Raymond Frenken

“The UBS phase is over,” a Quintet banker told me last week.

With economic growth slowing down in all three of the world’s major economies, investors are best advised to opt for the geographical region with the least messy outlook, leading international economist Mohammed El-Erian has told a Nordic conference. “The cleanest dirty shirt is in the US.”

Luxembourg-based global private bank Quintet has reshuffled the top leadership of its branches in Luxembourg and Germany following a series of departures of senior executives at the end of last year that included CEO Europe Thomas Rodermann. Rodermann, one of the former UBS executives that had joined the bank in recent years, was seen as the architect of the integration of the private bank’s German, Dutch and Belgian businesses into a single business unit. A successor will not be appointed, Quintet said.

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In the Luxembourg market for Reserved Alternative Investment Funds, Dublin-headquartered investment services firm Waystone has emerged as the biggest issuer by a landslide, analysis of 2022 data by Investment Officer Luxembourg shows. The list of most active Raif issuers also includes Carne Global - the number one issuer in previous years, One Funds and Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe.

The analysis showed that Luxembourg was home to a total of about 2125 Raifs at the end of last year after adding some 472 new funds during 2022.

Two Luxembourg brand names in the alternative investments business are disappearing. Fund administration firm Pandomus and independent management company Pancura have been renamed under the single new brand of Pandoo.

Apex Group plans to hire more than 500 new fund services experts in Johannesburg this year in order to better service its growing global client base. Asked if this hiring plan was related to the much-discussed industry challenge of attracting new staff in Luxembourg, an Apex spokesperson said South Africa was seen as an “onshore” hiring opportunity following the acquisitions of Sanne and Maitland in 2022.

Geopolitical uncertainty, rising interest rates, more stringent sustainability requirements, modernisation of the regulatory environment, democratisation of private equity, and pressure on costs and margins are expected to shape the next twelve months in the grand duchy’s financial system. Camille Thommes, Nicolas Mackel, Jerry Grbic, Stephane Pesch, Nicoletta Centofanti and others told IO what they expect in the new year.

Individual autocrats in Russia and China as well as at a number of top global technology firms pose a severe risk to geopolitical and economic stability in our world this year, the Eurasia Group says in its report on top risks for 2023. This global context will lead to volatility in emerging markets this year.

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.

Luxembourg branches of investment firms and financial institutions headquartered elsewhere in the European Union from this year onwards will have to ask their auditors to produce an independent report on measures taken to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.