Luxembourg Promoted as European Fintech Hub in San Francisco, Silicon Valley

Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna represented Luxembourg during a FinTech-related financial mission in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, from 7 to 10 April 2019.

Accompanied by a delegation composed of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Luxembourg for Finance (LFF) and the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), Minister Gramegna began his visit at the headquarters of eBay in San José. There he spoke with senior managers about their development projects in Europe and Luxembourg. Founded in 1995, the eBay group has been present in the Grand Duchy since 2006 and has had a payment license since the end of 2013. Luxembourg currently has more than 3,000 sellers and 44,000 active customers on their platform.

In San Francisco, the Luxembourg delegation visited the "Atelier", the Fintech accelerator of BNP Paribas. With his CEO Alessandro Promutico, Pierre Gramegna took stock of current developments in the field of FinTech, particularly with regard to collaboration between start-ups and traditional players in finance. The Minister of Finance went on to visit Orange Silicon Valley, the innovation centre of the French telecommunications group in California.

Pierre Gramegna also met with Greg Greeley, President of Homes of AirBnB, to discuss the company's plans for developing its business in Europe and the role that Luxembourg can play in this context. He similarly had an interview with Chris Larsen, Ripple's co-founder and Executive Chairman, for an exchange of views on the future of e-currencies, DLT and blockchain technology, as well as the group's plans in Europe and Luxembourg. Indeed, the interdisciplinary SnT centre of the University of Luxembourg has just launched a research project on micropayments as part of its partnership with Ripple Blockchain University.

In addition, Pierre Gramegna met with Jennifer Johnson, President of Franklin Templeton Investments. Present in Luxembourg since 1991, Franklin Templeton is one of the main players in Luxembourg's investment fund industry. Pierre Gramegna and Jennifer Johnson discussed issues such as Brexit and its implications for the group. In the same spirit, the Finance Minister visited Wells Fargo Asset Management, which has just strengthened its presence in Luxembourg in the context of Brexit.

Finally, Minister Gramegna attended a working lunch with high level representatives of venture capital companies to present investment opportunities in Europe through the Luxembourg financial centre. 

On this occasion, LHoFT and Parkpine Capital also signed, in the presence of Pierre Gramegna, a collaboration agreement organising the next Global Venture Summit in Luxembourg, at the end of 2019. This conference, which will be held for the first time in Europe, will bring together more than 1,500 participants from over 50 countries and help consolidate Luxembourg's position as Europe's leading financial centre for start-ups.

From San Francisco, the Luxembourg Minister of Finance will travel to Washington to attend the spring session of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Outside these meetings, Pierre Gramegna will have meetings with several of his counterparts.