C-suite executives working in Luxembourg’s financial centre are optimistic on the outlook for the industry, despite ongoing concerns for emerging macro-economic risks.
According to a survey of over 400 C-suite executives in Luxembourg finance, confidence in business was expressed by more than 60% of executives, while over 50% said they expected their organisation to scale global investment in 2022, 33% more than last year.
Nevertheless, financial leaders also revealed a concern for emerging macro-economic risk, including asset ‘bubbles’ and inflation, while accumulation of public debt, combined with a surge in energy and real estate prices were also causes of concern.
In addition, the Luxembourg for Finance research also found that 80% of the executives said they were worried about fragmentation in the single market. Participants stressed the importance of focusing on EU objectives rather than national ones in order to address the lack of competition within Europe on the global stage.
When asked about the Covid-19 pandemic, industry participants in the region felt the sector had recovered well, with 49% of respondents indicating they were no longer concerned about the pandemic’s influence on financial services, while 58% said they were not concerned about the long-term effects of Brexit.
Access to talent, however, remains a key issue, according to the study. In Luxembourg, 51% of respondents were underconfident in their organisations’ ability to address this gap, up from 44% in April.
Just over 70% of respondents said they were confident in their organisation’s ability to include ESG considerations into client advice, 64% in their ability to identify sustainable investment opportunities, and 68% indicated they were set to scale product design in the space.
Nevertheless, the availability of quality sustainable data and the fragmentation of standards persists and is in line with global trends.
“Given increasing macro-economic challenges and nationalistic voices against the single market it is critical that financial services across the EU work well to finance the recovery sustainably and effectively,” said Nicolas Mackel, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance.
“Thus, the surge in optimism relating to the overall financial services climate is encouraging as finance will have a large role to play in rebuilding the global economy,” he added.
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