Prior to his current role, Nicolas Mackel was posted at Luxembourg's permanent representation to the EU. He was deputy chief of mission at Luxembourg's embassy in Washington, DC, and then consul general in Shanghai, in charge of promoting Luxembourg's economic interests throughout China as the executive director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office. Jan Hanrion/Maison Moderne archives

Prior to his current role, Nicolas Mackel was posted at Luxembourg's permanent representation to the EU. He was deputy chief of mission at Luxembourg's embassy in Washington, DC, and then consul general in Shanghai, in charge of promoting Luxembourg's economic interests throughout China as the executive director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office. Jan Hanrion/Maison Moderne archives

Luxembourg for Finance CEO Nicolas Mackel sat down with Delano to share his thoughts on Luxembourg compared to international cities and trends for the year ahead.

Natalie Gerhardstein: What are Luxembourg’s top three selling points?

Nicolas Mackel: The ecosystem [and] expertise that exist here in certain activities, e.g., fund activities, wealth management; the economic, political and regulatory stability; and we provide firms coming here with multijurisdictional expertise, built on an international community.

How does Luxembourg com­pare to other international cities?

It has many of the features of other big cities--international population, cultural and sports offer[s]--but also many advan­ta­ges of a small city. The mistake many make is to simply look at the number of inhabitants… Luxembourg is a European capital, with many of the large EU institutions, and a major international financial centre…

What are some of the trends you’re expecting for the year ahead?

Sustainable finance: it’s really happening in the financial industry because it’s a necessity. If you only look at the ‘E’ of ESG, everyone is aware of the urgency to act for the environment. But the crisis has also shown the ‘S’, or social--and housing, healthcare, education, safety of workers, etc., are very important. So are governance and diversity... Other trends are the continued rise of alternatives, where Luxembourg has seen massive growth over the last couple years, on the back of continued low interest rates.

An alternate version of this article appeared in the international supplement