"Dovetailing our business and our social commitment" Henri Reiter, Director, Banque de Luxembourg

Why does Banque de Luxembourg offer dedicated services for foundations?

We have been working with foundations for many years in many fields. We ourselves support a variety of projects through our patronage and sponsorship activities and are also very involved in developing a strong framework for philanthropy in Luxembourg. As a private bank, we work with trust founders from the inception of their projects through to fruition, and they benefit from access to our network of specialised philanthropy experts. We have a good understanding of the foundations world and the challenges they face. Our dedicated service for foundations, and our tailor-made asset management and investment fund expertise are a natural dovetailing of our business and our social commitment.

What is your conception of asset management for foundations?

Asset management is a pillar of the financial centre of Luxembourg – and of our bank. We don’t have a ‘miracle’ solution for foundations. Our philosophy – over and above our expertise in asset management – is to understand the needs of each of our clients so that we can provide long-term solutions. We offer foundations personalised asset management strategies which involves striking a balance between the need to preserve their endowment and the need to generate a better return in order to accomplish their missions. We do this by giving priority to long-term performance consistency over short-term gains that provide little transparency. We can also help foundations plan their schedules of revenue from capital to match their liquidity needs.

How does your investment fund expertise serve the interests of foundations?

Luxembourg is the leading European centre for investment funds. The figures speak for themselves: 25% of funds, in all categories, and nearly 30% of European mutual funds, are created in Luxembourg… But beyond the quantity, it is the diversity and flexibility of the structures that should be of interest to foundations. Two new vehicles, unique to Luxembourg – the SIF and the SICAR – would appear to be particularly relevant since they are ideal for financing social projects. Luxembourg is keenly attuned to investments that are not focused solely on performance but also have a responsible dimension, such as microfinance and SRI funds, which are particularly valued by foundations. For each foundation, we select the most appropriate funds, trying to match the investments and their missions. We recently conducted a survey on all the social finance companies in which it is currently possible to invest and are now in a position to offer our own SRI fund - BL-Equities Horizon - which is authenticated by Forum Ethibel and Vigeo.

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