Dossier Luxembourg for Finance, Luxembourg's disaster recovery solutions

Magazine | MARCH / april 2015

Dossier Luxembourg, your European platform Why international banking groups choose Luxembourg Luxembourg as your gateway to Europe: The RBC experience More than 30 years of welcoming Islamic finance to Luxembourg International real estate investments: on solid ground in Luxembourg Luxembourg’s disaster recovery solutions Framing the future of corporate governance

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Luxembourg | Luxembourg’s disaster recovery solutions

Luxembourg’s disaster recovery solutions Hedging itself against a range of threats, going from market to operational risks, Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), Kuwait based and GCC owned institution, has chosen the Luxembourg company EBRC (European Business Reliance Centre) as its outer-regional Disaster Recovery site. EBRC is the only company in the world operating three Uptime Institute certified Tier IV data centres.

LFF talked with Shawki Khalaf, Senior Vice President, Head of Operations Division and Global Markets Support Area at GlCKuwait, until late 2014 and Jerry Probst, International Business Development Manager at EBRC about the factors that make Luxembourg an international recovery business centre.

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The financial institution GIC has been the first development investor formed with the aim to foster economic growth, diversification and capital markets development across the GCC region. It has been an innovator through its development of GCC financial markets, including the introduction of the first GCC stock and bond mutual funds.

Currently owning two Disaster Recovery sites in the Gulf region, Kuwait as a local site and Bahrain as a regional branch office, GIC soon considered the opening of a third disaster recovery site outside the Middle East as a necessity.

“With the so-called Arab Spring, the potential risks have become applicable to all countries in the Middle East. The whole purpose of the Disaster Recovery site was to enable GIC to function in a peaceful and secured environment, which was perceived as impossible in the Middle East”, points out Shawki Khalaf.

After considering several countries, among which Germany and the UK, Luxembourg soon became the best option answering the team’s criteria.

“Luxembourg came as a viable option during our assessment because of its regulator’s reactivity, its state-of-the-art infrastructure, its financial centre’s international reputation in domiciliation and administration of UCITS funds and the support it received by clients. So, all those elements produced in the end a positive picture of Luxembourg”, says Khalaf.

“I also believe that we sensed the level of expertise of Luxembourg as an international financial centre. We visited Frankfurt and some other financial centres, and we observed that many of these places used Luxembourg as a regulator for their funds”, he adds.

State-of-the-art-infrastructure

"Luxembourg's strong reputation for service availability and high-level connectivity make it a European leader in ICT services and is well-positioned to serve as a leading international Disaster Recovery site."

Jerry Probst International Business Manager, EBRC

After choosing Luxembourg as the location for their Disaster Recovery Solution, GIC identified EBRC, a Luxembourg-based specialist in business continuity, as the operator of the project. With an experience of more than 1000 disaster recovery tests carried out over the last years, the company offers services ranging from data protection to shared management of IT platforms and operates via three Tier IV certified Data Centres with spaces where its clients can immediately resume their activities in the event of a “catastrophe” scenario.

“The main challenge is to guarantee local clients they will be served within two hours, even in case of a nationwide disaster. When it comes to international clients, each company brings its own challenges such as travel times, transportation, Visas and accommodation for the employees”, explains Jerry Probst.

Benefiting from the PSF (Financial Sector Industry Professional) status, EBRC meets the requirements of the financial centre regulator, the CSSF, and is therefore allowed to operate ICT services for banks, financial institutions and investment fund companies. To fully serve their banking clients, the company is also equipped with trading rooms to ensure the continuity of their trading activities.

“The government support to all institutions working to make Luxembourg an international DR site, the use of EBRC by some of the key European institutions and the fact that it was a Tier IV endorsed institution were obvious criteria to choose Luxembourg”, points out Khalaf.

Totalising 40% of Tier-IV data centres in Europe, the highest security specification, Luxembourg boasts one of the highest data centre densities in the world and one of the most modern data centre parks in Europe with low latency connections to all of the major European Internet hubs and a focus on green energy sources. These elements combined with Luxembourg’s reputation in data protection and culture of trust forms the perfect combination with which to attract financial institutions to locate their Business Recovery site in Luxembourg.

“Luxembourg’s strong reputation for service availability and high-level connectivity make it a European leader in ICT services and is well-positioned

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Class of 2013/14 Singapore

to serve as a leading international Disaster Recovery site. Luxembourg responds to issues and stakes related to the hosting and to the management of sensitive information and is increasingly seen as an international centre to mitigate risks. Being well insulated from natural disaster such as flooding and earthquakes and as a member of the EU and Schengen zone, Luxembourg offers serenity for business continuity strategies”, says Probst.

Bright future “We are now moving to the live testing phase of the project to see the functioning of the business activities. It includes carrying out actual deals of Treasury Money markets with live transactions and fund transfers carried out of Luxembourg and the testing between the SWIFT payments and the mainframe computer. In other words, if an emergency develops unexpectedly, GIC can function smoothly out of Luxembourg. Everything is in line with our expectation and I am persuaded that the decision that we made represents our vision", says Khalaf.

Today, banks, financial institutions and investment funds are still the main users of Business Continuity services, but other businesses in other sensitive sectors are following.

“In terms of technology, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Cloud Computing will play a major role in the future of Business Continuity services.

Anticipating that evolution, EBRC created in early 2011 "TrustedCloupEurope", a reliable Cloud solution to give clients a readable offer in terms of governance, risk mitigation and compliance. With that service, Luxembourg is already well prepared for that evolution”, concludes Probst. OB

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Shawki Khalaf Former Senior Vice President, Head of Operations Division and Global Markets Support Area (GlC-Kuwait)