Raymond Frenken

Interest in sustainable investment is surging but it’s doing very little to keep climate change in check, a new Morningstar report says.

BLI - Banque de Luxembourg Investments (BLI) and Funds For Good on Friday unveiled two new joint impact funds; the FFG European Impact Equities and FFG American Impact Equities. Classified as Article 9 under the EU’s Sustainable Financial Disclosure Regulation, the funds build on a decade-old collaborative partnership between the firms.

Luxembourg needs to make a bigger effort to supervise the non-financial sector and better scrutinize real estate firms, trust companies, notaries and services firms, the world’s top body to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism said on Wednesday.  Both the Luxembourg government and financial sector supervisor CSSF issued statements underling the FATF report’s “overall good result” for Luxembourg.

In this IO Talks podcast interview, Peter Hughes, CEO and founder of Apex Group, and Pierre Weimerskirch, the firm’s Luxembourg head, discussed strategic ambitions in Luxembourg, highlighting the region’s increasing dominance in the global investment landscape.

Luxembourg-based fund services firm Fuchs Asset Management, which saw its parent company enter liquidation in July, is embarking on a new chapter through a strategic partnership with Trustmoore, a fund services company headquartered in Amsterdam.

Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) announced on Monday that Marco Zwick’s mandate as the director in charge of supervising investment funds has been renewed for an additional five years, effective from September 1, 2023. Zwick has been serving in this role since 2018. CSSF meanwhile also said that a decision on the renewal of the mandate for its chief bank supervisor, Claude Wampach, was made in July per royal decree.

Mention “whistleblower” in Luxembourg and shivers still course through the Grand Duchy, even though nearly a decade has elapsed since the 2014 LuxLeaks scandal. The government, consultancy firms, and segments of the financial sector remain skittish when foreign journalists approach them with questions.

Amundi is continuing to transfer Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) with exposure to U.S.-based companies from Luxembourg to Ireland. A significant part of this migration, involving €6.58 billion across two ETFs, was announced last week.

The European Central Bank is most likely done hiking interest rates, analysts said following the decision in Frankfurt to raise its three benchmark eurozone interest rates by 25 basis points. Euro bond markets rallied while the euro fell against the dollar amid expectations that eurozone rates now have peaked and that any subsequent move in market interest rates will be a cut, although that may take some time.

The upcoming meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) promises to be one of the most consequential in recent times, underlining the difficult trade-offs the institution must consider amidst an environment of high inflation and stalling economic growth. Analysts and market watchers are sharply divided on what course of action the Governing Council will take on Thursday, making this meeting especially fraught with uncertainty.