LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of America has appointed former BNP Paribas banker Benoît Nevoet as manager of a newly created Luxembourg branch as the US lender looks to grow its business in Europe, a senior Bank of America executive told Reuters. .
Opening a branch in the small but wealthy country would mean Bank of America could help customers such as investment funds with local bank accounts and other services, according to the US lender’s global transaction services unit for Europe, the Middle East and the Middle East. Chief Matthew Davis said. Africa.
Davis told Reuters that Bank of America is primarily focused on bringing existing customers served by a partner bank to its new branch in Luxembourg.
“Then we will start adding new customers, bringing the demand for us to around 100 units per month,” he said.
He said customers would include large corporates, investment funds and other non-bank financial companies.
Davis said the US bank is also hiring a dedicated money laundering reporting officer as well as an initial handful of other support staff in functions such as compliance, risk and legal to support the Luxembourg branch.
In 2019, the International Monetary Fund listed Luxembourg, a tiny EU state of just 600,000 people, as a world-leading tax haven, attracting as much foreign direct investment as the United States.
Its investment fund industry was branded a financial “black box” in 2021, according to an investigation published in February 2021 that helps people launder illegal money and avoid tax, the findings of which were rejected by the EU nation was rejected.
Bank of America’s transaction services business accounts for about 10% of the lender’s total revenue, helping large multinational corporations with routine but important products such as making payments and managing their cash.
(Reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Mark Potter)
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