Mike Gordon

The Luxembourg government clarified its application of the reverse hybrid rule in the EU’s second anti-tax avoidance directive (ATAD-2) last November, in 2022. It made clear that tax-exempt investors are exempt from the application of the reverse hybrid rules and clarified when they do apply to other investors. With the “quite helpful” clarification bringing simplification in one area, the quest for certainty has moved to related issues, such as allocating the potential tax burden if a given investor triggers it.

A recent European Central Bank study calling for a regulatory framework to address instability in the market for Real Estate Investment Funds, known as Reifs, has been downplayed by a growing number of real estate specialists contacted by Investment Officer in Luxembourg and London. 

The traditional private equity world has realised only in the past two years that creating products specifically for wealth and retail channels is going to be a huge area of growth over the next 10 to 15 years. Europe, said Tarun Nagpal, founder of S64 Capital Innovation, will be the “next frontier” in mainstreaming private equity for retail investors.

The Luxembourg financial community is concerned that schemes such as ATAD-3, which targets shell companies or the Pillar II implementation on international corporate taxation could intentionally or unintentionally affect until now perfectly legal tax or investment fund structures.

Europe’s fund and asset management organisation Efama, active in the development of the updated European long-term investment fund, expressed  strong optimism this week about the updated vehicle’s interest to both professional and retail investors and its ability to fulfill its Capital Market Union aspirations.

Despite early questioning of its ability to provide sufficient liquidity to attract retail investors, Efama’s expert detailed how the legislation provides several tools that afford liquidity solutions.

The impending climate crisis is claiming ever-more attention on the political level. Part of the solution to it will be to spend what’s estimated to be trillions per year on cutting and mitigating emissions. The ability of the financial industry to raise and allocate money has got the political classes’ attention. Former US presidential candidate John Kerry – now the United States’ first-ever special presidential envoy for climate  –  and Luxembourg financial minister Yuriko Backes on Wednesday discussed Luxembourg’s role.

The focus on sustainable investing has faded somewhat, with the drumbeat of crisis after crisis recently, and now problems with banks in Switzerland and the United States grabbing the headlines. But listen to anyone focussed on the climate for long and you’ll realise that however bad things are now, it will get much worse. Large investment firms are developing impact investing projects and reaching for the next level in ESG – maintaining biodiversity.

The first day of the 2023 ALFI European Asset Management Conference heard from the head of the European Securities and Markets Authority, Verena Ross, and included panels on the impact of blockchain and digital assets, as well as corporate taxation.

As the European Union considers banning inducements (aka kickbacks) for investment advice as part of its forthcoming retail investment strategy, those who support inducements, like Luxembourg’s ALFI and the worldwide CFA Institute, but also strong critics of inducements, such as the EU’s commissioner for financial services Mairead McGuinness and EU investor and financial service users organisation Better Finance are making their widely divergent views known. 

Luxembourg’s banks, one of the biggest employers in Luxembourg’s financial sector, are engaging in staff management practices that leave many of their staff dissatisfied, especially in the area of pay, according to a representative of a union representing financial sector employees who contrasted the banks’ record with what she considered a better approach from the insurance industry.