The Luxembourg Alternative Administrators Association (L3A) is pleased to welcome Aztec Financial Services as a new Full Member.
Read this short interview of Peter Brown, Head of Luxembourg.
1) Can you outline the history and activity of your company in a few words?
Aztec Group was founded in 2001 with a strategy focused on providing a high-quality fund administration service to institutionally backed alternative fund managers. Today we partner with over 300 managers in Europe and the US, with over 2,000 colleagues across 6 jurisdictions. We remain owner-managed, which enables us to invest long term, and our inclusive and collaborative culture helps us attract some of the best talent in the industry. We have operated in Luxembourg since 2007, and now have over 650 colleagues, with 85% living in the Grand Duchy. We recently launched a new data services business, Lantern, and are also in the process of setting up an AIFM to further expand the range of services we offer to our clients.
2) You have recently decided to join L3A - what are the key reasons behind this?
Luxembourg is now our largest office, and key hub for us in supporting our increasingly global client base. Having benefitted from the considerable growth in the alternative funds industry here since AIFMD we would like to play a role in helping to shape a more sustainable, and digital alternative funds industry in the future. We believe working with L3A, our peers, and other local stakeholders is the best way to achieve that goal.
3) What do you believe you can offer to L3A and the alternative administrator provider ecosystem?
Given our scale, our diverse client base, and the depth of our industry knowledge and expertise, we believe we are now ready to play a much greater role in helping to shape a more sustainable alternative funds industry for the future. It’s part of our DNA to be the considered the bright alternatives, and that translates into us using our skills and knowledge, and working with partners in the L3A network, to address the challenges ahead. Regardless of whether that is in relation to digitalisation and tokenisation, the ever-changing regulatory environment, or attracting and retaining the best talent… the power of a network that tackles these challenges together will always be more impactful than individual efforts.
4) What do you see as the greatest opportunities offered by Luxembourg in the alternative administrator provider market? What are the main challenges to be tackled in order to capitalise on these opportunities?
Luxembourg remains the second largest funds domicile globally and continues to grow. While we are currently seeing activity slow there remains significant opportunity with US managers increasingly using the Grand Duchy as a route into European investors, the recent ELTIF 2.0 legislation opening up private assets to retail investors, and an increasing demand from fund managers and investors for more insight driven reporting to support decision making and cater for new areas such as ESG.
The current economic conditions will have a short term drag on growth but the biggest challenge in our industry remains finding and retaining talent in what is a very competitive market for people with increasingly complex and marketable skills. We are also seeing increasing desire for efficiency, with the opportunity to optimise and digitise our business models and utilise new technology such as AI and tokenisation to deliver a better client experience.