Asset Servicing

This week’s update of people moves in Luxembourg and beyond.

Proxy advisers are facing mounting political pressure in the US, even as demand for their services grows elsewhere. For Glass Lewis, one of the two dominant global proxy advisory firms alongside ISS, that divergence is reshaping both its strategy and its product offering.

AI is quietly reshaping the cost base of the US economy by replacing labour and making processes more efficient. In services in particular, this is reducing unit labour costs and easing inflationary pressures. The bond market, however, has yet to fully recognise the policy room this creates for the Federal Reserve.

For over ten years, I’ve been writing articles for investors, economists, and anyone with even the slightest interest in the financial markets. Extremely negative stories, stories about the issues of the day, or stories with sensational headlines tend to do particularly well. Although I’m occasionally lumped into the first category, I’m usually not very good at writing those kinds of stories. But today I have a topic that tops the charts every day: Artificial Intelligence.

In the first quarter of 2026, hard-currency emerging-markets sovereign debt held up modestly better for European investors than for US investors. Euro-based returns were broadly flat, compared with a decline of around 0.2% for US dollar-based investors.

Fund administrator Trustmoore has acquired the fundtech platform Assetcare, the company—primarily active in the Netherlands and Luxembourg—announced on Wednesday. Amsterdam-based Assetcare will continue to operate under its own name.

A dozen major European banks have joined forces to offer a euro stablecoin to clients by the end of this year. “We have a better chance of creating a broadly supported stablecoin than fintechs,” said Floris Lugt, CFO of Qivalis, the joint venture that will issue the crypto payment instrument.

While the whole world was watching the Serena Hotel in Islamabad, where the ceasefire negotiations on Iran were taking place, the real news last week unfolded 6,000 kilometers away.

I have been watching the financial markets with some amazement for the past few weeks. A US president threatening the eradication of an entire society, while equity markets remain largely unchanged. Then a fresh TACO triggers a recovery rally of several percent, even though there is nothing more than a two-week ceasefire and ongoing uncertainty. For anyone looking even slightly ahead, a clear bump appears that we will all have to get over.

Emerging markets started the year strongly, but geopolitical tensions stemming from the US/Israel–Iran conflict have since tempered sentiment.