(Above) Nasir Zubairi, CEO of LHoFT; (below) Daniel Eischen, Chairman of BCC; Credit: Jazmin Campbell

The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) in Luxembourg held its second “Brits, Bites and Banter” informal networking event of its 30^th anniversary year on Wednesday evening on the premises of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT) in Luxembourg-Bonnevoie.

The event brought together about 50 BCC members to catch up and network over food and drinks in a relaxed setting before the summer break.

In his welcome speech, BCC Chairman Daniel Eischen began by thanking LHoFT for hosting the event and congratulating Luxembourg’s dedicated fintech centre on its 5^th anniversary, a milestone that was celebrated in the same venue just last Friday. Mr Eischen explained that the BCC wished to maintain this more relaxed community get-together, with a third “Brits, Bites and Banter” scheduled for later this year.

The BCC will continue to celebrate its 30^th anniversary after the summer break with a cricket event on 18 September and a leadership forum on 19 October, as well as the BCC Christmas Lunch on 9 December 2022, to name but a few. Daniel Eischen thanked those present for being there over the past six months, adding that he was optimistic that the next six months would be just as great.

Special guest speaker, Nasir Zubairi, CEO of LHoFT, reflected on another special anniversary: that of LHoFT, which was created in April 2017. “It has been an incredibly thrilling ride”, he said, adding that LHoFT currently hosts some 86 companies which are starting off in Luxembourg. Over the past five years, about 146 companies have come through LHoFT, which aims to help them to “accelerate as quickly as possible” but also at a personal level. He added that one of LHoFT’s goals was to bring together the international community as well as facilitating closer ties internationally.

Mr Zubairi also highlighted LHoFT’s three core areas on which it will focus over the next five years: talent and education; environmental, social and governance (ESG) in the broad sense (sub-divided into three pillars: financial inclusion / microfinance; gender and diversity; sustainable finance); creating utilities for Luxembourg’s financial sector. He stated: “Luxembourg is losing its edge a little bit”, adding that it had become increasingly difficult to “sell” traditional finance to the world – creating centralised utilities, for example, could help in this regard. He concluded that LHoFT has been given a mandate to work on these core areas and to “ensure Luxembourg doesn’t lose all its glitter”, but that it all depends on the involvement of the community.