Asset Servicing

Two of Luxembourg’s biggest asset services companies, Apex and Universal-Investment, have recently strengthened their client services teams.

Apex Group said on Monday it has been appointed by the NEOR Crypto Volatility Fund Ltd to provide it with administration and transfer agency services. The fund, registered with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, will be managed by Switzerland-based Eagle Eye Finance Sàrl, supervised by Swiss financial regulator FINMA.

FundRock, a unit of Apex Group, said on Tuesday that it will serve as in-house manager of the Premium Maritime Credit Fund, a new Luxembourg-based fund that first closed in January after raising 110 million dollars from European institutions and family offices.

Universal-Investment, the third-largest management company in Luxembourg, said on Tuesday that it has been appointed as the management company for the Luxembourg fund portfolio of Switzerland’s Fisch Asset Management. Increasing costs and regulatory requirements are mentioned as reasons for the transfer.

An alternative investment vehicle that relatively swiftly established itself in Luxembourg continued to become more popular last year, an analysis of data filed with the country’s business register shows. If growth continues at the current pace, Luxembourg will be home to more than 2,000 such funds, known as Raifs, by the end of this year.

Hopes are high in Luxembourg that the Grand Duchy this year will be able to claim a sizeable chunk of a growing European market for Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLOs), a structured financial product pooling corporate debts. With an update in its securitisation regime that allows active management Luxembourg wants to be competitive and seduce CLO managers from other countries, notably Ireland, to move their business. 

Investors are increasingly turning to alternative instruments for diversification, risk mitigation and to future-proof their returns, especially given today’s market conditions. This has resulted in surging interest in alternative investments from a wider variety of market participants, which is forcing the alternative asset servicing industry to adapt to new demands. 

A worldwide increase in regulation on client reporting and the need to provide better service to clients are driving asset managers to look hard at their client reporting objectives, according to a recent opinion article by Dominique Tomassoni, product strategy director for Digital/Client/Regulatory reporting solutions at NeoXam, a French financial software company.

Investment Officer Luxembourg recently had an opportunity to speak with Stephan Matti (pictured above), Group Head of Asset Servicing & Financial Intermediaries at Quintet Private Bank, about his role and the advantages of offering asset servicing and financial intermediary services from within an organisation that also has a large private banking operation.

How has pandemic affected the Luxembourg alternative fund sector? What is the shake out from Brexit? Has regulatory reform in Ireland increased competition for Luxembourg? What about crypto-asset funds? These questions and more were addressed at the “Global View on Alternative Investments 2021” webinar hosted earlier this month by US trade association NICSA in partnership with ALFI.