CSSF

Financial supervisor CSSF is putting on the thumbscrews. It has imposed individual financial fines on a total of seven managers and directors at two specialised investment funds in Luxembourg. The fines were issued because they sent “incomplete information” to the supervisor. It is the first time such fines were issued under a 2007 law that governs these funds. 

After completing a similar transition last year for the supervision of investment fund managers, Luxembourg’s financial supervisors, in close cooperation with bank sector representatives, now have adopted a major modernisation of its banking supervision by overhauling what is known as the Long Form Report. Both banks and supervisors see the new approach as a major step forward. 

Supervisory practices in Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands “appeared insufficient” during the years that Brexit pushed financial services away from the United Kingdom to EU member states, a peer review among European financial supervisors has found. Luxembourg’s supervisor disagrees with the review’s conclusions.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Wednesday said its annual online survey relating to the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing will start on 15 February next year.

The survey aims to collect standardised key information concerning money laundering and terrorism financing - “ML/TF” - risks to which firms under CSSF supervision are exposed and about the implementation of measures to mitigate these risks. 

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF has made clear that it expects investment funds that commit to sustainability objectives will stick to these commitments. If a fund defines thresholds for specific ESG or sustainability investments, then it should consider these as a “binding commitments”.

BOS Wealth Management SA, the Luxembourg-based European wealth management arm of Bank of Singapore, has been handed a 210,000 euro fine by Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF for non-compliance with laws designed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

Europe’s asset management industry finds itself under a public magnifying glass after a team of international investigative journalists discovered that the most sustainable funds are still investing in polluting companies. Earlier warnings on possible reputation risks, also from specialists inside the sector, now echo loudly, but so does the observation that a lack of clarity in the current sustainability regulations poses significant challenges, both for the industry and investors.

Markets for depositary and custodian banking services in Luxembourg are “heavily concentrated”, with the top ten banks holding more than three quarters of all assets, the first ever survey on depositary and custodian services in the grand duchy shows.

A new set of rules - part of an update to the EU’s Mifid 2 directive - took effect in Luxembourg on Tuesday that will set out how banks and asset managers are required to handle their investment products in terms of Environmental, Social and Governance.

Financial regulators across the European Union next year will embark on a comprehensive review of costs that investment firms charge to investors for their investment funds. Claude Marx, director general of Luxembourg financial supervisor CSSF, speaking at the Alfi private assets conference on Wednesday, elaborated on some of the next steps. The industry, he said, needs to maintain its focus on efficiency, which also is in the interests of investors.