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In an interview, Françoise Thoma, managing director of Spuerkeess, Luxembourg’s state savings bank, says the financial institution has stepped up focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Library picture: Françoise Thoma, seen in September 2020. Photo credit: Romain Gamba/Maison Moderne 

Surveys show that Spuerkeess is the preferred bank of Luxembourgers. That is a status that must be earned and which requires the state savings bank to listen to its customers in order to evolve with them.

Bank executives took this into account when developing a new 2021-2025 strategic plan. “Our desire is to place the customer at the centre of our actions. It may seem obvious,” admits Françoise Thoma, managing director, “but banks can no longer stand out through products that are almost all similar to each other.”

The first pillar of the strategy, dealing with commercial aspects, therefore targets the quality of service and proximity to the customer. “The banking profession requires generating more added value for the client than in the past,” says Thoma. “It is necessary to get to know them better and to create value propositions that best serve them.”

Environmental, social and governance

The second pillar of the new strategic plan deals with ESG. On this sensitive subject, which is sometimes used opportunistically, the Luxembourg bank intends to adopt a “credible, transparent and coherent” approach. “We have chosen to no longer finance activities that create a negative impact on the environment and whose stakeholders do not envisage an ecological transition. And this is not an intention, this new perspective is already at the implementation stage,” she states.

This will apply to both company lending and to investment policy. There is no longer any question of investing in shares of companies that do not meet the criteria of the new European taxonomy.

Already launched in 2019, the digital transformation of the bank is also at the heart of the new plan. It aims to make internal work processes more efficient and to facilitate communication with clients. “We want to multiply communication channels,” says Thoma, who has observed the success of Spuerkeess Direct--financial advice via videoconference--since the spring 2020 lockdown. “It has become clear that customers want to communicate with us both through physical and digital channels.”

That does not mean that bank branches are doomed to disappear. Even though eleven of them were closed last spring, the bank maintains a physical network of 54 branches located across the country. However, the situation will continue to evolve. “There will always be openings and closings, we are observing changes in customer habits and the network will change as a result,” explains Thoma.

Fintech focus

Like the banking sector as a whole, the state savings bank has understood that it needs to invest in technology to stay in the game and has defined a position on the subject. “We are a member of the Lhoft and we are already cooperating with fintechs,” she points out. “If opportunities arise, we are not ruling out equity investments or even the acquisition of a fintech.”

The digital revolution is also placing certain jobs in a delicate position, but Thoma sees this above all as “opportunities for employees to consider new career paths.”

It is no coincidence then that human resources constitute the fourth pillar of the new strategy and the bank intends above all to offer training to support internal mobility in order to ensure staff loyalty and quality levels.

Finally, while it is no longer a pillar, the grand duchy institution intends to open up to the greater region after having remained, until now, concentrated on Luxembourg territory. “We are not going to open branches outside the borders, but [aim to] make ourselves better known to cross-border workers and businesses in the greater region who do not really know us,” explains Thoma.

This interview was originally published in French and has been translated for Delano