Brexit preparations were the main topic at a recent press briefing at the House of Finance in Kirchberg, and finance sector representatives are planning on organising these kinds of information meetings on a regular basis in the future.
It was a rather informal discussion between representatives of Luxembourg for Finance, the bank association ABBL, the funds association ALFI and a number of journalists. "What should we talk about?", journalists were asked at the beginning of the meeting.
The discussion soon turned to Brexit and its potential effect on the Luxembourg job market. Preparations are complicated because the potential repercussions of Brexit are still somewhat unclear, which is largely due to the fact that no clear course has yet been taken by the UK.
The EU commission is preparing for the event of a so-called "hard Brexit" and the Luxembourg government is working on a law that would allow trade between the UK and Luxembourg to continue provisionally for a while after Brexit.
Finance companies are also preparing for all eventualities. The head of the bank association ABBL, Serge de Cilia, stated that company headquarters are working to find ways to guarantee that clients will continue to be able to be served from Luxembourg.
While the looming Brexit has brought a lot of insecurity to the finance sector, Luxembourg's banks could end up being boosted by a UK withdrawal of the EU. Nicolas Mackel, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, estimates that about 80 companies will have resettled in Luxembourg between 2017 and the end of 2019 - a direct consequence of Brexit. The companies that made the move to the Grand Duchy or are about to relocate their operations here will have created about 3,000 new jobs in Luxembourg by the end of 2019.
This prospective amount of job creation is a lot higher than the numbers anticipated by the Minister for Finance and the STATEC government statistics office only last year. However, Mackel added that 80 companies is only an estimate. It could just as well end up being between 75 to 90 companies.
Financial activities in the asset management sector or in insurance are moving to Luxembourg at a high rate, while trading and other financial activities are relocating to other countries and cities, such as Frankfurt.
