Hana Balajkova
Award-winning fund and corporate services
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Company
Aztec Group Luxembourg
Position
Senior Manager
Senior Business Development Manager, Hana Balajkova, says the Aztec Group’s success can be attributed to its focus on delivering long-term stability and continuity for clients.
Tell us about the company?
Specialising in private equity, real assets and private debt, the Aztec Group is an independent provider of fund, corporate and depositary services to the alternative assets sector, employing more than 700 people across offices in Guernsey, Jersey, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. Administering over €270bn, 320 funds and 2,500 entities, the Group serves more than 160 leading investment managers and institutional investor clients.
Owner-managed, the Group has only ever grown organically, opening new offices in response to the evolving requirements of our client base. This unique business model, coupled with an employee retention rate of over 90%, has long provided stability and continuity for our clients. Relationship-led in our approach with extensive ongoing investment in leading-edge technology, we’re continually recognised among the industry’s leading service providers, winning 9 major industry awards in 7 years.
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How are your clients’ needs evolving and how do you adapt to transformation?
The legal and regulatory environment has changed and evolved to such a point that funds often need to be structured across multiple jurisdictions. This is something which our relationship-led service model has left us well-placed to deal with because whether a service is being delivered from one jurisdiction or several, the client will always have a single relationship team that works collaboratively and uses the same systems and processes.
The compliance and regulatory reporting requirements imposed on fund managers have also become increasingly burdensome. We’ve responded to this by embedding compliance professionals directly within the relationship management teams, meaning compliance matters can be dealt with on the front line rather than having to be referred to another department. In addition, we’ve also established a dedicated regulatory reporting team who proactively monitor and assess the impact of regulatory developments such as FATCA, CRS, GDPR or MIFID II on our clients, providing our relationship teams with guidance and advice.
What projects does cardif lux vie plan for the future, in luxembourg and internationally?
How do you stand out from the competition?
Our people are our most important asset and what we believe truly differentiates us in the market. Over the years, we’ve invested significantly in areas such as training and employee engagement, leading to A) 90% of our employees holding, or training towards, professional qualifications, and B) an unrivalled employee retention rate in excess of 90%. The advantages of this approach to the client is a qualified, stable and motivated team.
Our clients also benefit from our client-centric approach. What this means is rather than adopting the classic institutional model of building functions to support the client, where their point of contact may change day-to-day, we will build a team directly around them. This provides the client with continuity and consistency of service over the life of their fund.
As well as our ongoing investment in technology, we’re also ISAE 3402 Type II accredited and ISO 27001: 2013 certified, meaning that our clients can be confident we’ve got robust controls and processes in place both in respect of our operations and our approach to information security. Excelling in all of these areas is what delivers a market-leading proposition.
Facts&Figures
Birthday: 24/2/1983
Place of birth: Zlin, Czech Republic
Nationality: Czech
Languages: English, German, Spanish, Czech and working knowledge of French
Hobbies: Travelling, sports, hiking
My favourite
Cities: Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Cape Town
Restaurants: Japanese, Thai and a good Steakhouse
Places: The Andes and Thailand
Music: Contemporary, R&B, Latin
Artist: Art cannot be ranked...
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