Core to our contribution to society is the value we bring to our clients and the opportunity we provide to our People.
The fiscal year 2021, spanning from July 2020 to June 2021, has been in all dimensions a very abnormal year. PwC, like the whole business community, has settled into remote working and virtual business conduct for the largest part of its activity. Our financial year was marked by four major business trends materialising throughout the year:
Significant acceleration in digital transformation
The use of digital solutions to maintain a proper ‘business as usual’ was the challenge at the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Now, this has evolved into a strong shift towards digital service practices, based on a higher acceptance of virtual/digital solutions by clients as well as the advent of new key success factors for every business: value creation through digital experience. This acts as a booster to the focus that many clients already had on technology-driven transformation projects.
Market evolution towards ‘Alternatives’
The rise of the so-called private markets, i.e. private equity, real estate, private debt and infrastructure investments has been marking the financial center for many years. Now, we observe the start of a ‘next level’ state in this evolution. All major asset managers, traditionally focused on UCITS funds, as well as all major wealth managers, propose private market solutions to their investors. This is coupled with public-private partnership initiatives to fund major infrastructure investments such as the ‘energy shift towards renewables’. Alternatives has been a major growth area and will remain the driver for the asset management, asset servicing and corporate banking in Luxembourg. The capital to “repair the world” is available in the private markets, the governments’ role will be to create positive ROI conditions for the deployment of that capital, notably through giving long-term investment visibility as in the case of the shift to electrical energy source.
Business relevance of ESG ('double materiality')
The political, societal and regulatory shift towards a recognition of ESG risks and ESG indicators has been put into practice over the last 12 months. 2022 will be a major year of implementation with the EU Taxonomy and related changes not only impacting our clients, but also PwC as a corporate and professional services provider. PwC has taken up this challenge and is actively assisting its clients in the change with dedicated advisory services and a re-cast of our core assurance services to address the new sustainability standards.
Transformation and role of the public sector
The public sector will be key to accompany and set the frame for the future evolution of our society, in partnership and trustful collaboration with the private sector. This entails that the role of the public sector is likely to be enhanced, but it also involves significant transformation and upskilling requirements. Otherwise, it will be difficult to meet the citizens’ expectations and (re)build the trust in our public institutions which underpins our liberal democracies.
Financial figures
Financially, we have secured excellent growth across our businesses - landing at a remarkable 5.8 % growth in our top-line.
Our Industries
Because our clients have very different needs, our teams are organised around five major industries: Alternatives, Asset and Wealth Management (AWM), Banking, Industry & Public Sector (IPS) and Insurance.
Our Lines of services
The services we provide are bundled across three Lines of Service: Assurance, Tax and Advisory, which are supported by our Internal Firm Services (Infrastructure, IT, Compliance, Marketing & Communications, Client Relationships & Sales, Market Research, Knowledge Management, to name a few of these support services).
