Laws and Regulations

The outages and disruptions impacting the financial sector this month serve as stern reminders about vulnerabilities linked to tech reliance. Regulations such as DORA, however, show a certain maturity to pre-empt such problems, experts say.

Banque Havilland, once a discreet player in the European private banking sector, is now caught in a severe regulatory storm. This case has also reignited old tensions related to the 2009 sale of Icelandic bank Kaupthing’s Luxembourg unit to the Rowland family, the financiers behind Banque Havilland.

Marc Meyers and Sebastiaan Hooghiemstra at Loyens & Loeff highlight the key changes in the draft regulatory technical standards for Eltifs, and see the latest proposal by the European Commission as a “reasonably workable” match for Luxembourg’s market practice.

The new EU AML/CFT regime addresses previous shortcomings by harmonizing regulations and enhancing enforcement tools, aiming to effectively prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, writes Claire Guilbert at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Luxembourg has proposed a groundbreaking law enabling the use of blockchain technology in investment funds, aiming to solidify its position as a global financial leader.

Sebastiaan Hooghiemstra at Loyens & Loeff reviews the opinion tabled by the EU’s supervisory agencies on SFDR as a possible labelling regime, and finds that the question on whether “Article 8” and “Article 9” products should be abolished, is not yet off the table.

Luxembourg has decided to establish a special anti-money laundering (AML) unit within its tax administration following parliamentary approval. The head of financial supervisor CSSF, meanwhile, expressed his concern over the use of ‘outdated systems’ at the AML teams of asset and wealth management firms.

A lack of reliable Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data is significantly hindering the implementation of the European Union’s sustainable finance regulations, according to a survey by the CFA Institute.

At the recent AFME European Sustainable Finance Conference in Amsterdam, Investment Officer spoke to both Helena Viňes Fiestas, chair of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance, and Raoul Köhler, Sustainable Finance Coordinator at the AFM.

Investors in European ESG funds could be in for a rude awakening as new guidelines from the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) threaten to upend the industry, according to Morningstar.