Investment Officer

A survey conducted among 300 investment institutions, including asset managers, asset owners and insurance firms, has found a mixed understanding of digital assets among investment professionals. The results point to different levels of readiness to using digital assets and investment technology.

Apex Group Ltd, a Bermuda-based global financial services provider with a well-established record of acquiring companies, has announced its successful acquisition of Brazil’s BRL Trust DTVM after obtaining full regulatory approval, according to a Tuesday press release.

Luxembourg’s financial regulator the CSSF announced last Friday afternoon that it had fined trust and corporate services provider Intertrust (Luxembourg) S.à r.l. nearly 200,000 euros at the end of last November for several failings. This included meeting professional obligations for IT risks as well as internal governance, the professional secrecy obligation and for required communication to the regulator. 

Responsible investment policies at two thirds of the world’s major asset managers, representing some 60 trillion dollars in assets under management, fall short of their objectives, leaving the firms with “serious gaps” in their practices, according to a report published by British NGO Shareaction.

A Luxembourg roundtable initiative that brought together public and private sector stakeholders with an interest in the economic recovery of Ukraine has evolved into becoming UkrainePlatform, a think tank focused on encouraging investments and developing the country’s economy.

Banks are vulnerable to damage from climate change, which could particularly affect their balance sheets and asset holdings. Banks in southern Europe are more vulnerable than average: they face increased physical risks for more than 60 per cent of their corporate loans. Transition risks mainly involve loans to carbon-intensive sectors, which are included in the portfolios of a limited number of banks.

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank will continue to hike their interest rates this month among broad and persistent signs of strong consumption and the “resilient nature” of economic activity, Guy Wagner, chief investment officer at BLI - Banque de Luxembourg Investments, said.

Financial supervisor CSSF has issued a fine of 1.56 million euros to the Luxembourg unit of Belgian bank Degroof Petercam after it found the firm to be in “non-compliance with its professional obligations” in regards to anti-money laundering measures.

Australian financial giant Macquarie is considering a bid worth more than 5 billion pounds (5.6 billion euro) for UK-headquartered fund manager and insurer M&G, which runs its non-UK European business from Luxembourg.

Schroders Capital on Wednesday said it has launched its first European Long-Term Investment Fund, or Eltif. The fund is called the Schroders Capital Private Equity Eltif 2023 and is classified as a ‘green’ Article 8 under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.

Schroders Capital Private Equity Eltif 2023 will focus on lower and mid-market private equity buyout and growth investments primarily in Europe but with the flexibility to allocate to non-European companies with high operating exposure to Europe, the firm said.