Asset Servicing

European Depositary Bank, a Luxembourg-based provider of banking, depositary and custody solutions part of the Apex Group, on Monday said it has been appointed by Mikro Kapital Management S.A., a Luxembourg-based alternative lender and a leading microfinance and sustainable investor in emerging markets, for the delivery of paying agent services for the firm’s new bond issuances.

Asset services provider Apex Group has announced a collaboration with BlackRock’s eFront to provide its ESG data consulting services to investors in private markets.

Plans by Paris-based Caceis to take over RBC Investor Services’ European business are raising redundancy fears among the firm’s 900 or so Luxembourg-based staff members in Belval.

FundRock, a Luxembourg-based third-party management company part of the Apex Group, said on Monday that it has expanded its relationship with UK-based fund manager Fundsmith to now include distribution services in Europe, particularly Italy.

In addition to existing ManCo services, FundRock’s distribution unit will now provide distribution services, enabling Fundsmith to distribute its funds in Europe. FundRock will provide specific resources and support to Fundsmith in the Italian market, the firm said.

HSBC has chosen Clearstream, Deutsche Börse’s Luxembourg-based post-trading service provider, as its global partner for administering investment fund activities for fund order routing, safekeeping, settlement and distribution support services.

​​​​​​​Ambitions to build on Luxembourg’s global hub status for investment funds to make this country a global fund distribution centre are being held back by differing national approaches on regulations as well as prudential rules, despite efforts to harmonise European legislation and the EU’s cross-border fund framework. 

Marking its first anniversary in Luxembourg, Warsaw-headquartered depositary services firm Q Securities on Wednesday said that it is aiming for 30 alternative funds as clients by this end of the year and 50 funds next year, up from the 20 it has onboarded in its first 12 months in the grand duchy.

Pictet Asset Services, the asset servicing business line of the Switzerland-based Pictet Group, has launched a new platform where its clients and asset managers can monitor ESG risk exposures.

The platform enables external asset managers and institutional clients to monitor their portfolios’ ESG risks with a detailed environmental, social and governance risk analysis as well as carbon and physical risk analysis.

Apex Group, a Bermuda-headquartered fund services provider with substantial operations in Luxembourg, has opened a new office in Stockholm from which it will service clients in the Nordics region. The firm also has announced it acquired the parent company of IIS and InvestNow  in New Zealand.

A reserved alternative investment fund registered in Luxembourg turns out to have played a central role in the 165 million euro financing of the Palazzo Marini, Bill Gates’ new six-star hotel in the centre of Rome, close to the Trevi fountain. The team that supported the deal from Luxembourg was at law firm Dentons, with European Capital Partners SA as AIFM.