Investment Officer Luxembourg

The European Commission is contemplating an alternative route towards a swift adoption the EU’s regulatory and technical standards for the forthcoming generation of European Long-Term Investment Funds under the new Eltif 2.0 regulation.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2023 continued to demand significant recoveries from financial institutions, although investment advisers were less frequently targeted. The year also witnessed the introduction of fines related to WhatsApp use and a record payout to whistleblowers.

While Wall Street is pulling out all the stops to curb ‘Basel III Endgame’, private lenders are in pole position for implementation of the banking rules. The price at which US big banks can borrow money will be skillfully undercut by private credit funds, but critics in the banking sector denounce the lack of effective supervision of the ‘non-bank’ lenders.  

2023 was a year that high-yield bond investors won’t soon forget. It was a period marked by a spirited comeback, with global high-yield bonds extending their rally, clocking a 3.1% gain in Q4 and culminating in a robust 9.6% total return for the year, as per the ICE BofA Global High Yield Constrained Index.

With many aspects, a distant perspective can be quite enlightening. This certainly applies to monetary policy, in my view. The more I distance myself, the more evident it becomes that for some central banks, debt management, rather than inflation – as officially proclaimed – is their primary objective. Japan is a prime example.

Europe’s biggest asset manager Amundi calls on its peers in financial sector to better serve clients by stepping up efforts to bring greater clarity on the use of standards and regulations that govern responsible and sustainable investing.