Raymond Frenken

The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma), the EU’s securities markets regulator based in Paris, said on Tuesday that it continues to see high risks to institutional and retail investors of further, possibly significant, market corrections. 

Supervisors ESMA and EIOPA are “closely monitoring” cyber risks in Europe’s asset management industry amid concerns that rising tensions over Ukraine may spark Russian-backed cyber attacks on Europe’s economic infrastructure.

A leading German economist on Monday urged investors not to exaggerate financial risks around a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying an invasion would merely lead to a “temporary setback” while underlining the need to put the Russia risk into perspective.

“All in all, we would expect the European economy and markets to rebound shortly afterwards from a temporary setback which a Russian attack on the Ukraine would probably cause,” said Holger Schmieding, Chief economist at German private bank Berenberg. “Let’s hope it does not come to that.”

The financial sector needs to pay more attention to human rights in its activities, especially in its supply chains, a Luxembourg NGO said in a report it presented this week. Industry representatives said the criticism does not yet fully consider new legal requirements that recently entered into force.

The Chambre des Députés, Luxembourg’s parliament, on Wednesday approved a long-awaited modernisation of the Grand Duchy’s securitisation law that will enable fund managers to actively manage pooled debts such as corporate loans and mortgages.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management is stepping up its use of artificial intelligence in order to identify companies that provide solutions in the fight against climate change and loss of biodiversity. The US asset manager wants to use AI to find between 50 and 100 companies in which investors can invest through its climate solutions fund.

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands has called on European financial supervisors to review financial services for their health impact and urged the banking, payments and investment industries to do more to make sure that their clients make well-informed decisions.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Thursday declined to rule out a hike in interest rates this year as costs of living in the eurozone are rising faster than expected. Lagarde said the March and June meetings of the ECB’s governing council will assess an updated analysis that takes into view the larger than expected inflation increases reported during recent weeks. 

The EU braces for a legal battle over plans to label nuclear energy and gas as sustainable transition fuels. Luxembourg and Austria are preparing steps to have the proposed delegated act annulled.

FundRock, a unit of Apex Group, said on Tuesday that it will serve as in-house manager of the Premium Maritime Credit Fund, a new Luxembourg-based fund that first closed in January after raising 110 million dollars from European institutions and family offices.