.’ this statement is only true when considering the banks anytime are one of the most useful and popular applications on technologies. ‘Fintech’ is covering in our opinion too different that stick to traditional banking models without adjusting to mobile devices. topics: new products, services and business models. these new technologies and to the new market reality. new products are only possible through the use of disruptive From a cultural point of view an interesting diagnosis is that clients technologies, such as mobile phones, applications, Big do no longer solely rely on their banks anymore for payment, credit data and social networks. it is often said that Fintech is only or other financial services. Especially the younger generations turn What is the role of banks in applied by start-ups, which isn’t true because banks and to innovative service providers such as crowdfunding platforms FinTech? Are they involved in other traditional actors of the financial sector can make use or other digital financial services which meet their needs best. Research & Development? What of it as well. so it’s about new technologies that allow offering All these developments will not replace the traditional banking are the challenges for banks in new and better financial services. industry. if banks want to remain competitive vis-à-vis a fast growing this context? community of new types of financial service providers they have in Luxembourg, most banks are subsidiaries and thus not to rethink their business models and their organizational and much involved in research & development (r&d). compared operational structures How do FinTech impact banks? to other banking institutions, such as ‘deutsche Bank’ in there are two main things that one must consider: on the Frankfurt or ‘société générale’ in Paris, these small entities what is true for banks also is for financial centres.i f the Luxembourg one hand, banks have clients who are accustomed to using in Luxembourg often do not have the required people financial centre wants to remain competitive, the digital agenda has new technologies and who would like to use them in banking concerned with innovation and research. indeed, banks to be the priority. the Luxembourg government has understood the services too. on the other hand, there are lots of start-ups present in Luxembourg often belong to big groups and work importance of the development of a sustainable Fintech ecosystem showing up new ideas and ‘snatching’ the banks’ clients with their respective mother company, which implies that in Luxembourg. with the “digital Lëtzebuerg” strategy it aims to who are not offered the required ‘tech-services’ from their they often do not have the permission to perform proper consolidate the positioning of the grand-duchy in the ICT world banks, which means that competition develops. this is r&d. we try to motivate banks to think about innovation (and and to create an high-tech excellence centre for Fintech, thus why Fintech strongly impacts banks, which must analyse research) in cooperation with the university of Luxembourg, developing the financial place and allowing its actors to expand in the risks, dangers, advantages and opportunities of the use Luxinnovation and LIST (Luxembourg institute of science this almost borderless global market for innovative financial services. of Fintech. And if a banks decides to embrace Fintech it and technology). the challenges are quite simple to define: has to answer the question of how to proceed best? Alone today, Luxembourg already is a major European E-money and if banks do not embrace the new technologies, they will miss or cooperate? Banks would need people qualified in both E-payments hub besides attracting virtual currencies actors. A important opportunities to offer new services demanded by finance and technology, often young ones as this is a whole cutting-edge IT infrastructure, highly-skilled professionals in financial the market, which implies the loss of clients. in this case they new business area. this is very difficult at the moment due to and IT services, responsive and sound business minded authorities, will lose market share; if a customer’s bank does not offer a a high demand for highly IT- and finance skilled employees. as well as the innovative, international character of the Luxembourg certain service while several others companies do, the client Furthermore, in the new Fintech era, technical solutions such financial centre make the country an ideal location for the will consider to purchase one of those new companies’ service. as mobile applications are rapidly out-of-date and must be development of successful Fintech in the Eu single market. Besides our aim is, in cooperation with the government, Luxembourg upgraded regularly, what banks are not used to do with their these competitive advantages and due to its size, Luxembourg is for Finance (LFF) and digital Lëtzebuerg amongst others, to current organizational set-up and existing legacy computing an ideal test-bed for innovative financial service solutions.u p to us make sure that Luxembourg remains an attractive, competitive systems. all to make it happen: fast and innovative… and modern banking centre in the world. coVEr storY continuAtion How does the ABBL support Why does FinTech come to or Luxinnovation, who support the development of Fintech start-ups and established companies. there are also some FinTech development in Luxembourg from the outside? private organisations, such as silicon Luxembourg, that are Luxembourg? Why do FinTech startup their mainly trying to promote and advertise. we have internal working groups involved in Fintech business in Luxembourg? development. the ABBL already has so-called ‘clusters’ and Luxembourg is a long-existing and business-friendly financial LFF, ICT Luxembourg, we plan to establish a ‘digital Banking and Fintech innovation’ centre where necessary institutions, such as the CSSF and Digital Lëtzebuerg, … many cluster, which shows that this is a very important topic as the central Bank, are already established and working the chairperson of each cluster is represented in the board organisations are involved in efficiently.o ne can say that there are other countries that are of directors of the ABBL. working groups are subordinated FinTech. How does the ABBL rather opposed to the emergence of Fintech companies and to this cluster and have the mission to solve and answer are slow in taking these new technologies on board. we think cooperate with them? specific problems and questions related to Fintech, such as that, although one can stand up against fintech business, ABBL members are not provider of computer technologies the main activities, training and education in this sector etc. one cannot utterly ‘ban’ it. we must maintain and uphold or IT services, nor is the ABBL. however our members are the ABBL then brings these ideas to the attention of the this business-friendliness: ABBL, beside inciting its member by far the largest users of these technologies in Luxembourg. government and gives recommendations and advice on what banks to make use of the new disruptive Fintechnologies, therefore, the ABBL is a founding member of ICT Luxembourg they could or should enhance, such as supporting projects welcomes these new Fintech companies, as the ABBL is for instance in order to defend our interest and solve ‘Fintech- and education related to Fintech. Moreover, the ABBL does different compared to other banking associations in Europe, related’ problems. we participate in working groups after the same at European level in Brussels - at the European as not only banks, but also start-ups can become its having made our proper opinion about several issues and commission, the European Parliament and at the European member. in addition, CSSF assists these start ups getting pass on our ideas to these organisations. financial sector organisations’ levels - in order to change laws their permission respectively license to do business in and to get support.
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