More than 200 finance and banking professionals gathered at the Royal Hotel for the latest edition of PrivateBanker where experts discussed the digitalisation of the private banking industry, and its limits, on 4 April.

The conference was moderated by Pierre Etienne Lorenceau, founder and CEO of Leaders League. 

Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the recently created LHoFT, Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, took the stage. "Analogy is more powerful than computers. How well do you leverage the technology we all have in our pockets?" asked Nasir Zubairi. He added: "You can't ignore it, and you all are already involved in it. You now also have to understand the needs of customers,” he said.

Jean-Charles Schiltz, director and CIO of Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild Europe then addressed the audience and shared his key convictions on market outlook. After dealing with the recent geopolitical changes, and notably the new US environment and the Brexit, he focused on big data. "Data generation is growing exponentially as well as its diffusion. We are also seeing a growing use of virtual intelligence, such as robots,” he said. He also highlighted the fact that we are currently seeing a massive increase in connected objects and that exponential data flows are transforming our world and multiplying opportunities to create value. 

A Q&A Session moderated by Jean-Pierre Gomez, head of regulatory & public affairs at Société Générale Securities Services brought together Quentin Vercauteren-Drubbel, head of wealth management at KBL and Marc Stevens, CEO, OneLife. On transparency, Jean-Pierre Gomez said: "Information provided to clients is not enough: you have still to test it like water.” 

According to Quentin Vercauteren-Drubbel, the idea is not to replace humans, placing emphasis on human relations. Yet, bringing new tools will definitely help the customers. "The digitalisation is about communication and interaction: how do you share the information through digital tools?" then asked Marc Stevens, who then insisted on the importance of RegTech solutions, and the huge opportunities to improve the way to deal with regulation. 

Then, Rob Thummel, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, Tortoise, gave a speech entitled "Uncovering North American Energy Infrastructure. The energy sector is the only sector where, year after year, consumption increases" he saidd. The Tortoise North American Energy Infrastructure Fund (UCITS) therefore focuses on US energy infrastructures. These, along with renewable infrastructures and new drilling technologies, are exciting opportunities. 

Emmanuel Bégat, partner and COO at ME Business Solutions, focused on finance, which he sees as the management of revenues, governance — the establishment of policies — and ethics — differentiating the good and the bad, and having duties and obligations. "Finance needs to go back to an instrument. It must be used in an ethical way,” he concluded. 

According to Geoffroy De Schrevel, CEO of Gambit & Birdee, private bankers need to "forget products, ignore clients and digitise your bank". He then shared the examples of Kodak, Netflix, and Amazon Go. "People love technology and they actually trust technology" he added, highlighting the importance of customer experience, aiming at making life easier, lighter and more satisfactory. 

"Why and how to invest in European equities in in a crucial election year" was the name of the presentation given by François-Xavier Chauchat, economist at Dorval Asset Management, an affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management and which ended this edition of PrivateBanker. He notably talked about the premium European political risk, which is back at its level of 2011. He then presented the options proposed by Dorval, to help customers protect and secure their investments. 

FinTech, InsurTech and RegTech experts will meet in Luxembourg for a new edition of ICT Spring which will take place on 9 and 10 May. The programme and registration forms are online: www.ictspring.com