Vincenzo Giunta has been president of the Luxembourg Financial Market Association since February 2018. Photo: Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne

Vincenzo Giunta has been president of the Luxembourg Financial Market Association since February 2018. Photo: Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne

The Luxembourg Financial Market Association celebrates its 65th anniversary this year, making it the oldest professional association in the Luxembourg financial centre. We spoke to its president about the history and current events of the association.

Vincenzo Giunta has been head of treasury & co-head trading floor at BPER Bank Luxembourg since January 2020. He joined the bank in April 2006. Since April 2012, he has been on the board of directors of the LFMA, of which he became chairman in February 2018.

Marc Fassone: Can you tell us about the history of your association, the oldest professional association in Luxembourg’s financial sector, and its evolution over time?

Vincenzo Giunta: The association was officially born on 5 February 1957 at a constituent assembly held in the premises of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. It was then called the Forex Club Luxembourg and its main architect, Victor Steinmetzer, was its first chair.

The history of the association parallels the history of European construction, which began in 1952 with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. This construction was designed to preserve peace on the continent by pooling resources. It was in this spirit that two traders, one French--Maurice Plaquet--and one British--Roy Bridge--who were in regular telephone contact, decided to meet and found the first International Forex Club under the name of Association Cambiste International. The association is now called ACI-FMA and is an umbrella organisation based in Paris with over 60 national associations.

Why did you change the name of the association?

It reflects the evolution of the money markets with the arrival of the euro and the rise of technological innovation and automation. To give you an example of the impact of automation on our original business, in 1956, when it all started, traders held their positions by hand. Now, with the emergence of new asset classes such as leveraged products or futures, everything is covered by sophisticated electronic tools. Originally a simple activity, trading has become a science. Not to mention the fact that regulatory changes have led to the creation of new middle office functions, such as risk managers and compliance officers.

Faced with the natural decline in our membership and the emergence of new functions, and in order not to lose the influence we have acquired over the years, we have decided to broaden our membership base and become the association for all financial markets, not just the currency market. And let’s not forget that the challenges that have been faced--or are being faced--by currency market specialists are more or less the same as those faced by the entire financial sector. This is particularly true for all matters of regulation.

Becoming more global is a natural evolution.

Who can become a member of the LFMA?

Membership of our association is an individual membership. Our main members are bankers, mainly in the front office.

So it is people who are our members, not companies. Even though it is often the latter that pay the membership fees.

This is the big difference between us and the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL), which mainly brings together banks.

What are your main activities?

First of all, we collaborate with the ABBL, which is our main interlocutor. We are part of the financial intermediaries working group. In this group, we report and discuss all the concerns of our members. The ABBL is a ‘top-down’ association whereas we are a ‘bottom-up’ association. Two complementary dynamics to ensure that information on developments in the professions and regulations is not lost and that concerns are effectively reported.

It is up to the ABBL to pass on our concerns to other associations and and the Ministry of Finance.

If necessary, we help the ABBL when it needs experts in our members’ fields of activity.

What are the main concerns of the LFMA at the moment?

There are several. The first one that comes to mind is the ageing of the workforce, a concern that connects with the issue of the talent shortage. With the subprime crisis first and the pandemic second, banks have frozen hiring and have not invested in new employees. I think that in the long run, when older people retire, there will be a loss of know-how. That is why we think it is important to invest in training at the moment. Not general training, but technical and specific training to keep up with the evolution of European regulations, which are themselves becoming increasingly technical and specific. To this end, we are working with the House of Training here in Luxembourg and with the Frankfurt School of Finance to provide the most relevant training possible for our members. If necessary, we also use independent trainers. Training is a key element in attracting and retaining talent.

Talent, in fact. If we look at the results of our training exams, we see that it is often women who get the best results.

But our industry is a male industry. This is something that needs to change. Not only in the name of gender balance, but in the name of competence. We need women in the financial industry.

The LFMA carries out the demands of its members. What do you think of the dialogue with the government?

Luxembourg is a small and very business-oriented country. It is easy to access and talk to decision makers who are attentive and flexible. And I think the fact that we have a female finance minister is a very positive thing.

The Luxembourg government is praised for its ability to listen to professionals. But what about your relations with politicians, especially MPs? Do you have regular contact with them?

To be honest, no. But we will try to change that.

The promotion of the financial sector is a very important activity for its future. Do you contribute to this and how?

Promotion is indeed something very important for us. To help with this, we have created a YouTube channel called , where we interview the best experts in the market. The content is shared with the other national associations that are members of the ACI-FMA. The idea is to identify a topic that is of current interest or will become important in the future, invite a specialist and interview them. By sharing these interviews widely, we want to contribute to an exchange of ideas that will create added value for our members and those of our European sister associations.

We also organise bi-annual dinners for our members. LFMA’s Food and Forex exists to help build trust between banks in the market and to facilitate the sharing of ideas and experiences. The idea came to us in 2008 at the height of the subprime crisis, when no one was talking to anyone and/or trust between banks had disappeared. Behind closed doors, we could understand each other and appreciate what the real situation of the industry was.

Why did you become president of the LFMA?

I joined the association in 2007 and was immediately fascinated by the passion of the members, all of whom were volunteers. That passion reflects our members’ love of their profession.

I also think that the association is the right place to work on improving the image of finance professionals. That image has become tarnished over the years. The accumulation of regulations is no accident. It is due to the fact that some people have behaved badly. And by extension, we traders are seen as ‘rule breakers’. To improve our image, we need to work on the right issues like global warming. And we need to lead by example.

We did this during the covid crisis by trying to spread a positive message at a painful and stressful time. How? I bought 600 masks with the association’s logo which we distributed here in Luxembourg to our members and the authorities, but also abroad, in Italy, Germany, France, the UK and Spain. [We did it] with a little play on the country’s promotion slogan, ‘Let's make it happen’, which became the hashtag ‘Let’s mask it happen”. We asked everyone who had received a mask to send us a photo of them wearing it at work, to set .

The programme for the 65th anniversary celebration can be found.

This article was published for the Paperjam + Delano Finance newsletter, the weekly source for financial news in Luxembourg. . Read the original French version of this interview on the site.