Sector

The exact arrival dates of the Financial Action Task Force on-site assessors in Luxembourg remain a secret, so expect them to arrive anytime soon. The two weeks these unnamed individuals will spend this month in Luxembourg are just a fraction of the 18-month audit to which Luxembourg’s anti-money laundering rules and practices are currently undergoing. 

The head of Luxembourg’s new private sector cyber-risk protection agency has defended the grand duchy’s approach against suggestions that it’s too fragmented and that it’s difficult to know who’s in charge. On the contrary, Luxembourg’s decentralised approach is finding a following elsewhere in Europe, starting with France, Pascal Steichen tells Investment Officer. “It’s a heterogeneous way of working. It is by design.”

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority on Wednesday presented its long-awaited proposal for sustainable investment rules, going a step further than similar rules in the EU and US by suggesting three different sustainability labels for investment funds instead of two. And unlike the EU, the FCA now has proposed a 90% threshold for the most sustainable investment funds.

Luxembourg’s financial institutions need to swiftly make significant changes in order to keep up with the changing labour market if they want to continue attracting top talent, Luxembourg for Finance said in a new report on the job market.

Housing markets in major cities across the world face a “prolonged stagnation” in purchase prices and a price correction. House owners and real estate investors should not expect the market to trend sideways. It’s “game over” for housing markets, Swiss bank UBS writes in its latest Real Estate Bubble Report.

With a rise in interest rates, finance costs have increased while financial markets across the world have been rocked by geopolitical developments and severe declines in asset prices. 

As real estate markets worldwide move in tandem by showing clear signs of a downturn, two major international financial bodies this week have reiterated their concerns over the housing market’s potential impact on financial stability. Both the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have raised a red flag. Investment Officer looks for answers to some key questions a moment that mortgage rates are at their highest since 2006.

Investment funds that hold illiquid, hard-to-sell assets and that calculate their net asset value on a daily basis can trigger volatility and add to the impact of shocks in financial markets, especially in turbulent times, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a policy note addressed to the financial community. 

When it comes to sustainability, all actors, including the finance sector, need to develop a suitable level of understanding before policies and investment strategies can translate into impact, explains Nicoletta Centofanti, head of the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative, in an interview.

“Europe does not use its single market enough as a political lever and militarily the continent does not amount to much. Our democracy and free market will be besieged on all sides. Meanwhile, the West’s willingness to protect our way of life is extremely limited. If we do nothing, we will remain a weakling in ‘the big game’.”  

Young investors are seen as a bit of a wild card by the investment industry. But look closely and it’s obvious that many young investors are fundamentally cautious due to their financial circumstances, while sympathising to a greater or lesser extent with rebellious social media elements intent on taking the financial industry down a notch or two.