Beyond Banking: Luxembourg's next financial evolution
Examining Luxembourg's fintech potential: why our financial center must shift from traditional banking excellence to leading financial innovation, drawing from global insights and local advantages.
After reading yesterday’s article in Paperjam from Thierry Labro about open banking innovation, one thing becomes clear: Luxembourg’s financial center stands at a crossroads. While other European financial hubs showcase their fintech innovations, we’re still debating the basics.
Let’s be honest - we’re excellent at traditional banking. But excellence in the past doesn’t guarantee success in the future.
Our financial center has three unique advantages that could propel us forward:
– A concentrated ecosystem where banks, regulators, and startups coexist within walking distance
– A multilingual, highly skilled workforce with deep financial expertise
– A regulatory framework that could adapt quickly if we choose to
Yet, we’re watching from the sidelines as Estonia digitizes social services, the UK revolutionizes credit scoring, and the Netherlands transforms payment systems.
From my work in the Commission des Finances and the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank, I see both the global acceleration of financial innovation and Luxembourg’s untapped potential. We have promising local startups and scale-ups that deserve more attention and support.
The question isn’t whether Luxembourg will evolve - it’s whether we’ll lead or follow. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) might actually be a healthy impulse here - it’s better than the fear of change that currently seems to dominate our financial sector’s innovation strategy.
We need a mindset shift:
– From “why take the risk?” to “what opportunity are we missing?”
– From “protect what works” to “build what’s next”
– From “wait and see” to “test and learn”
The foundations of our financial success were built by bold decisions decades ago. It’s time to be bold again.