Investment Officer Luxembourg

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Friday brought attention to a warning from the grand duchy’s cyber security authorities which said an “alarming situation” has been created because more than 500 computer servers have not yet been updated with a critical software patch for Microsoft Exchange servers.

Luxembourg’s fund and asset management association Alfi has told Europe’s financial markets supervisor Esma that its proposed rules on the use of ESG-related names in investment fund names lack clarity and will render the marketing of these funds more difficult.

After years of dominance by growth stocks, dividend funds had slowly become the wallflowers of the investment universe. Investors flocked to technology, e-commerce and internet companies, which emerged as the stars in the stock market firmament partly due to the corona crisis and the resulting generous monetary policy of central banks. Barring some brief periods of outperformance, value stocks slid deeper and deeper into the mothball bin. However, a value renaissance began in late 2020, which received a firm tailwind in 2022.

With the endorsement of almost all European stock exchanges, the “consolidated tape” recently booked significant progress. Hurdles remains however, as representatives of stock exchanges and asset managers remain at loggerheads. “Europe risks missing the boat on this entire issue of really getting market structure right,” FESE’s director general Rainer Riess told Investment Officer.

While the smokescreens on the greenwashing battlefield have yet to lift, a new headache file has presented itself in financial markets: the impact of artificial intelligence on market participants and regulators. On that front, transparency is “zero”, European Markets Authority Esma has concluded in a new study on artificial intelligence in EU securities markets.