Lois et réglementation

Members of the European Parliament on Tuesday rejected a proposal by the European Commission to treat nuclear energy and natural gas as sustainable economic activities. If the vote is confirmed by absolute majority in the July 7 plenary meeting, the Commission’s proposal to update the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities will be sent back to the drawing board.

It’s been nearly a decade since the European Commission set out its ambitious plans for a Capital Markets Union (CMU), diversifying sources of funding in Europe’s economy. Progress so far has been slow and Brussels now has conceded it needs help to persuade member states and its citizens of its merits before it can make another push

As the financial industry continues to call for more clarity and guidance to handle what even supervisors see as the «astonishing» complexity of the emerging EU framework for sustainable finance, impact investments and ESG, European regulators have added a range of technical details to sustainability rules over recent weeks. 

Luxembourg has frozen some 4.3 billion euro in Russian assets, mostly held in shares, bonds and bank accounts, as part of the international sanctions against Russia, the finance ministry said.

The Luxembourg Business Register, at the request of the finance ministry, so far has identified more than 90 persons and 1,100 legal entities registered in the Trade and Companies Register (RCS) for which there are details of persons included in the sanctions lists. 

European central bank policy makers will meet in Amsterdam on Thursday at the invitation of Klaas Knot, the Dutch central bank governor who is known for his hawkish approach to interest rates and his support of a 50 basis point rate hike in July. And: when will the ECB start discussing Quantitative Tightening, like the Fed?

Luxembourg Finance Minister Yuriko Backes is visiting London this week, at a time when advocates of maintaining strong UK-EU financial services relationships are struggling to have their voices heard. The Luxembourg government has sought to take the heat out of Brexit arguments since the 2016 leave vote, and this visit is the latest such effort. 

Dans une note, l’autorité européenne de régulation des marchés financiers, l’Esma, rappelle aux gestionnaires de fonds leur obligation fiduciaire de tenir correctement compte de l’impact de l’invasion de l’Ukraine par la Russie sur les fonds d’investissement.

C’est ce qu’affirme l’Esma dans une note publiée récemment. 

Frankfurt investigators on Tuesday raided Deutsche Bank and the nearby offices of asset management arm DWS. The suspicion is that DWS is guilty of so-called «greenwashing». It is alleged that the asset manager systematically exaggerated the sustainable nature of its products. 

La taxe annuelle sur comptes-titres de 0,15 % est applicable aux Belges qui détiennent un compte-titres dans leur pays ou à l’étranger sur lequel est détenu plus d’un million d’euros. Les non-résidents qui détiennent un tel compte-titres en Belgique sont également soumis à la taxe sur les titres. 

L’Autorité européenne des marchés financiers (AEMF) est consciente de la pression exercée sur le secteur de la gestion d’actifs pour qu’il se conforme aux règles de l’investissement vert et s’apprête à publier prochainement des lignes directrices détaillées. Elle comprend que les règles sont complexes et souvent incomplètes, et que les délais sont serrés, mais elle estime qu’il s’agit en définitive d’un travail utile.