06/11/2009
A telling censorship of Luxembourg professionals on issues relating to the depositary's liability
Today and tomorrow is taking place in Luxembourg the 11th Annual Fund Compliance Conference on the topic : The Responsibility of The Depositary Bank A Detailed Regulatory and Business Practice Overview
In the Ad, it is said that the European Commission will highlight the Commission Approach with regards to “Depositary Responsibilities”.
The conference will give a detailed regulatory and business practice overview of “The Responsibility of The Depositary Bank” and will provide a lively debate on how to build on shared and mutually reinforcing responsibilities The Role, Responsibility and Liability of The Depositary Function and its Delegation.
Indeed, there are differences in approaching depositary duties across Europe and consequences from the financial crisis have pledged for a strengthening of the functioning of the financial markets.
A panel session will give the views from Fund Board Members on their role and responsibility vis à vis a substantive oversight of the fund that includes the supervision of the depositary duties.
Finally the conference will assess whether UCITS IV generation is addressing adequately depositary duties and how the various scenarios of the Management Company Passport will impact the functioning of the depositary duties.
It is very amazing that the conference on a sensitive topic for Luxembourg is like boycotted by the Luxembourg financial community. It is a consent that the legal and regulatory framework on the depositary is in question in Luxembourg.
Such behaviour is worrying for investors.
A Google search shows that there is only one article about the conference for site:lu:
The 11th Annual Fund Compliance Conference on the topic : The Responsibility of The Depositary Bank A Detailed Regulatory and Business Practice Overview is not promoted by the ALFI, the official representative body for the Luxembourg investment fund industry. Strange.
The 11th Annual Fund Compliance Conference on the topic : The Responsibility of The Depositary Bank A Detailed Regulatory and Business Practice Overview is not promoted by Luxembourg For Finance, the agency for the development of the financial sector. Strange.
The 11th Annual Fund Compliance Conference on the topic : The Responsibility of The Depositary Bank A Detailed Regulatory and Business Practice Overview is not promoted by the ABBL, the Luxembourg Bankers' Association. Strange.
21:55 Posted in Luxembourg | Permalink | Comments (0)
06/10/2009
The head of the Luxembourg bankers' association recently admitted that Luxembourg was a tax haven
In a recent interview, Jean Meyer stated that "le Luxembourg doit sortir de cette image de paradis fiscal, de refuge pour patrimoines non déclarés, qui ne correspond plus à son identité" (free transmation : Luxembourg must leave this image of tax haven, of refuge for not declared assets, which does not correspond anymore to its identity)
This sentence wants a couple of comments.
It is the first time that a Luxembourg powerhouse admits that Luxembourg's identity was a tax haven and a place for not declared assets but it is no longer the case: it not correspond anymore to its identity
I can consider from a semantic point of view that Mr Meyer is officially repudiating what stated Jean Jacques Rommes in February 2009 or Lucien Thiel in February 2008.
He takes into account the commitments to counter tax evasion.
19:10 Posted in Luxembourg | Permalink | Comments (0)
The lark mirror
As Kenneth Blanchard said, "Managing only for Profit is like playing tennis with your eye on the scoreboard and not on the ball" (K. Blanchard, The power of Ethical Management. Ballantine, 1988, p. 109).
This is exactly what the CSSF is doing in its latest press release relating to the Global situation of undertakings for collective investment.
As at 30 April 2009, total net assets of undertakings for collective investment and specialised investment funds reached EUR 1,592.932 billion compared to EUR 1,526.563 billion as at 31 March 2009, i.e. a 4.35% growth on a monthly basis
They explain that the positive statements regarding the coordination of macroeconomic policies, made during the G20 summit in London, as well as indications of a mitigation in the deterioration of the economic outlook in April, contributed to the increase of equity prices on almost all equity markets. Thus, most equity UCIs recorded gains in April compared to the previous month.
The Luxembourg UCI industry registered a positive variation amounting to EUR 66.369 billion during April. This positive variation is composed of EUR 59.364 billion resulting from the positive impact of the financial markets and EUR 7.005 billion originating from positive net issues
This press release ignore the ”ball” i.e. two facts that occured late May and that weaken the Luxembourg UCI industry in the future:
- on the one hand the CSSF press release on UBS, where it appeared that the regulator in Luxembourg neither sanctioned the bank, nor took a clear decision in favor of the investors victims of Madoff: it is up to the justice to decide and clarify possible valid and opposable contractual clauses that could limit UBS’s responsibility;-
- on the other hand, the day after, Commissioner McCreevy admitted failures in the transposition of the liability of depositories: that “the minimum high level principles of the UCITS Directive have been transposed in very diverging ways by Member States, which means that some EU investors in UCITS funds are better protected than others”.
In order to analyse the situation, with a fair view, the CSSF could ignored the above facts that would have justified a reserve.
Once more it is a misleading communication that ignores pending issues.
05:53 Posted in Luxembourg | Permalink | Comments (0)