Investment Officer

Calls for the global alignment of sustainability reporting standards is being complicated by differences of views about which standards to back between those developed by the European Union and a competing private sector standard backed by the well-known IFRS accounting standards organisation.

Global financial services provider Apex Group Ltd announced on Thursday the close of its acquisition of Sanne Group plc, a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate services.

From 2 August 2022, a European Commission regulation comes into force (Commission Delegated Regulation 2021/1253 of 12 April 2021) as part of MiFiD II that requires providers of investment advisory and discretionary portfolio management services to collect specific information on their clients sustainability preferences. 

The providers are also required to “meet such preferences”, while at the same time meeting their investment objectives and taking into account their financial situation and experience.

The US Federal Reserve announced an expected 75 basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday evening. Inflation pain will now have to be carefully weighed against the threat of an economic recession. Equity markets reacted positively to the announced policy.  

The S&P added 2.68 percent and the Dow Jones gained almost 1.4 percent. European markets extended Wednesday’s gains in early trading. The Euro Stoxx 50 index traded 0.4 percent higher shortly after the opening.

Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest, on Thursday posted higher-than-expected earnings thanks to rising prices but warned that it sees risks in inflation, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in China.

The company posted EBITDA earnings of 5.16 billion dollars in the second quarter, up from 5.05 billion in the period a year earlier. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected earnings of 5.09 billion.

European bond funds experienced a fifth straight month of net outflows in May as inflation continued to rise and markets anticipated tightening of monetary policy in Europe and the United States, according to data on 29 countries posted by the European Fund and Asset Management Association, Efama. 

The Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative, a public-private body known as LSFI, has decided to create four new working groups to help the industry better come to grips with challenges posed by Environmental, Social and Governance issues.

Jersey-based management company Crestbridge said it has appointed Anne Catherine Grave as country head of Luxembourg. The firm has been active in the Grand Duchy since 2010.

Grave will be responsible for leading the business in the region and will provide administrative, accounting, reporting, residency, and governance needs to a broad range of fund structures. She will be based in Luxembourg. Grave has more than 20 years’ experience in the private equity and real estate sectors.

A European screening exercise of prospectus approvals that involved Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF has concluded that EU regulators need to be more efficient in their assessments and that more clarity needs to be provided on the use of  “additional criteria” that national supervisors apply.

Apex Group on Monday said it has been appointed to provide corporate, administrative and trustee services to the Nasdaq-listed Luxembourg platform of Eqonex Limited, a digital assets financial services company. Eqonex recently launched an Exchange Traded Note  in bitcoin on Frankfurt’s Xetra market.