Luxembourg

For a country that is well established as a global leader in investment funds, one might expect its people to embrace more risk when it comes to their financial investments. As it turns out, the love for cash deposits is as big as ever.

Luxembourg retained its lead last year as the biggest global hub for sustainable investment funds. Nearly half of all ESG assets in Europe now have a home in Luxembourg, according to LFF, while the appeal of the Luxembourg Green Exchange continues to grow.

There has been scant divergence from EU financial sector rules in the two years since the UK left the EU. Nor are there many clear future policy proposals. Hence little has changed for Luxembourg players marketing into the UK. Could 2022 be the year when things start to shift?

The EU braces for a legal battle over plans to label nuclear energy and gas as sustainable transition fuels. Luxembourg and Austria are preparing steps to have the proposed delegated act annulled.

Universal-Investment, the third-largest management company in Luxembourg, said on Tuesday that it has been appointed as the management company for the Luxembourg fund portfolio of Switzerland’s Fisch Asset Management. Increasing costs and regulatory requirements are mentioned as reasons for the transfer.

It may be only 8 years away, but many representatives of Luxembourg’s financial centre have clear visions of a 2030 of higher technology but also a commitment to ESG values, but which may be a challenge to bring about.

Luxembourg’s real estate investment sector has recovered strongly from the economic slowdowns caused by the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, according to figures released in the Association of the Luxembourg Fund industry’s (ALFI)  15th annual Luxembourg real estate investment funds survey. (Full version link below.) 

Luxembourg is by far the leading EU domicile for environmental funds, according to a new report by PwC. Assets under management in green funds in the Grand Duchy are greater than the combined totals of the next three largest domiciles for these products. This article explains why this might be so.

“Why Luxembourg is still a tax haven” was the headline in Monday’s Luxemburger Wort, the country’s leading daily. The evidence for this statement was a report from the EU Tax Observatory think tank which identified the Grand Duchy and 16 other jurisdictions as helping multinational banks dodge taxes.

Luxembourg slipped two places in an international ranking of the quality and depth of green finance offerings in financial centres. Luxembourg ranked in 6th place, putting it in the top 15 green finance centres. The Grand Duchy is second in the EU in the ranking, behind Amsterdam, which came out ahead of Zurich, London, Oslo and San Francisco.

In the previous edition of the assessment, Luxembourg had ranked 4th.

7th edition