Mike Gordon

One might have thought Luxembourg’s real estate market was doing well compared to other European cities, but for a long time, exact comparative numbers weren’t available. That’s all changed with the release of a new property index covering Luxembourg, the result of an 18-month long labour-intensive and expensive project.

The EU court ruling ending public access to European ultimate beneficial owner registries lays bare a long-standing political-legal dispute in society over what sorts of interests should be paramount: jurisprudence or morality. As Luxembourg awaits a solution on restoring access for professionals, Investment Officer spoke to a number of legal specialists about the case.

Fintech firms see a role for themselves in assisting and enabling the Luxembourg financial centre’s strong move towards sustainable investing, but call for collaboration and support from the financial industry and the Luxembourg government to make this work.

Developments in Luxembourg legislation have enabled the European Investment Bank, the EIB, to issue for the first time a digital bond under Luxembourg law. In a project codenamed Project Venus, the EIB this week raised 100 million euro by issuing a blockchain-based bond in cooperation with the central banks of France and Luxembourg and backed by a deal team working in five countries.

Infrastructure investing has looked like a very good business in recent years. Initially, interest in infrastructure was due to its role as a long-term, inflation-resistant vehicle for institutional investors. But the crying need for building, repairing and upgrading the built world while most governments are short on funds has given it an almost socially-conscious image. 

Most such funds have realised they can easily more towards doing ESG-related investments. Often, it’s just about looking for the right investment option.

Public registers in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria as well as other EU countries set up under EU laws to fight money-laundering and tax evasion remain temporarily closed as legal specialists agreed that the ruling effectively shut down a key aspect of the EU’s fifth anti-money laundering directive. National governments as well as the EU are still considering next steps.

The spread of web-based platforms has reached into the rarefied atmosphere of private equity, which has historically been paper-based and face-to-face in-person meeting with one’s investment adviser. This is taking place against an industry-wide drive to “democratise” the private assets world, in order to sate huge desire to invest, but also to address the equity issues raised in relation to significant barriers to access, Alfi’s Private Assets Conference made clear this week. 

LuxFlag, the Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency, raised awareness to market challenges faced in the impact investing space at a side event held on Monday at the EIB Benelux Pavillion at COP27 which is being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The event featured speakers familiar with the challenges of making investments with real impact and of the best way to move forward with sustainable finance.

Luxembourg’s government is proposing to simplify the corporate income tax process for investment funds which have overseas investors or subsidiaries by reducing their risk of being subjected to full Luxembourg anti-tax avoidance corporation tax. The changes to the “reverse hybrid rule” seek to remove doubt from how to deal with tax exempt entities.

The head of Luxembourg’s new private sector cyber-risk protection agency has defended the grand duchy’s approach against suggestions that it’s too fragmented and that it’s difficult to know who’s in charge. On the contrary, Luxembourg’s decentralised approach is finding a following elsewhere in Europe, starting with France, Pascal Steichen tells Investment Officer. “It’s a heterogeneous way of working. It is by design.”