Lydia Linna: You were named head of wealth management at Quintet Luxembourg in November 2024. Could you share a little bit about your background and how you ended up at Quintet?
: I have been a private banking manager for a while--roughly 15 years now--and was contacted last year by Quintet to potentially participate in the bank’s growth. I already knew a lot of people at the bank. So for me, it was a great opportunity to join Quintet: because of the growth ambitions and because I knew some of my future colleagues. And as you know, we are in a people business.
You’ve also worked in Lyon, Marseille and Paris. What would you say makes Luxembourg special from the private banking and wealth management perspective?
We’re talking about very different markets. Luxembourg is an international market; Marseille and Lyon, by comparison, are part of the French domestic market. So clearly, it’s a very different approach. For example, in Luxembourg, I have already managed some relationships where you have a client in Switzerland, a son in France, a daughter in Switzerland and Luxembourg. So we have to interact with several jurisdictions, several regulators. Compare that with an example from Marseille: we worked with an entrepreneur who sold his company, and we only had to interact with local lawyers and family members.
It’s clearly different. You don’t use the same tools. In Luxembourg, we have the chance to be able to draw upon our fund expertise; in France, tools are more local. So it is a different approach in different markets.
It’s been just over three months since your arrival at Quintet. How has your experience been so far and how does it differ from your previous roles?
First, we are headquartered in Luxembourg, which is different from most of our competitors. We have the capability to decide locally, and faster, as the group decision-centre.
Second, I am impressed by the commitment of Quinet’s people. On average, our employees in Luxembourg have been with the bank for over 14 years so they are really committed. They trust the brand and they’re very open to new ideas.
Group CEO Chris Allen during an interview last year highlighted the ” as part of Quintet’s strategy refresh. Could you tell me about your agenda and priorities as head of wealth management?
It’s clearly growth, growth and growth. It’s a nice priority, to be frank with you, because not all banks in Luxembourg have the same opportunities to focus on growth. We have strong ambitions to further develop our business.
Luxembourg, which is one of my priorities. We will hire teams to grow in Luxembourg. The second point is to continue our growth in Europe. We are looking this year at opportunities to expand our geographic presence in Europe.
How do you view the role of new technology in wealth management? Are there any examples of tools in place at Quintet that you could share with us?
Internally, for example, we have introduced the use of Microsoft Copilot [a generative artificial intelligence chatbot, editor’s note] for several things. That includes client data management. If you can collect more precise information, you can better propose the right things to the right clients, which--again--frees up time and enhances our value proposition. But data is clearly one of the most sensitive things in a bank, so we need to be very cautious.
At the end of the day, private banking is a people business, so bankers will never be replaced by digital tools.
Tools can also be used to speed up onboarding, for example. Clients are very demanding when it comes to opening an account. They expect that to be done efficiently, and new technology is an enabler of that.
What would say are some of the challenges facing the private banking and wealth management sector? How about the major opportunities that lie ahead?
Regulatory requirements are becoming more and more important. And it costs more and more to meet them. I remember when I spoke a couple of years ago with a consulting firm, they told me: “Stéphane, when you are a booking centre, you need to have a threshold of assets under management of €10bn.” Now the threshold to be profitable as a booking centre has increased to about €15-20bn. It’s one of the main issues for all banks. All banks have to grow. But in general, it’s also an opportunity. Not all banks or family offices will be able to grow sufficiently. I think there will be more mergers and consolidation in the future.
The second opportunity is that clients are younger, so they transfer their wealth at a younger age. It represents a huge opportunity for banks; you have more and more opportunities to take care of the next generation. Let me give you an example. I remember a client: he was 40, he sold his company for €50m and his project was to transfer a part of his wealth to his children, aged five and ten. It’s different from the previous generation. The mindset is changing a lot.
Europe will see its biggest-ever generational wealth transfer in the coming years. What do you think the next generation is expecting from their wealth management advisors?
It’s very interesting. New clients talk more about social impact, environmental impact, than about performance--although performance of course remains important. They need to understand the impact that their wealth will have, so they want to have bankers and banks that will be able to advise them in their projects.
It’s also very important for banks to organise training for the next generation on topics like financial literacy, wealth planning, real estate and philanthropy. I remember another client: he sold his company, and immediately wanted to launch a philanthropic fund to support the development of schools in emerging countries. It’s a big difference from previous generations. In the past, a client rarely asked or talked about philanthropy or impact. I’ll give you another example: we tried to explain to a client that it would be a good idea to invest in a certain company, and he said, “I don’t care about profitability. I don’t want to invest in this company for this reason and that reason.” He was thinking about social and environmental impact.
We are facing clients with more skills than before because of the information they can obtain. They are also using family offices more often. It’s clearly a new world, and we have to be able to work with family offices as well.
Finally, we hear a lot about issues related to recruitment and retention in the financial sector. The government has also put in place measures like tax incentives to entice people to the grand duchy. What are your thoughts on talent recruitment and retention and making the banking sector an attractive one for future generations to work in?
Rather than generalising about the whole country, let me talk about my experience at Quintet. First, what is very important is a ‘career plan’ to retain talent. You remember when I talked about my arrival at Quintet and I said I was impressed by the commitment of my colleagues? A lot of people have made their career at Quintet because of internal mobility opportunities: they can work in different locations and have several different roles over time. Our HR department is very aware of the importance of this.
We have also launched a community of younger colleagues--which we call “Quintet Young”--and I really enjoy talking with them and hearing their ideas. We also have an internal women’s community, the “Luxembourg Women’s Network.” Female clients often prefer to have a female banker; female clients may also make different decisions regarding the risk in their portfolio compared to a male client. You don’t necessarily approach a female client in the same way as you approach a male client.
To sum up, it’s a people business. Though digitalisation can add a lot of value, it’s very important--at the end of the day--to have the right people working together to meet the needs of the families we serve.
Digital banking
A found that Luxembourg banks have shown “mixed progress” when it comes to digitalisation, with 57% of respondents saying they prioritise digital transformation in their strategies. What about Quintet’s strategy? For Pardini, “to be frank with you, banks in Luxembourg are a bit late compared with a domestic market like France, where all the banks are clearly very involved in this project. So we have to invest. For Quintet, this is already the case. There are several reasons to invest in digitalisation.”
“First of all, to free up time for our bankers for client onboarding and lending, for example, and to meet regulatory requirements more efficiently. These tasks take more and more time. A second reason is to enhance the value proposition for the client. At the end of the day, private banking is a people business, so bankers will never be replaced by digital tools. A client needs to have a human being to explain and provide answers. It’s very important. Digitalisation plus strong bankers makes for a good model.”
This article was written for the to the of Paperjam magazine, published on 26 March. The content is produced exclusively for the magazine. It is published on the site to contribute to the full Paperjam archive. .
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