Asset Managers

Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF imposed a total of 4.3 million euro in fines on financial services companies in the Grand Duchy last year, less than the 6 million euro in fines issued in 2020. Most fines were imposed under laws preventing money-laundering and terrorism finance, according to CSSF’s 2021 annual report.

Degroof Petercam on Wednesday said it has strengthened its partnership with Swiss-based impact investor Quadia by participating in a capital increase. Financial details were not disclosed. 

Following the capital increase, Basel-based Hanaku AG becomes a new strategic shareholder next to Degroof Petercam. Hanaku is a net zero emission focused Swiss holding company specialised in energy transition through infrastructure and finance.

One month after the EU ordered the investment sector to ask clients for their sustainability preferences, investment firms appear to show limited enthusiasm for complying with the new requirements as complexity around the EU’s ESG rules persists and greenwashing fears linger.

Finland’s Mandatum Asset Management and fund services platform Universal Investment on Monday said they have launched a new open-ended Senior Secured Loan Fund for professional investors in Europe that will finance leveraged buyouts in Scandinavia and Europe. The fund is structured as a Luxembourg Raif and targets approximately one billion euro on the long term.

Eurozone small-cap equity funds cannot exactly count on warm interest from investors. The assets under management are considerably lower than for funds within the European small-cap category, for example. Moreover, investors have been withdrawing money from the funds on balance for years. This year, this waning interest will not change given the mediocre performance over the first seven months.

Luxembourg-based investment services provider IQ-EQ has named Shaun Geils as its global head of insurance.

Geils is stepping into a newly-created position intended to support IQ-EQ’s service offering from the firm’s London office in the United Kingdom.

The value of a currency is based on trust. The Russian sanctions have not helped the status of Western currencies. Yet crypto currencies also have difficulty escaping Western sanctions. The digital currency issued by China’s central bank, also known as the e-yuan, is succeeding. It may gradually gain market share from the dollar.

The financial sector will suffer significant declines if the climate transition does not proceed in an orderly fashion. Abrupt climate risk revaluations will hit banks, asset managers and insurers particularly hard.

Losses in financial markets due to abrupt climate risk revaluations can hit investment funds and insurers hard. It can lead to defaults by companies and cause credit losses for banks. If we fail to ensure an orderly green transition, the risks will spread quickly throughout the financial sector, with companies and banks most at risk.

Pauline Grange (Columbia Threadneedle) emphasises the opportunities that currently exist in the market to take advantage of European efforts to improve energy autonomy in Europe. 

Forty years ago this week the bull market started in the United States. Not just any bull market, but the biggest bull market ever. Despite the crash of 1987, the dotcom graveyard, the attacks of 11 September 2001, the Great Financial Crisis and the Covid pandemic, this bull market continued to rise, fuelled by structurally falling interest rates, higher valuations and sharply rising profits.

The Dow Jones bottomed forty years ago on 12 August 1982 at 777 points, the same level as in January 1964.