Raymond Frenken

Global financial markets were in turmoil on Thursday in a clear sign that investors had not expected Russian President Vladimir Putin to make an aggressive move into Ukraine by launching a full-scale invasion.

“Even just yesterday people were dismissing this as unlikely,” well-known economist and Fed watcher Mohamed El-Erian, advisor at the Allianz & Gramercy said. “This is way beyond anything. This is a very unsatisfactory situation.” 

Luxembourg Raifs appeal to clients worldwide, January data from its business register shows. QIC, the Queensland Investment Corporation in Australia, issued an infrastructure investment Raif together with Carne Global. Ocorian supported Singapore-based SilkRoad with a new real estate fund.

Luxembourg has a promising potential to further build on its global hub status for investment funds by encouraging management companies to expand their businesses into international fund distribution, according to Xavier Parain, CEO of FundRock, Luxembourg’s largest third-party manager of investment funds.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma), the EU’s securities markets regulator based in Paris, said on Tuesday that it continues to see high risks to institutional and retail investors of further, possibly significant, market corrections. 

Supervisors ESMA and EIOPA are “closely monitoring” cyber risks in Europe’s asset management industry amid concerns that rising tensions over Ukraine may spark Russian-backed cyber attacks on Europe’s economic infrastructure.

A leading German economist on Monday urged investors not to exaggerate financial risks around a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying an invasion would merely lead to a “temporary setback” while underlining the need to put the Russia risk into perspective.

“All in all, we would expect the European economy and markets to rebound shortly afterwards from a temporary setback which a Russian attack on the Ukraine would probably cause,” said Holger Schmieding, Chief economist at German private bank Berenberg. “Let’s hope it does not come to that.”

The financial sector needs to pay more attention to human rights in its activities, especially in its supply chains, a Luxembourg NGO said in a report it presented this week. Industry representatives said the criticism does not yet fully consider new legal requirements that recently entered into force.

The Chambre des Députés, Luxembourg’s parliament, on Wednesday approved a long-awaited modernisation of the Grand Duchy’s securitisation law that will enable fund managers to actively manage pooled debts such as corporate loans and mortgages.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management is stepping up its use of artificial intelligence in order to identify companies that provide solutions in the fight against climate change and loss of biodiversity. The US asset manager wants to use AI to find between 50 and 100 companies in which investors can invest through its climate solutions fund.

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands has called on European financial supervisors to review financial services for their health impact and urged the banking, payments and investment industries to do more to make sure that their clients make well-informed decisions.