Supervision

The UK’s financial supervisor still sees shortcomings in the asset management industry in regards to sustainable investment funds ahead of its publication of more stringent anti-greenwashing rules.  

Adler Group SA,  a Luxembourg-based real estate company active in Germany with a listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, has been fined 30,000 euro by Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF because it has not deposited an audited annual financial report for 2022.

Adler, as a Luxembourg firm, is subject to the country’s transparency law, CSSF said in a statement issued on Monday. Adler did not respond to a request for comment.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF has stopped using X, formerly known as Twitter, as one of its communications channels on social media, referring to the increasing circulation of false information on the platform.

European regulators, especially those in Paris and Luxembourg, are at odds over the regulatory and technical standards for the updated European Long Term Investment Funds scheme, known as Eltif 2.0, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The Luxembourg bar association ia applying a form of shock therapy to lawyers taking a laissez-faire view of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws, but its disciplinary body has nevertheless found a loophole allowing it to continue this country’s tradition of not publicly identifying the guilty.

The European Securities and Markets Authority, or Esma, on Thursday announced that from 2025, cyber risk and digital resilience in Europe’s securities sector will take precedence alongside ESG reporting in terms of overarching priorities for the supervisors in EU member states.

Luxembourg, a hub for global finance, has seen a significant uptick in alerts on questionable transactions that could signal money laundering or even finance terrorism.

The Luxembourg Ucits market, a cornerstone of the European investment landscape, demonstrated both its strength and vulnerability in the face of 2022’s economic turbulence, with fund managers navigating increased market and credit risks, while maintaining prudent leverage and liquidity management.

Financial supervisors across Europe are actively providing industry guidance on sustainability claims that financial firms attach to their products. EU-level guidance calls for communications with investors that is fair, clear and not misleading. In Luxembourg, CSSF has outlined its expectations of investment fund managers in a thematic review published in August.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF is urging banks, investment funds and the general public in the Grand Duchy to be extra vigilant in relation to money transfers that could finance terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The reminder comes just a month after the world’s top body for fighting money laundering and terrorism finance said the sector’s understanding of terrorism finance is “very low”.