Adapting to changing clientele: Banque de Luxembourg
Luxembourg’s private banking industry is being challenged to adapt to an ever-changing client base. Banque de Luxembourg’s Luc Rodesch talks about how it has kept up to speed.
Luxembourg’s private banking industry is being challenged to adapt to an
ever-changing client base. Banque de Luxembourg’s Luc Rodesch talks about how it has kept up to speed.
More and more, Luxembourg’s private banking landscape reflects the nature of its financial services industry as a whole by serving a growing international clientele based outside of Luxembourg itself.
Consequently, wealth managers are finding it more complex to respond to the needs of families and individuals investing in their products – so says Luc Rodesch, head of private banking at Banque de Luxembourg (BDL).
With 80% of its clients deriving from outside the Grand Duchy, and most of those from in and around Europe, BDL is experienced in serving a non-domestic client base.
But a shift is taking place. Client interest in BDL’s services is progressively coming from outside the European Union – particularly eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. That presents difficulties for BDL and the private banking industry as a whole, admits Rodesch.
“Because clients are more international, it’s more complicated,” he says. “To some extent, it’s the same story, but there are differences.”
When it comes to succession planning, private bankers often deal with a complicated family situation.
For example, some of the client’s children may live in the United States, and the others may be based in Italy, making it all the more difficult to advise on division of assets due to different regulatory and tax requirements within those countries.
An emerging Russian and Latin American clientele in particular means there are new barriers of language and culture to overcome, says Rodesch. Along with those changes comes pressure on staffing needs.
“Finding staff who speak the languages of most European countries is easy, but it’s a challenge with Russia and the Middle East,” he says.
Not only is part of the problem sourcing the right expertise, but it is also a lack of awareness from those people with the skills about Luxembourg.
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