Claus Jørgensen, Head of Client Business, says VP Bank Luxembourg offers being a trusted partner to wealthy Scandinavians and local asset managers who seek cross border solutions and investment opportunities outside the region. Interview.

 

Can you describe VP Bank’s activity in Scandinavian countries? 

            

It is the hallmark of VP Bank in Luxembourg to offer tailor-made, cross-border banking and investment fund services from within Europe. And this aligns with the Group’s strategy to grow the wealth management business both organically and via acquisition. Recently VP Bank Luxembourg had the opportunity to acquire two Scandinavian businesses in Grand-Duchy, the Carnegie Fund business and Catella Private Banking. The acquisitions give VP Bank very strong foundations to build international wealth management services to meet the needs of Scandinavian clients. Our strong IT and e-banking platforms allow us to support a wide range of client types.

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“We can be a trusted partner for Scandinavian clients requiring international and cross-border services such as private banking and asset management.”

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What challenges and opportunities do you identify for VP Bank in that region?

 

The challenge is to stay focused and not try to do everything: cross-border offerings are often complicated and very expensive for a bank to deliver. We are not attempting to compete with domestic, Scandinavian, investment solution providers. Instead, we are offering an alternative to Scandinavian clients looking for a partner with our international skills/experience while, at the same time, delivering Scandinavian products and services. In this way, we can be a trusted partner for clients requiring international and cross-border services such as private banking and asset management. The opportunity is that, right now, the banking market in Scandinavian countries is changing a great deal with its high degree of digitalisation facilitating the ways we can communicate and grow the business.

 

How do you see VP Bank’s strategy evolving in the next five years?

 

We anticipate further changes including some consolidation in the market. This creates good opportunities to continue our growth strategy. We will not be market leaders in the Scandinavian countries, but we aim to be a preferred partner for those who have cross-border needs. We have a golden opportunity to succeed with this strategy by working out of Luxembourg as we can also use our offerings from other units in the Group like Liechtenstein, Zurich, Singapore and Hong Kong. This will make the growth profitable as we can share the synergies from our offerings by serving more nationalities with the same needs in the same locations. We have seen this working for other countries like our offer in Germany.