Supervision

Less than a week before announcing the sale of its asset management services arm, Luxembourg’s troubled investment firm Fuchs & Associés Finance - still in liquidation - was fined €785,000 by the Grand Duchy’s financial supervisor CSSF under laws on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Luxembourg’s Commissariat aux Assurances (CAA) slapped Lombard International Assurance with a record 1.68 million euro fine for lapses in its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) controls. This enforcement action underscores the regulator’s stringent stance on compliance in the financial sector.

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) has imposed a fine of 162,500 euro on Intertrust (Luxembourg) S.à r.l., a specialist in the professional financial sector, for not adhering to its custodial duties as outlined in Luxembourg’s financial sector legislation, particularly concerning the management of non-financial assets.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma), the EU’s financial markets regulator, has fined the European rating agency Scope 2.2 million euro for breaches of the Credit Rating Agencies (CRA) Regulation. The penalty is for Scope’s failure to manage conflicts of interest adequately, involving both structural and specific non-compliance issues.

Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF has updated its guidance for the crypto investment landscape, clarifying that only ‘well-informed investors’ within alternative investment funds can tread into the virtual asset territory.

In the pursuit of an inclusive and engaging workplace, the European Central Bank (ECB) emphasises respect, talent development, and diversity, as per its official website. However, recent remarks from ECB board member Frank Elderson and President Christine Lagarde have sparked concerns and raised questions about the bank’s commitment to diversity of opinion.

Europe’s top financial supervisory authority is warning investors of a high risk of corrections in financial markets, especially in difficult-to-value private markets such as real estate. 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2023 continued to demand significant recoveries from financial institutions, although investment advisers were less frequently targeted. The year also witnessed the introduction of fines related to WhatsApp use and a record payout to whistleblowers.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF is ready to conditionally give its green light for new applications of Eltif 2.0 funds, even as the market still awaits a final adoption of the regulatory and technical standards, known as the RTS, by the European Commission.

As the clock ticks down to the much-anticipated launch of the revamped EU regime for European Long-Term Investment Funds (Eltifs), the private markets world is abuzz with anticipation and a dash of uncertainty.