Investment Officer

A total of 30 new Reserved Alternative Investment Funds, or Raifs, were added to the Luxembourg Business Register during March 2023, down from 40 in the same month a year earlier. During the first quarter, 15 percent fewer Raifs were registered than in the same period last year.

As inflation has started to normalise, many market observers have started to find bond markets attractive again. Yields have risen to their highest levels in over a decade. Corporate debt has recovered, making bond investors comfortable after years of bad returns.

As many as 70% of the ETFs touted as the most sustainable in their class by the fund companies that offered them have been downgraded in one year. Rather than aiming for sustainable investment, passive funds were found to incorporate only one ESG factor.

Alternative investments strategies relying on limited bank financing appear to be well-placed to profit from the current crisis of confidence in the banking sector. And despite EU regulatory measures to deal with greenwashing, ESG products are seeing increased demand.

Tensions in the banking sector increase the likelihood of a recession during the year, according to chief investment officer Guy Wagner at asset manager BLI - Banque de Luxembourg Investments.

Nevertheless, prior to the onset of the banking turmoil, the resilience of the global economy was still in evidence, with service activities continuing to benefit from robust household demand due to continued full employment in most countries, Wagner and his team said in their latest monthly market report.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Monday said it expects managers of Liability Driven Investment funds, also known as LDI funds, to maintain yield buffers set last year at levels introduced to make these funds resilient to the UK Gilts crisis.

Global asset manager Columbia Threadneedle Investments on Monday said it has appointed Jill Griffin to the newly created role of head of Luxembourg. She will report to David Logan, global chief operating officer.

Fund and corporate services firm Alter Domus is making possible “vastly reduced” commuting times for its large staff through the opening of two new satellite offices located near Luxembourg’s borders with France and Germany, as part of its “ongoing commitment to flexible working arrangements.”

The two new offices are located in the border towns of Steinfort and Frisange, and are “intended for Alter Domus employees travelling in from Belgium and France, respectively,” according to an undated press release sent to Investment Officer on Thursday.

This Luxembourg edition of IO Talks hears about the ambitions of Waystone Management Company’s newly appointed Luxembourg CEO Denis Harty. 

Financial supervisor CSSF on Thursday said it has imposed a fine of 178,600 euro on European Depository Bank SA, a unit of Apex Group.

A 2021 on-site inspection by the CSSF looked into the firm’s IT risks and found “infringements” relating to internal governance and IT organisation, IT outsourcing and IT risk management, the supervisor said.