FinTech companies are bringing a wind of change to financial services. While the needs of the clients remain essentially the same, FinTech invent new innovative ways to deliver these services. We’ve met with Grégory Weber, FinTech Leader and Director of the Market Research Centre at PwC Luxembourg to discuss the future of FinTech in Luxembourg.

 

Q: What are the advantages of Luxembourg to attract industry players and make the country an internationally recognised FinTech place?

G.W.: Luxembourg is a fertile ground for FinTech players development. The country launched massive investments in tech infrastructures: half a billion was spent on ultra-high speed network, international connectivity and top tier data centres over the past five years. With its “Digital Lëtzebuerg” strategy launched in October 2014, the government put innovation in financial services on top of its priority list. Government and industry experts work together in dedicated committees to discuss how to make the country more attractive to innovative high tech and financial companies and improve the regulatory framework.

 

On top of state-of-the-art infrastructures and a friendly business environment, the Luxembourg financial centre is recognised for its excellence in asset and wealth management, cross-border transactions and global fund distribution. This financial excellence that serves an international clientele would benefit from high tech entrepreneurs to become more customer-centric and develop innovative solutions in data processing, analytics and cybersecurity to name a few. There is a huge pool of financial institutions ready to invest.

 

To facilitate the development of such companies, Luxembourg has many incubators and accelerators that support innovative businesses by providing them with active guidance, along with IT providers and law firms.

 

Q: What is your approach of the FinTech industry?

G.W.:FinTech companies are definitely under our radar. At PwC Luxembourg, our approach to high tech in the financial sector is twofold. First, we’ve launched in 2012 an Accelerator programme designed to find next-gen companies and help them go global faster and smarter. We offer them a variety of proven solutions to support their global growth: privileged access to the most relevant markets, thanks to our worldwide network of Accelerators, the best international talents and the most appropriate financing solutions.

 

Second, we support financial institutions in their effort to digitise their business and lead their digital transformation. These companies face rapid technological changes affecting their services and operations and current models are being questioned. Thanks to our long experience with the financial sector and to our knowledge of the latest technologies, we can help financial companies go through their digital transformation process. We can offer them "vertical" solutions based on both standard CRM solutions and development of prototypes. We advise our clients on architecture or software selection and assist them in process design, solution integration, transition and change management. "Designing a business strategy for the Digital world" is our moto.

 

Q: What response do you bring to the increased exposure of your clients to current threats (intrusions, targeted attacks, viruses, worms, malware, etc.)?

G.W.:Financial institutions have been addressing information security risks for decades. However, a proliferation of recent cyber events has revealed that the traditional security model is no longer sufficient. Banks, asset managers and insurance companies offer prime targets for cyber threats. They rely increasingly on the interconnectivity of systems and data. Cyber related incidents represent a growing threat to the reputation and economic stability of financial institutions. The Global State of Information Security Survey 2015 (GSISS) shows that, among 758 global financial services respondents, the number of detected incidents increased 8% this year over 2013, and the associated costs jumped 24%.

 

But information technologies are vital for business innovation and greater efficiency. Processes and tools to detect, analyse, and respond to incidents are key to cyber resiliency and to the ongoing success of any financial services business.

 

Institutions must be ready to react and need to shift their investments from detection/prevention to containment and problem solving. Hence, permanent security watch and overall risk assessment are now a must to ensure the efficiency of any technological investment.

Depending on the client needs, our response can go from helping a client assess its level of threats and vulnerability to designing a risk management strategy and implementing the frameworks. A factor that clients should never neglect is their employees: they need to make sure they are trained and aware of the risks related to cybersecurity.

 

Grégory Weber will be speaking at ICT Spring on 19 May at 4.15pm.