Sector

Luxembourg’s financial markets authority CSSF has given fund management companies until the end of this year to review the way they determine the value of their investment funds. Investment Officer recently spoke to Marco Zwick, the CSSF director in charge of supervising investment funds. “We noted some room for improvement,” he said.

Will fund managers soon be retiring as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly prevalent and consistently outperforms the market? Or is this notion exaggerated? Investment Officer spoke to Thomas Dierckx, a financial machine learning expert at Kairon Labs.

The European Securities and Markets Authority, Esma, on Thursday issued a warning about practices surrounding Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLOs) in the EU. The supervisory body has found potential conflicts of interest and undue influence in the CLO rating process during the 2017-2021 period.

The Big Three credit rating agencies - Fitch Ratings, Moody’s and S&P - are at the centre of this review.

A recent analysis of the 2021 census published on Thursday shows that English has become the third most spoken language in Luxembourg, replacing German. Luxembourgish is experiencing a downturn. A report by Statec, the national statistics agency, reveals that over a quarter of the population, or 25.7 percent, now speak English at home or use it at work or school, an increase from 21 percent in 2011.

The fact that financial institutions in Luxembourg have frozen some 86.000 investor accounts should not be regarded as a material issue because the Financial Action Task Force has not issued a recommendation on this topic, a senior official at the Grand Duchy’s financial supervisory body CSSF has said.

Investment firms are struggling with AML/KYC requirements, with one fund manager saying his AML/KYC team can’t grow fast enough. The push towards ‘retailisation’ of private markets is only going to increase the stress.

European pension savers are facing significant hurdles due to high fee levels and a lack of transparency in pension savings markets.

Serge Weyland, CEO at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in Luxembourg, is set to replace Camille Thommes as the director general of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (Alfi), effective 1 January 2024.

The Luxembourg private debt fund market, with its assets under management soaring to 404.4 billion euros, marks a stunning 51 percent growth year-over-year, showcasing its robust position in the European financial landscape, according to the latest edition of the annual private debt survey by KPMG and industry association Alfi.

Luxembourg’s financial watchdog CSSF has disclosed that about 86,000 investor accounts, primarily belonging to everyday retail investors across Europe, are currently frozen in the Grand Duchy.