YOUR “REFERENCE” TO FINANCIAL SERVICES

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 | PRESS RELEASE

Cedric Raths and Olivier Jarny, the two partners behind the success story of Reference Financial Services – a specialised PSF licensed by CSSF managing about 7 billion Euros of assets and providing a full range of high end fund, corporate and compliance services, share their thoughts on the future of this business and opportunities that lies ahead.

Luxembourg’s global financial center is dominated by large multi-national players vying for a greater share of the pie. Amid this competition, the idea of providing customized and tailored made solutions is often getting lost. Multinational financial service providers who have started to outsource much of their process outside Luxembourg, while their international clients have to deal with an array of departments and call centers for soliciting basic services, have made fund and corporate management services unnecessarily cumbersome. In this scenario they are unable to provide a consistent quality of client experience synonymous with the brand Luxembourg.

Given this context, only a handful of Luxembourgish human sized firms, have the expertise and experience with the necessary licenses to handle the regulated side of the funds industry.
This is where we come in. Having re-affirmed our commitment to stay independent of any global group and true to our roots in the Grand Dutchy, we look to enhance customer experience and service delivery through human relations with clients. Our niche lies in dealing with exotic asset classes relating to fine arts, maritime, private aviation while also offering the standard fund and corporate management services to all.

Q. We are seeing a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the field of financial service providers. What is your take?

The cost of compliance has been rapidly increasing in Luxembourg and across EU. This comes as a two-sided coin – a great opportunity for some whereas cumbersome regulations for others. What we have seen since the onset of this new decade is players who are unable to appropriately manage their organizations and streamline their operations efficiently have been unable to benefit from the increasing regulations, whereas established global and domestic players alike, with the size, scale and resources have been looking to buyout these firms thereby further consolidate their positions.
We believe this is in fact is a healthy cycle for the Luxembourg Financial landscape to become more high quality and standardized in it’s offering and approach.
For us, Compliance is not a burden but a boon. Our increasing focus on ensuring a healthy internal organization that is compliant gives us a strategic edge over our competitors. From this year, we have launched compliance services offering to our clients while also having re-activated our Fund Administration license with a well known investment fund client which, coupled with our existing bouquet of alternative investment funds, gives an example on how regulation can help grow our business with a positive mindset.

Q. So you are positive on this development. Reference was itself going through an acquisition phase, what is the status of it?

It is infact true that given our niche offerings in the highly contested and glamourous field we do attract a lot of attention in terms of potential global players placing their bids on us. However, our decades of experience in this field and strong history of REFERENCE FINANCIAL SERVICES makes us firm in our commitment to remain a 100% Luxembourgish entity true to it’s roots. We therefore can substantiate our total commitment to remain independent from influence of any global group and continue working on our mission to ensure last mile client satisfaction through human relations and personalized service to our clients that is hardly being seen in the market today. Our focus today is to take Reference global and export the brand Luxembourg at the farthest corners of the globe. We will soon be making an important announcement in this regard.

Q. Where does the future growth lies for financial service providers in Luxembourg and beyond?

The future lies in innovation. In our world we call it “Fintech” meaning Financial Technologies. With the advent of latest software solutions, the time, location, knowledge and resources gaps can be bridged at a massive scale. Organizations who can be ahead of this curve would provide client experience and manage internal organization with a competency that cannot be challenged. At Reference, our focus on investment in upgrading tech based infrastructures, partnering with credible and reputed service providers and providing clients a benefit of this development remains at the center of our strategic orientation and focus. We are looking to provide solutions to our clients so they can make the correct decisions by using trusted data insights and cutting edge real time solutions in the future.