Latest News
The US and Luxembourg governments have signed an agreement to improve international tax compliance and to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
On 27 February 2014, the Luxembourg and US negotiating teams agreed on the substance of the Model 1 Agreement.
ALFI – the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry – has welcomed the signature of this intergovernmental agreement (IGA).
The association has been working hard to ensure that its members are best prepared for the implementation of FATCA. A Q&A document is being finalised by ALFI's FATCA implementation working group. The working group comprises representatives
This week the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") issued a final report containing new guidelines on collateral management by UCITS ("New Guidelines") (ESMA/2014/294).
As detailed by law firm Maples and Calder, the consultation was held to review the requirements in paragraph 43(e) of the Guidelines that collateral received by a UCITS should be diversified on a country/issuer basis and subject to a 20 per cent issuer limit.
The key points of the New Guidelines are summarised below:
(a) Paragraph 43(e) of the Guidelines is replaced with the New Guidelines to reflect that any UCITS may be fully
Schultze Asset Management (SAM) has listed Class L shares of Schultze Offshore Fund (SOF) on the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE).
SOF is SAM’s flagship vehicle’s offshore feeder.
The ISE listing is expected to bring a wide variety of benefits for certain investors including: (a) enabling a broader range of investors by making it an eligible investment, (b) reducing regulatory constraints for investors in some countries, (c) generally increasing the credibility and profile of the entity, (d) enhancing transparency, and (e) tax considerations.
George Schultze, founder and managing member of SAM, says: “We are very excited about listing SOF’s
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) acting chairman Mark Wetjen and leaders of Canada’s financial regulators have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the exchange of information in the supervision of regulated entities that operate on a cross-border basis in the US and in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario or Québec.
Through the MOU, the CFTC and the Canadian authorities express their willingness to cooperate in the interest of fulfilling their respective regulatory mandates regarding derivatives markets.
The scope of the MOU includes markets and organised trading platforms, central counterparties, trade repositories, and intermediaries, dealers, and other market
ALTIN, the USD240m multi-strategy fund of hedge funds traded on the London and Swiss stock exchanges, has started 2014 with a positive outlook with a year-to-date net asset value performance of +2.76 per cent.
The share price has risen by four per cent leading to a further narrowing of the discount of the share price to NAV.
The discount of the share price (SIX Swiss stock exchange) to NAV currently stands at 20.58 per cent as of 26 March 2014, an improvement from when it stood at 31 per cent a year ago on 21 March 2013.
In 2013 ALTIN recorded a strong share price growth
European investors have continued as active participants in US-listed equity options markets with directional and volatility strategies seeing significant growth in 2013.
According to research from TABB Group – “European Trading of US Listed Options 2014: Shifting Demand in a Changing Market Landscape,” – European investors are using US options for a diverse set of strategies including overwriting programmes on underlying US equity assets, hedging of international equity portfolios and as part of directional strategies around corporate events.
“A broad range of European investors are actively trading in US options markets as deep liquidity and transparency coupled with ease
Vistra, a provider of corporate, trust and fund administration services, has launched Vistra Trust (BVI) Limited to meet the growing demand for British Virgin Islands trust services.
Simon Filmer will lead the BVI operation as managing director. He has over 14 years’ experience in the fiduciary services industry, with a focus on corporate business, trusts and investment business.
Vistra BVI services include the establishment of a broad range of BVI trust and corporate structures; trustee, protector and full administration services, as well as the provision of corporate director and nominee shareholder services.
Filmer says: “Being granted a Class II
Asia-focused hedge funds added USD20 billion in assets in 2013, American funds dominate global AUM, according to a survey from tracker AsiaHedge.
The industry still remains about USD33 billion below its peak asset level hit in 2007, but the twice-a-year survey shows that investors are starting to return, reports Reuters.
"This dispels the notion that Asian hedge funds have fallen off the radar for global allocators," said Aradhna Dayal, head of Asia for HedgeFund Intelligence, which runs AsiaHedge.
"We have seen assets in some of the large, home-grown managers swell considerably last year," she added.
A 13.6 per cent median return
As part of an initiative to support the dematerialisation of securities of all types, LuxCSD is cutting fees for equities by 60 per cent from 1 April 2014.
This fee reduction results in an alignment of the equity and bond custody fees.
The aim is to encourage corporations to dematerialise existing physical securities and to newly issue securities in dematerialised form. Custody of equities in dematerialised form significantly reduces inefficiencies, risks and costs for the industry and increase the level of transparency regarding the chain of holders of a Luxembourg security.
In March 2014, LuxCSD handled its first
Deutsche Börse Market Data + Services has launched Eurex Order by Order, a new information product that makes available the entire Eurex order book for benchmark futures for the first time.
“Eurex Order by Order provides customers the most granular trade and order data possible for Eurex’s benchmark contracts. This complete transparency benefits institutional investors who rely on enhanced market information to execute trades,” says Georg Gross, head of content, front office data + services, Deutsche Börse. 


Data is available for 150 instruments across the equity index, interest rate, agriculture, property and volatility derivatives segments. Examples include futures on
