Investment Officer

The investment landscape of 2023, despite intermittent periods of market volatility and uncertainty, ultimately emerged as a fruitful year for global equity investors. The MSCI World index, denominated in euros, delivered a commendable 19.6% return, culminating in a year that left equity investors with a sense of accomplishment.

This week’s overview of transfers, appointments, promotions, and other people news includes updates from Quintet, Governance.com, Waystone, Crestbridge and PwC Luxembourg.

The latest quarterly report from Efama, the European Fund and Asset Management Association, shows that the global investment fund industry witnessed a slight decrease in net assets, dropping by 0.2 percent in euro terms to 64.33 trillion euro in the third quarter of 2023. This trend was mirrored in US dollar terms with a 2.7 percent decline. 

Deloitte Luxembourg on Monday said it has acquired the fintech practice of Alto Advisory for an undisclosed amount per 1 January 2024. Alto offers software services for depositaries, transfer agents and fund managers.

Yoan Jagoury (photo), Alto founder and its former CEO, has since joined Deloitte Luxembourg as a director.

Luxembourg’s financial sector continues to rely heavily on outsourcing services. A survey, conducted by PWC among 342 top executives and operational heads in the financial sector, found that a remarkable 90 percent of them engage in outsourcing activities.

Geneva-based investment house Edmond de Rothschild has agreed to sell its third-party asset servicing operations based in Luxembourg to Apex Group, a global financial services provider. This move is a part of Edmond de Rothschild’s strategy to narrow its focus on private banking and asset management, divesting from certain non-core business activities. 

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Higher interest rates, the pace at which central banks will cut rates, a possible recession and regulations on sustainability and digitalisation. In their expectations for 2024, Investment Officer experts and columnists name these as the key themes. 

In the line-up below, our columnists and knowledge experts tell what challenges they expect within their field for the coming year. Which immediately answers the question about which topics you can expect contributions from them in 2024.

Outsourcing, kickback fees, alternative investments, ESG challenges and competition with Ireland were among the topics of the most popular columns published on Investment Officer Luxembourg in 2023.

This year’s overview of the most read articles on Investment Officer Luxembourg demonstrates that readers are highly attracted to articles about financial regulation and supervision of investment funds and management companies in the Grand Duchy.

In 2024, the investment landscape will evolve with fixed income markets rebounding, equity markets diversifying beyond the ‘Magnificent Seven’, and private markets favouring operationally robust mid-market firms.

Investment Officer has previewed 2024 with specific articles looking at fixed income, at equities and at private markets: