Welcome to Financial Services: What's up? Podcast – your go-to destination for unravelling the mysteries of the financial services sector in Luxembourg and beyond.
In this dynamic series, co-hosts Björn Ebert and Sandra Paulis navigate the complexities of the financial sector with a focus on Asset Management, Banking and Capital Markets as well as Insurance.
Whether you're a seasoned professional or a newcomer, our mission is to provide timely insights into the ever-evolving landscape of financial services, offering specialist analysis, diverse perspectives, and the latest information on pressing industry topics.
Join us for in-depth discussions, specialist interviews, and actionable strategies that go beyond the surface, aiming to enhance your knowledge and contribute to continuous learning and development.
Broken pipes, rising costs: the Infrastructure challenge in Asset Management
Everyone wants AI. The data foundation to support it is another story. In this episode, Sandra and Björn are joined by Declan Byrne, PwC Asset & Wealth Management Global Assurance Leader, and Dariush Yazdani, PwC Global AWM Market Research Centre Leader, for a sneak preview of a new global survey of 150 asset managers and 50 infrastructure providers. The verdict? The industry doesn't have a technology problem, it has a connectivity problem. And it's costing them.
From the 68% cost-to-income ratio that hasn't budged in eight years, to the $44 billion spent annually on market data (what they call a "tax on fragmentation"), to the build/buy/partner decisions that will define the next decade, this episode gets into the infrastructure questions that most people skip straight past on their way to talking about AI.
1 Jul 2026
The Manco Barometer: decoding Luxembourg's Management Company landscape
Luxembourg now counts 289 management companies, and that number is shrinking. Not because the market is losing steam (AuM just hit 6.3 trillion euros), but because the rules of the game have changed. Cost pressure, tougher regulation and the rise of private-equity-backed third-party Mancos are pushing smaller players to merge, specialise, or hand the keys to someone else.
Sandra and Björn sit down with Laurent Buttice, Partner at PwC Luxembourg, to go through the freshly released Manco Barometer, the survey covering nearly 90% of Luxembourg's fund assets. They get into why Mancos are consolidating, what's driving the private equity rush into the third-party space and how Luxembourg stacks up against Ireland, France and Germany.
13 May 2026
What will be left of Financial Services tomorrow?
Financial services are being reshaped by faster capital flows, the rise of private markets in retail, and increasing pressure on traditional business models. In a multi‑shock world, firms are being forced to rethink how they create value and how they stay relevant.
In this episode, Sandra and Björn are joined by Roland Kastoun, Asset and Wealth Management Advisory Leader at PwC US, to explore how global capital movements, pensions, distribution models and technology are transforming the asset and wealth management industry, and what this means for the future ownership of the client.
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