Laws and Regulations

Sanctions imposed on companies and individuals in Russia and Belarus have triggered concerns that crypto-currencies offer an escape route to circumvent them. Insiders argued that these concerns are unjustified, although crypto sceptics argue that “we should not be naive”.

Tech advisory and investment firm GP Bullhound on Monday said it is opening an Luxembourg office after the national supervisor gave a green light to application for a licence as Alternative Investment Fund Manager, or AIFM. In parallel to the Luxembourg launch, the company is opening a new office in Zurich.

The popularity of digital assets will lead to significant changes for the financial industry, including within the area of asset custody. Today’s global custody industry goes back to regulatory changes in the 1970s. Digital assets, the most well-known being Bitcoin, differ in several ways from traditional assets, including the role of information technology, specifically of private key management, which will be accompanied by potential regulatory differences.

Although there is some room for improvement, liquidity risks in corporate debt and real estate investment funds do not pose any substantial risk for financial stability, the EU’s top financial securities markets regulator said on Wednesday.

Luxembourg has frozen some 2.5 billion euro in Russian assets, mostly held in shares, bonds and bank accounts, as part of the international sanctions against Russia, its finance minister told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

The frozen funds relate to sanctions that have been imposed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February and do not consider sanctions that existed beforehand, the minister said. 

Digital assets are the talk of the Luxembourg financial centre and across Europe, with Mairead McGuinness, the European commissioner for financial services emphasising how the financial sector digitalisation can provide better access to products and services. New regulation is on the way to allow providers to build up the trust they need to overcome the negative publicity that has been attached especially to cryptocurrencies. 

Companies active in Luxembourg are at the forefront of harnessing digital assets in service of the financial industry. 

The Luxembourg fund industry was given its ESG marching orders last week by CSSF CEO Claude Marx at the Alfi European Asset Management conference. “I am sometimes irritated by those who over inflate small issues or imperfections in this area,” he said.

Even as limited trading resumed on Moscow’s exchange on Thursday, prospects for emerging market funds exposed to Russia remained cloudy as determining accurate asset values continued to be nearly impossible. Fund managers now await guidance from financial supervisors before taking next steps on suspended funds.

Luxembourg is discussing the innovative use of a particular liquidity management tool known as “side pockets” in order to deal with the suspensions of investment funds with significant exposure to Russia.

The UK has taken a further cautious step towards the permanent regime which will govern access to its market for EU-based Ucits funds. This came with the introduction of regulations establishing the Overseas Funds Regime (OFR) on 23 February. This gives a clearer but still incomplete picture of how Luxembourg-based retail funds could access UK-based investors over the long term.