Investment Officer Luxembourg

Fund managers across Europe can opt for a label to certify their investment product does what it says it does. The Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency, also known as Luxflag, has certified some 365 funds, mostly with an ESG label. Luxflag chair Denise Voss spoke to InvestmentOfficer.lu for a podcast.

“A label is about certifying or giving clarity to investors, that what they invest in, is what it says on the tin. We’re actually not saying you must invest in this or that,” said Voss. 

Fondsnieuws, the Dutch-language sister publication of InvestmentOfficer.lu, on Thursday was renamed as Investment Officer as it migrated to a new website, investmentofficer.nl, in order to better serve its subscribers in the Netherlands. With this migration, Investment Officer becomes a true Benelux media service for investment professionals, operating with a single brand for news and info services in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Thursday acknowledged that there is ‘some’ room for improving its international cooperation with other supervisors after a peer review conducted by the EU’s securities markets authority found a number of shortcomings in the supervision of financial institutions that provide cross-border services to retail clients under the European passporting system.

The EU’s financial supervisory authorities on Thursday warned consumers that many crypto-assets are highly risky and speculative. The authorities - including the bodies that supervise securities markets and the banking sector, set out key steps consumers can take to ensure they make informed decisions.

In what observers labelled as “dovish tightening”, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday evening raised interest rates for the first time since 2018 and flagged that six more rate hikes are coming later this year. Equity markets rallied but with an inverting yield curve, Treasuries reflect hesitation.

Beyond the suffering and humanitarian crisis from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the entire global economy will feel the effects of slower growth and faster inflation, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

“We live in a more shock-prone world,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva (pictured) recently said at a press briefing in Washington. “And we need the strength of the collective to deal with shocks to come.”

Financial markets do not always react in the same way to news. There are times when the stock market seems immune to both bad news and good news. Investors keep calm and make investment decisions based on fundamentals. The market works. At such times, it is relatively easy for analysts. They analyse the fundamentals, the market reacts.

It almost sounds like a call to run for the hills. Get rid of your risky assets, go defensive, and play volatility as an asset class. Sell European equities and buy Swiss. Now that the Russia-Ukraine war shows no signs of abating, Christophe Donay, Chief Strategist at Swiss-based Pictet Wealth Management, fears that excessive global debt has made the world economy vulnerable to a new systemic crisis. 

There are a number of important events expected this week that will affect investors. The most important is undoubtedly the decision of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on US interest rates on Wednesday.

In the Luxembourg transfer market, Banque de Luxembourg Investments and JP Morgan Asset Management both announced that they have strengthened their sustainable investing teams. Consultancy EY meanwhile said it has created a new Luxembourg team dedicated to the public sector.

Roland Rott and Soňa Stadtelmeyer-Petru (pictured) have joined JP Morgan’s sustainable investing team. Both hires will report to JPM’s Global Head of Sustainable Investing, Jennifer Wu.