Spuerkeess and the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) announce a new partnership focused on exploring the potential of decentralised finance (DeFi).

Technology enables banks and their clients to build a trusted service relationship in a purely virtual environment. It is a tool for customers who are looking for both innovation and trust when they reach out for, for example, crypto assets. Furthermore, technology plays a crucial role when it comes to reducing operational costs, especially in a realm of an increasingly complex regulatory environment. The industry relies heavily on the trusted exchange of data. In this context, DeFi based concepts enable new ways for back-office operations to be executed automatically.

The partnership represents a deep dive into innovative financial technology (FinTech) and the scale of the research involved is set to have a clear impact on Spuerkeess customers of all classifications. As highest rated financial institution in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Spuerkeess wants to set a standard in the market.  While at the same time SnT has an equally strong track record in the FinTech research space with more than 20 similar partnerships, seven teams that conduct research in the field.

The extensive collaboration will include four projects all looking into how DeFi, and the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that it is based off, can be integrated into Spuerkeess’ business. Key topics include the metaverse, crypto-assets, NFTs and the mutualization of back-office operations based on DLT, all areas of expertise for SnT researchers.

“Spuerkeess’ real-world data and SnT’s expertise in these cutting-edge financial technologies is a powerful combination. When scientific research is guided by real-world applications we see true impact, and this is sure to be one of those cases,” said Professor Stéphane Pallage, rector of the University of Luxembourg.

“SnT is enthusiastic to be embarking on a new chapter with our long-time partner Spuerkeess. The four projects represent our emboldened vision for our work in FinTech and with Luxembourg’s largest sector,” explained Prof. Björn Ottersten, director of SnT.

“This collaboration is a key part of our digital innovation strategy and gives us the chance to collaborate and benefit from the expertise of SnT on the subject of DLT,” added Christophe Medinger, deputy head of business unit digitalisation at Spuerkeess.

“Spuerkeess is investing in, and contributing to practical research, on a technology that is redefining the world of finance by studying and experimenting with practical use cases for our Bank and the Financial Centre," concluded Françoise Thoma, Chief Executive Officer of Spuerkeess.