We’re finishing a productive week at Investment Officer Luxembourg in terms of news stories, with surprisingly strong and growing interest from international readers.
Mike Gordon and I attended the ALFI - Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry 2022 Global Distribution Conference in Luxembourg and heard from a range of investment professionals about pressing issues in the industry, such as increasing appetite for alternative investments, the persistent complexity of sustainable finance and the clear need for investor education in the context of surging inflation and a slowing economy.
ALFI’s chair Corinne Lamesch spoke to us for an IO Talks podcast.
In terms of this week’s top stories, our news that the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) is preparing to revise its rules about NAV errors quickly became one of the best-read stories so far this year on Investment Officer Luxembourg. Judging from reactions we received, NAV errors are a serious challenge for the industry and regulators alike.
Stephen Evans’ article on an upcoming FATF inspection to Luxembourg on its measures against money laundering and terrorism finance also received a lot of reader love.
Unlike decades ago, Luxembourg nowadays is keen to maintain a high level of hygiene in the financial sector, as is made clear by finance minister Yuriko Backes and recent CSSF actions against companies like Maitland and Fuchs & Associés Finance, which both received compliance fines. Fuchs, whose fine equally roughly 5 percent of its 2021 revenue, said initially that by paying them, the problems were dealt with. But a closer look shows that Fuchs still has a lot of work to do.
Meanwhile CSSF, together with ABBL and the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative, presented the first-ever survey among the general public about sustainable finance. The main conclusion: education is required to get people on board and help them understand why these measures are necessary.
Good weekend!