Frank Jons: chromatic explosions!
He could have ended up as a partner in an auditing firm, but a job interview convinced him to follow his true calling: painting. Interview.
Alan Dundon (L3A): A Rising responsibility for Real Assets Regulation
Alan Dundon, the President of the Luxembourg Alternative Administrators Association, says representing members in the “real assets” sector among fund and corporate services firms helps L3A reflect a cross-section of finance industry views on how to react to challenges and opportunities arising from continuing changes in the business and regulatory environments.
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Can you describe L3A in a few words?
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The Luxembourg Alternative Administrators Association (L3A) was established to support and promote the interests of the Luxembourg fund and corporate services sector. Our members include both independent service providers and banks active in the administration of alternative investment structures. It differs from other organisations in the Luxembourg financial sector, such as ALFI, LPEA or ABBL, in that it counts alternatives service providers as its core members. As a result, we get a good cross-section of views on how best to react to new challenges and opportunities arising from the continuing changes in our business and regulatory environments. L3A has achieved a strong voice in organizations promoting the Luxembourg financial marketplace including PROFIL (the Luxembourg Financial Industry Federation), the Chambre de Commerce and as a member of the Haut Comité de la Place Financière.
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“Traditional assets including fixed income and equity have struggled to provide the long-term returns that “real assets” like private equity, real estate, infrastructure and private debt can offer.”
What are your priorities as new President of L3A?
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Because we have been communicating directly with our members about reviewing and responding to change, L3A has not been particularly visible in the market to date. During my mandate, I intend to focus on increasing external communication using channels including social media. Changing our name (L3A was formally LIMSA) was the first step in branding and increasing our visibility. We have been fortunate to recruit Julie Lhardit with her extensive experience in communications and project management to accelerate our ambitions in this respect. We will also focus on continuing to build our membership base among both independent service providers and banks by demonstrating we can be both relevant and beneficial to our members.
What are the challenges and opportunities that L3A’s members face and how is L3A helping them?
Traditional assets, including fixed income and equity, have struggled to provide the long-term returns that “real assets” like private equity, real estate, infrastructure and private debt can offer. This has increased investor appetite for these real assets among institutional investors and large-scale family offices. L3A members thus have the opportunity to contribute to the further success of Luxembourg’s finance industry in its development of the Duchy as “the” investment hub for real asset investments. Challenges include the growing interest of institutional, as well as, retail investors in real assets, making our industry a focus of politicians and regulators. L3A can address the concerns of regulators and the community by promoting sensible and pragmatic application of new rules and regulations.