Episode 10 - Nazir Zubairi
In this episode I sit down with Nazir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT Foundation, a Public/Private sector initiative to drive fintech and digitalisation for Luxembourg's financial services industry.
Guests
Show notes
In this episode I sit down with Nazir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT Foundation, a Public/Private sector initiative to drive fintech and digitalisation for Luxembourg's financial services industry. Nazir has multiple years of experience in fintech in many countries across the world, and honestly I was amazed the first time we sat down together to talk about everything he did in his career.
Recently nominated among the 100 most influential people in Luxembourg, Nazir had multiple roles in some very interesting financial institutions in the past. From Kredinet to RBS, from EuroTRX to Currency Cloud, passing also through Finleap and the international monetary fund.
With him, we will speak about the overall fintech market in Europe, on what is missing in our ecosystem compared to the US, but also about why he doesn’t like the term “fintech” and the upcoming challenges in this industry.
In this episode
Nazir Zubairi, head of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, traces a career from building risk models at Reuters and interbank trading at EBS to running an algorithmic trading desk at RBS, founding and selling a trade-receivables exchange, and helping launch Solaris at Finleap. He explains why he dislikes the words fintech and disruption, why the biggest innovation now comes from developing markets without legacy infrastructure, and why he doubts Europe can catch up with the US and Asia given regulation and risk aversion.
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction: why not "fintech"
- 2:44From Reuters to EBS
- 5:21Building an algorithmic trading desk at RBS
- 7:33Leaving banking for business school
- 12:21The SME pricing gap
- 14:22Founding EuroTRX
- 16:37Currencycloud and Finleap
- 20:48People first: the obituary question
- 22:42Moving to Luxembourg and the LHoFT
- 24:22Evolution, not disruption
- 28:25Where innovation comes from
- 32:45Can Europe catch up?
- 35:30Regulation, MiCA and the AI Act
- 37:30Risk aversion and European VC
Key facts
Nazir runs the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT) and deliberately avoided "fintech" in its name.
Nazir has lived and worked in nine countries and spent about 27 years in finance and financial technology.
EBS, the interbank foreign exchange trading system, processed about $220 billion and 130,000 trades a day.
EBS had about 180 people and roughly $600 million in annual revenue and was sold in 2006 for $659 million.
At RBS Nazir set up a high-frequency foreign exchange desk staffed with astrophysicists, which became the largest FX trading desk globally.
SMEs pay eight to ten pips on foreign exchange where large corporates pay about half a pip, and banks charge 16% or more for invoice finance.
Nazir founded EuroTRX, a trade-receivables exchange, around 2011 and sold it after about 18 months to a Dutch government subsidiary.
Nazir was director of product marketing at Currencycloud, then joined Finleap in Berlin, where Solaris was his business case; about 12 companies were launched in 18 months.
Nazir defined Luxembourg's fintech strategy for Luxembourg for Finance before being asked to run the LHoFT.
The LHoFT once staged a "Fintech Fight Club" in which bankers and fintech founders boxed at a conference.
"Disruption" is a negative word; financial technology is evolution, and collaboration between banks and startups will keep increasing.
The greatest financial technology innovation now comes from Africa, Southeast Asia, India and Latin America, because they have no legacy infrastructure.
Europe is unlikely to catch up with the US or Asia: by market value it has produced one $100 billion company in 50 years, SAP.
MiCA is a genuinely positive regulation, while the EU AI Act is misguided and already obsolete.
European investors are too risk-averse, over-diligence early deals and lack funds big enough for late-stage rounds.
Questions and answers
Why avoid the word fintech?
It was built for venture capital marketing and created an "us versus them" divide with traditional finance.
Why is innovation strongest in developing markets?
Without legacy infrastructure they can adopt new systems directly, as with instant payments.
What does Nazir ask in interviews?
To write your own obituary: what do you want to be remembered for?