The nation with a reach much greater than its borders | #Luxembourg #Europe #DigitalLuxembourg #Fintech #LetsMakeItHappen  | Luxembourg (Europe) | Scoop.it

The size of Rhode Island, Luxembourg has proven it can survive without banking secrecy and remain nimble, setting the bar for the adoption of financial transparency and new technology.

When banking secrecy came to an end in Luxembourg on January 1, 2015, critics sneered. The EU nation, a prominent financial capital on the continent, would lose its luster for global wealth. Not a few feared that Luxembourg had spelled out its imminent doom.

Just the contrary has come to pass. In response to the evolving standards of global banking, Luxembourg has taken up the vanguard in its pace to adopt new EU regulations that promote banking transparency, and headlines of the financial industry now tell of a very different story: that of world-first experiments in fintech that promise to shape our future. The economy was never affected as critics predicted, and instead persisted to grow with forecasts putting Luxembourg at a 4.22% expansion in 2018, twice the average of the OECD, a bloc of the world’s richest countries.

The size of Rhode Island with half the population, Luxembourg is small, but has been able to use this as an advantage by organizing itself like a well-capitalized and politically influential village, given its seat as one of the three capitals of the EU. It has not hurt, either, that the Grand Duchy, an old type of monarchy, naturally sits at the heart of Europe, both geographically and linguistically.

“The world’s first-ever blockchain-enabled transaction in the investment fund industry was processed last July in Luxembourg.”
Philippe Meyer – Managing Partner of KPMG Luxembourg

“All the big US multinationals are one way or another in Luxembourg – Google, Amazon, Paypal.”
Paul Mousel – Partner at Arendt & Medernach

“Everybody in Luxembourg speaks at least three languages: French, English and German,” says Paul Mousel, partner at Arendt & Medernach, the country’s largest independent law firm. “Political stability prevails, and there is also a very short degree of separation with authorities, making the government very easy to access.”

US corporations have long known this, and continue to set up EU bases in Luxembourg, with a new wave in financial investment coming in reaction to Brexit. “All the big US multinationals are one way or another in Luxembourg – Google, Amazon, Paypal, Starbucks, McDonald’s,” Mousel says. “And now more and more US banks are arriving...

 

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