Supervision

The announcement that some 500 Microsoft Exchange servers “need immediate attention”, issued by Luxembourg’s cybersecurity agencies last week, has been echoed by financial regulator the CSSF. A noted international cybersecurity expert linked this to the difficulty in finding top cybersecurity talents in Luxembourg. “The struggle that people in Luxembourg have, certainly clients that we’re talking to, that want to work with us, but don’t yet, is that they can’t find the skill sets,” said George Ralph (photo) of Richard Fleishmann and Associates.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Friday brought attention to a warning from the grand duchy’s cyber security authorities which said an “alarming situation” has been created because more than 500 computer servers have not yet been updated with a critical software patch for Microsoft Exchange servers.

The European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor known as Esma, on Thursday warned investors that they should prepare for further market corrections, given a “confluence of high risks”. 

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF this week announced that it, at the end of 2021, presented management company Alter Domus with a fine of 174,000 euro relating to the collapsed Columna Commodities fund. 

This Luxembourg fund, created in 2013, went into liquidation in 2017, a year before the sale of its manager, Luxembourg Fund Partners, or LFP, to Alter Domus. CSSF said the fine was issued on 1 December 2021, more than a year ago.

Luxembourg alternative investment fund manager FundRock, part of the Apex Group, has been given a fine of 45,800 euro by Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF because the firm did not properly apply the rules relating to benchmarks.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF has said it will start collecting information from firms on their anti money laundering and terrorism financing setups from next Wednesday, 15 February, through its annual industry-wide survey. 

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Thursday published an update to its  Reporting Handbook for investment firms. The update integrates the latest version of the reporting framework designed in recent years by the European Banking Authority and introduces a module for threshold monitoring.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF has levied a 22,100 euro fine against alternative investment fund manager Pemberton Asset Management SA after a 2020 inspection found  “failures” in risk management, organisational requirements and supervising delegated activities under Luxembourg’s AIFM law, the regulator announced on Tuesday.

The European Union’s top supervisory authority for financial markets has started the new year with a new visual identity and logo that underlines its drive for efficient and resilient markets, the role of sustainability and innovation in its mission, and that should make the organisation“more accessible” to the public.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisors are preparing for tough scrutiny of the annual reports that firms will produce in the coming months. The 2022 reports are required to elaborate in detail on the impact of climate change, on the financial fallout from the Ukraine war and on the effects of inflation and rising interest rates.