Raymond Frenken

The Luxembourg District Court on Tuesday ordered the dissolution and liquidation of 23-year old investment firm Fuchs & Associés Finance SA and appointed a liquidator and an official receiver. Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF, noting “serious breaches of essential legal and regulatory requirements,” said it has revoked the firm’s authorisation to operate as an investment services provider and has activated the Grand Duchy’s investor compensation scheme.

The 60-seat Luxembourg parliament has finalised its adoption of a major upgrade of five investment laws, making its popular international framework for investment funds even more attractive for new types of funds coming into the market, in particular Eltifs. The industry has widely welcomed the changes, with one ManCo CEO describing them as “an evolution rather than a revolution.”

Global financial regulators and industry insiders clashed over the implementation of liquidity management tools (LMTs) to mitigate the impact of mass redemptions in open-ended investment funds at a meeting in Dublin on Wednesday.

Luxembourg’s parliament, with 55 votes in favour and only two against, has embraced a highly anticipated law that revamps its legislative arsenal for investment funds. Several fund categories, including European Long Term Investment Funds (Eltifs) and money market funds, are to be exempted from the registration tax imposed on Luxembourg-domiciled funds.

Just over one year into his tenure as Chief Executive Officer at Quintet, Chris Allen has unveiled a significant next move for the Luxembourg-headquartered private bank. The partnership he has brokered with BlackRock aims to inspire a fresh way of working in its five main markets, one that respects the nuances of domestic investment cultures.

With a clear vision in mind, Jean-Marc Goy, chairperson at the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry, Alfi, is determined to foster the growth of the Grand Duchy’s asset management sector by encouraging effective collaborations with diverse stakeholders, including regulators. “The common goal is to strike the right balance between investor protection, and not putting in the way of the industry too many hurdles and obstacles that would stifle innovation”, Goy said in an IO Talks podcast interview.

Pierre Gramegna, former Luxembourg finance minister and managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, on Tuesday called for bolder steps towards creating better integrated financial markets in Europe. Reviving the EU’s ambition for creating a true Capital Markets Union is essential, he said, if Europe wants to broaden access to finance for businesses and achieve its sustainability ambitions.

The world’s top body for the fight against money laundering on Friday said it has found a “high level of technical compliance” with global standards in Luxembourg. The Financial Action Task Force, or FATF still recommended that the Grand Duchy strengthens its measures in certain complex areas, in line with its risk profile as a regional and global financial centre. “Luxembourg has a very good idea of what it needs to do,” said FATF president T. Raja Kumar in response to a question by Investment Officer during a press conference in Paris.

In the face of market volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, a combination popularly referred to as ‘VUCA’, Ingo Mainert, CIO Multi Asset Europe at Allianz Global Investors, urges investors to embrace a fresh interpretation of VUCA: vision, understanding, clarity, and agility. 

This perspective came during his keynote speech at Wednesday’s ALFI Roadshow in Frankfurt, a gathering organised by Luxembourg’s 1700-member fund management trade association. The event provided a platform for industry experts to exchange insights on the investment climate and topics pertinent to Luxembourg, attracting roughly 300 delegates.

Luxembourg’s parliament needs to make sure that its proposed update for the Grand Duchy’s law on investment funds will provide more clarity on how fund redemptions, and in particular suspensions, are to be treated by its national regulator CSSF, the country’s top advisory body has said.