In order to meet its customers’ service needs, Ocorian Luxembourg leverages the group's global expertise while developing its offering in the grand duchy through human talent and the most advanced technology, says Country Head for Luxembourg and the Netherlands Jean-Marie Bettinger.

 

What is Ocorian’s background as a business?

 

Ocorian is a leading international specialist in corporate and funds services, providing accounting, tax, regulatory and administrative functions to support the alternative investment, assets structuring and administration needs of our institutional, corporate and  HNWI clients. But Ocorian is also a human organisation, in its mindset and in its size. The group has more than 50 years of experience and is backed by a private equity firm, Inflexion, that has a deep knowledge of the industry, as well as a highly skilled group executive committee. As a result, stability and efficiency are more than just slogans, and our values are not just theory but part of everyday reality – which we believe sets us apart from some of our competitors. We always keep in mind that this is a people business, and while we are moving forward with the adoption of automation, the engine of the sector remains our staff. Ocorian is an organisation that aims to combine the best working conditions for our human resources with skills we need and the latest and most useful technology.

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“To respond to the increasing volume of regulation, Ocorian has adapted its organisation and recruited local and international experts.”

 

How do you adapt to the increasing complexity of administrative and corporate services?

 

The first level of complexity is in the existing and new regulations implemented to protect the interests of investors. It is increasingly complicated for international businesses, especially foreign and domestic asset and investment managers, to navigate all the new legislation affecting areas such as money laundering controls, know your customer checks and GDPR compliance. They therefore rely on international fund and corporate service providers such as Ocorian for the outsourcing of regulatory, accounting, corporate, tax and administrative reporting. To respond to the increasing volume of regulation, Ocorian has adapted its organisation and recruited local and international experts - a new head of compliance with a strong international background and expertise in the fund industry joined us mid-June as part of the Luxembourg senior management team. We also are involved in various national and international working groups and professional organisations, and are proactive in engaging with our clients not only over new regulation coming into force but to prepare them for future regulatory developments. To meet our clients’ increasing needs and the need for adaptation, we have already expanded our senior management team in Luxembourg. Yves Cheret, who was previously with businesses such as Arendt Services and Alter Domus, who is now head of sales for our Luxembourg cluster, and Graham Dew, a former TMF Luxembourg partner, who will help build and lead our fund depositary services offering, subject to CSSF approval, have joined as authorised managers and members of the management committee of Ocorian (Luxembourg). We have also welcomed Susana Carvalho, who recently joined as head of fund operations, and Emmanuelle Poret as head of onboarding.

 

How do you expect your clients’ needs to evolve in the short and long term?

 

In the very short term, the primary need of our clients is naturally to ensure they receive an excellent level of service quality, which unfortunately has not necessary always been universal in the market. Then they need access to a team of experts with excellent knowledge of the various jurisdictions in which they are present in and expertise in the type of alternative assets and investments they are targeting, able to provide a full range of services in different locations in full compliance. They also need fund service providers that deploy the best technology available in the market. This is exactly the strategy followed by Ocorian. Our aim is to have the leading experts, the most efficient processes and the latest systems, and to exceed our current level of complete client satisfaction – which is already at 90%.