Savenay has worked in the banking industry for 27 years. “I have always, throughout my career, sought to combine commercial and managerial functions. I like sales and customer relations, I like working with employees, and I also like taking on more strategic missions such as change management. All of those since the first day I started working in a bank. I actually started as director of a small Bacob Bank branch in Belgium.”
Savenay ended up as a regional director at Bacob Bank, before moving under the Dexia banner, then Belfius where he reached the position of director of sales and investment strategy services.
“It was when I was at Dexia that I started to be interested in the Luxembourg market. I had many contacts with the people at [Banque Internationale à Luxembourg] which at that time was also part of the Dexia group. It has always been a dream of mine to work in Luxembourg, to have an international career.” In 2014 Savenay took the plunge. “Marc Lauwers, who was vice president and COO of [the private bank KBL] asked me to manage all the commercial projects of the group. I arrived as head of strategic and commercial project management with responsibility for transforming the bank’s commercial policy.” In 2017, his career took a detour across the Moselle. Responsible for strategic and commercial transformation in Germany from January 2017, he took over as head of Merck Finck Privatbankiers, Quintet’s German branch, in December 2020.
He held the position until February 2021, the date of his appointment as head of Quintet Luxembourg.
Growth strategy
His mission in this role is to ensure that the long-term growth strategy launched in 2019 runs smoothly. It is a strategy which combines growth in the different markets where the bank is present--that is to say in addition to the grand duchy, “our home market”, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, UK, Switzerland and Nordic countries--and Luxembourg’s central role as a common platform from which various services are delivered in both wealth management and asset services. “Luxembourg’s reputation, as well as the competence of its bankers, are recognised around the world. This is an asset for our growth. It’s up to me to ensure that Luxembourg is up to the task of delivering these services.”
Growth is also now sought by the Quintet group in the Nordic countries, a region that many now consider to be a new El Dorado. “This is a huge field of opportunity for us. There are a lot of entrepreneurs and capital out there who are very interested in using the skills found in Luxembourg.” To capitalise on this rising tide, Quintet opened a branch in Copenhagen last October. “This is a really important market for us that we intend to invest a lot in. Which does not mean that we are going to neglect the other markets. They are all important to us and we will continue to invest in them in the same way.”
Savenay says the network is the strength of the group, “the differentiating element in the face of competition”, whether it comes from players in private banking or other sectors currently undergoing strong development such as multi-family offices or private equity firms. “We are a network bank with cross-border skills and local contacts. We have real expertise in our local markets that we can put to the service of our customers, including international ones.”
The covid crisis has complicated daily tasks at the bank. But that didn’t stop them from moving forward. “Despite the pandemic, we made the bet to strengthen our teams. We recruited 12 new sales representatives in Luxembourg, who were able to attract 600 new customers in one year. In a difficult time like this, it is an admirable result.”
Moving post-pandemic
On a day-to-day basis, the bank obviously had to adapt. “We went through the crisis like all the other banks, I believe. It was a hectic time, but we were able to deal with it in a very effective way. We have always put the health and wellbeing of our employees and customers at the top of our priorities. Thanks to our business continuity plans, our staff were able to automatically, from one day to the next, work from home and continue to serve our clients and meet their expectations. And there were many. The volume and intensity of the contacts were higher than before. It could be seen that people were worried. Taking the time to listen to them and reassure them is the role of the private banker. It’s even a differentiator. The more proactive we are at such times, the more we forge bonds of trust.”
Savenay thinks that “we are now entering a new phase: we have to start preparing for a return to normal, or rather a new normal. People are tired of not having physical contact, of being at home and of seeing work and private life merging into one.” Preparing for the shift requires “taking into account the health and wellbeing of our customers and our employees”, as well as new investments in digitalisation. During the pandemic, clients--“and even the most resistant, those who insisted on having only physical contact”--learned to use digital tools to maintain contact. And this will create, Savenay reckons, new behaviors. “Clients who visited us several times a year will now want to limit these trips. It’s good for the planet. This is a positive development to be credited to covid.”
But this will create an unexpected challenge for private bankers: that of preserving the personal links which are essential to forge bonds of trust between the client and the banker. “In our business, physical contact is still very important. The profession of private banker is not a profession that can be fully digitised.” Finding the right balance between digital and physical will be a real challenge for the months and years to come.