ABBL’s special speed meeting event dedicated to banking CEOs & Fintechs
The ABBL begins the New Year with making one of its 2023 resolution a reality – Creating a context for accelerating digitalisation.
On 11 January, the ABBL organised a speed meeting event bringing together chief executive officers of banks and founders of financial technology (FinTech) firms. The event hosted by Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) and conducted in presence of H.E. Yuriko Backes, Luxembourg's Minister of Finance, and Guy Hoffmann, ABBL Chairman, created a unique atmosphere for 70 senior bankers and FinTech professionals enabling them to meet each other in person, interact, and explore new opportunities.
The ABBL is thankful to the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology for the cooperation on this initiative of ABBL’s FinTech and Innovation Forum.
A special thanks goes to all banks’ CEOs and FinTech founders for joining this event and making it a success. We hope that opportunities for cooperation explored during speed-meetings will pave the way for promising digitalisation projects shaping the future of the Luxembourg's financial industry!
LATEST INTERVIEWS - This week, we would like to share the views from:
- Falk Fischer, CEO, Julius Baer Europe S.A.
- Claude Meurisse, COO, LUXHUB S.A.
Testimonial from a Bank CEO: Falk Fischer, CEO, Julius Baer Europe S.A.
* What did you think about this ABBL initiative?
A super-efficient and informative event, as well for meeting well-known colleagues on a rather innovative subject. I admit it was also challenging to keep focused among the enormous variety of topics, ranging from crypto-assets and tokenisation to AML software platforms, every eight minutes. Thanks to the ABBL for initiating such an impactful and interactive format!
* What was your take-aways from the event?
A major takeaway is that we are quite well informed and have the right contacts when it comes to state-of-the-art digital offerings for international wealth management clients – two out of the six founders I met were already in touch with the right colleagues from our Group.
For me personally, it showed the enormous bandwidth of digital possibilities and challenges that will help us make our services even better for our clients.
* What's next, how do you plan to follow up on fintech opportunities?
Besides the obviously close-linked solutions, such as producing optimised investment content or external provider management, the event provided lots of food for thought. Even if not all offerings may seem relevant to us at first sight, it is valuable to be informed and to think more closely about how added value for our clients and colleagues can be created through technology. It’s a long-time process of creating awareness, which makes this event so valuable.
Testimonial from a FinTech Founder: Claude Meurisse, COO, LUXHUB S.A.
* Are you happy about the ABBL initiative to connect financial market players with Fintechs?
Ever since its creation, LUXHUB has been advocating collaboration between financial players, especially in Luxembourg. We were therefore delighted to take part in such an initiative, in an unusual format. The speed meetings enabled us to go straight to the point, and describe our solutions’ added value. The Q&A that followed then allowed us to discuss the needs of each bank and understand how we could work together to solve some of these key challenges.
* Anything surprised you or got particularly your interest during the evening?
The overall collaborative atmosphere was on point during the session and the cocktail that followed. Entering the speed meeting session, we had no doubt that it would be a proactive and fruitful event, yet the pitches and dynamic discussions proved to be extremely valuable. We could really tell that interest was bubbling between all stakeholders, either fintechs or financial institutions.
* What's next, how do you plan to follow up on these contacts and opportunities?
We’ve already contacted the CEOs and decision-makers we met during the night, first of all to thank them for their attention, and to further investigate their needs and plans for the months to come. Moreover, the session also allowed us to reconnect with several banks and financial institutions we had been in contact with recently and in this case, to reaffirm our wish and ability to support them with their connectivity and digital challenges, in the era of Open Finance.