Newsroom

14.05.2020 / ESG Rating

Blog

Blind Reliance on ESG Data and Rankings — The Seeds of the next Mis-selling Crisis?

In early 2019, a survey of financial advisers had already revealed serious misgivings over the possible mis-selling of products marketed to investors as ‘ESG friendly’. 97 of every 100 financial advisors in the United Kingdom (UK) had declared themselves as either “very” or “fairly” concerned about the potential for allegations of mis-selling ESG investments, according to market research firm Cicero.

07.05.2020

Blog

The Cloud and the future of finance

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of co-authoring a short article on the adoption of the Cloud in Financial Services with Professor Nelson Phillips of the Imperial College Business School. We conducted several interviews with senior leaders in financial services about their experiences of moving to the Cloud. It turned out to be such a captivating journey that Nelson and I are planning to continue along this path and turn it into a much more comprehensive piece of research.

16.04.2020 / Coronavirus

Blog

Never waste a good crisis: the strategic challenges of rapid cloud adoption in financial services

One dramatic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been the rapid acceleration in the digital transformation of organisations as much of the workforce has been suddenly forced to “WFH”. The ability of organisations to close physical offices and continue operating rests largely on various kinds of cloud services providing distributed, on-demand availability of data storage and computing.

16.04.2020 / LUXEMBOURG

News & Communication

Brexit for Luxembourg

Due to Brexit, financial institutions have been forced to reorganize and relocate their operations, leading to an overall increase in costs. These are caused by increased liquidity costs, more complex legal entity structures and regulatory reporting portfolios, especially in the banking sector. However, a handful of European cities have benefited from those implications.

15.04.2020 / English Language Webinar

Event

Regulatory Reporting: Meeting Supervisory Expectations

FROM 5.00 TO 6.00 P.M. CET

Join Avantage Reply for an interactive session to discuss a few handy tips from their Practical Guide on Regulatory Reporting released in March 2020, and to hear key insights from the industry experts in Europe and the UK on Regulatory Reporting.

JOIN US!

07.04.2020 / English Language Webinar

Event

Luxembourg outlook on Outsourcing: A Panel discussion

Join Avantage Reply and e*finance consulting Reply for a presentation and insightful discussion with our expert guest speakers focusing on regulatory practices on outsourcing in Luxembourg.

JOIN US!

30.03.2020 / Remote Working

Blog

How to maintain business productivity with hundreds of employees working from home

With Covid-19 wreaking havoc on business and the economy, the only ideal solution is to respect Government guidelines while continuing business as usual — from home. The problem is, how can an organisation, in particular a financial institution, give hundreds or thousands of employees secure access to the documents and applications required to work from home without disruption to service?

27.03.2020 / Homeworking

News & Communication

Homeworking: Managing today and preparing tomorrow

Today, a worldwide virus forced homeworking in our lives. But at Reply we strongly believed in homeworking’s multiple benefits long before this virus changed our lives and habits. We analyzed numerous combinations, turned them into models, identified how to implement it smoothly and developed a strong methodology supported by a network of highly skilled experts to roll it out fast and efficiently.

20.03.2020

Blog

IT & DevOps in Financial Services (The Phoenix Project)

If, like me, you have to interact with IT —and technology is vital for you or your clients — this excellent novel will enlighten your day-to-day work. The Phoenix Project was first published in 2013 and, in the fast-moving world of technology, one could view this book as ‘outdated.’ But no. The way it articulates the value of DevOps for organisations remains insightful. It remains useful. And it remains worth your attention. Of particular value is the presentation of the Three Ways — the principles from which all observed DevOps behaviours are derived.

19.03.2020

News & Communication

Worried about Regulatory Reporting? We have the solution

Mounting regulatory requirements and scrutiny have caused banks to worry about their regulatory reporting requirements. Avantage Reply has extensive knowledge and expertise on dealing with different regulatory reporting issues.

16.03.2020

Blog

It's all anyone is talking about...

It’s all anyone is talking about and, whilst I really wanted to write about something lighter, I was dragged back to the Reply Risk & Regulatory Academy, which has had the honour to run courses in Cambridge for many years. This led me to an incredible report published by the University there...

12.03.2020 / LUXEMBOURG

Event

Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC)

Sometimes, the hardest question a supervisor can ask of a firm is: Are you in control? Many firms are increasingly making use of Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) technology to answer this question, both to show that they are indeed, in control, and that they are taking active steps to improve the quality of the risk management process.

05.03.2020 / BRUSSELS

Event

Lessons learned from an IFRS17 project

Now that the development phase of IFRS 17 projects is almost over, it is time to look back and learn from our experience. Avantage Reply has the pleasure to invite you to a breakfast of reflexion, take stock of where the other players stand and share your experiences to avoid common pitfalls.

02.03.2020

Blog

Victor Hugo & the Green Swan: An Introduction to the threat of Climate Change on Financial Stability

There is something peculiar in the book released last January by the Bank for International Settlement and Banque de France, The Green Swan. The book builds on the concept of ‘black swans’ first introduced by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2007, but this time the swan is green. Green swans (or climate black swans), the authors argue, are extreme financially disruptive events resulting from climate-related risks.

26.02.2020

News & Communication

“The ECB is coming”: Let’s have compliant data for regulatory reporting!

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, which had shown that the capacity of banks to manage risks during "stress" periods was insufficient, the Basel Committee took the initiative to publish the BCBS 239 standard.

21.02.2020

Blog

The Laundromat Movie: Meryl Streep discusses Anti Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism Financing

Few realise just how corrosive the effects of Money laundering and the financing of terrorism are on society. That’s why, when we have the opportunity to assist our clients with their Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) initiatives, I find it exciting and rewarding.

14.02.2020

Blog

How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog: Applicability to Financial Services

I had just finished reading Chad Orzel’s bestselling book ‘How to teach quantum physics to your dog’ last week when my colleagues presented what is perhaps one of the first concrete applications of ‘quantum-inspired’ computing in European banking. Before I turn to that, allow me to share a few words on Orzel’s book and how it got me to think about quantum computing in financial services…

07.02.2020

Blog

ECB SREP 2019 - Key Challenges for Eurozone Banks

On 28 January 2020, the European Central Bank (“ECB”) held a press conference in Frankfurt on the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process 2019 (“SREP 2019”). It highlighted a number of interesting developments in the Eurozone. Allow me to share with you my key take-aways regarding the first three based on his remarks and the Question and Answer session that ensued.

05.02.2020

Blog

The difficult child of regulatory reporting

In this period of annual closing and maximum effort for all reporting teams, you will probably agree that there is one that is particularly daunting. I am of course talking about the Pillar 3 disclosures.