CSSF

We’re finishing a productive week at Investment Officer Luxembourg in terms of news stories, with surprisingly strong and growing interest from international readers.

A crucial test awaits Luxembourg’s financial centre in just a couple of months. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the global anti money-laundering and combatting terrorism financing (AML/CFT) watchdog – plans to visit in November for an in-depth audit. How is the Grand Duchy placed?

A solid return on investment and an acceptable level of risk remain the top factors for investors to consider when picking their investments, according to a new sustainable finance survey conducted among a representative section of the general public in Luxembourg.

Respect for human rights and the reputation of companies invested in are not seen as a leading factors for investors, said the survey, conducted among 1,100 people in April and May of this year.

Financial regulators across Europe are keeping a close eye on their Luxembourg counterpart CSSF, which is reviewing its rules that tell investment firms how to handle errors in calculations of Net Asset Values, or NAVs. “I think that we may consider the CSSF approach as a best practice.”

Following 1.55 million euro in regulatory fines, Luxembourg investment firm Fuchs & Associés Finance SA is stepping up efforts to address internal compliance problems, adding additional directors and compliance staff to bring its governance back in line with legal requirements.

Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF has found shortcomings in the application of measures to fight money laundering and terrorism finance at fund services provider Maitland Luxembourg SA and issued a fine of 266,000 euro. 

Belgian police authorities have launched a criminal investigation in Antwerp-based stockbroker Merit Capital, a Belgian press report said on Thursday. The probe is linked to its transactions with H2O Asset Management.

Merit Capital’s future is up in the air after several attempts to find a buyer failed. Luxembourg’s Fuchs & Associés was forced to step back as a possible buyer last month. 

Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF imposed a total of 4.3 million euro in fines on financial services companies in the Grand Duchy last year, less than the 6 million euro in fines issued in 2020. Most fines were imposed under laws preventing money-laundering and terrorism finance, according to CSSF’s 2021 annual report.

The number of complaints received about financial services in Luxembourg last year rose by 25 percent, with clients in Germany and the U.K. accounting for almost half of them, according to the latest CSSF annual report.

One month after the EU ordered the investment sector to ask clients for their sustainability preferences, investment firms appear to show limited enthusiasm for complying with the new requirements as complexity around the EU’s ESG rules persists and greenwashing fears linger.