14-18 September 2020
At ALFI, we have been working hard over these past months to adapt our event calendar to the continued uncertainty around physical gatherings. We are now proud to announce that we have created a brand-new event concept to reconnect the fund industry.
It’s back to school and back to the investment funds community in the week of 14-18 September 2020.
An innovative WEEK of webinars will combine European asset management themes with global distribution topics. It will allow the fund community to come together again, exchange ideas, learn, and re-kindle business relationships in virtual form.
ALFI is organising a whole week of different activities for Luxembourg and the global fund industry that each individual can tailor to his/her interests and needs with a special focus on:
Please contact events@alfi.lu if you have any questions
Stay safe
Technology takes centre-stage amid pandemic as fund industry bounces back
Luxembourg’s investment fund sector has faced unprecedented challenges so far in 2020 but it has “weathered the storm reasonably well,” ALFI chair Corinne Lamesch told delegates in welcoming them to the fund industry organisation’s ALFI Rentrée virtual conference.
From a Covid-19 rebound to Brexit fall-out
Luxembourg’s economy is poised to rebound more strongly than other European countries this year, finance minister told his virtual audience on the second day of the ALFI Rentrée conference. If current trends are maintained, GDP is forecast to shrink by 6% this year, compared with an EU average of 8%-9%, followed by a 7% rebound in 2021, returning the economy to its pre-pandemic size.
Sustainability: how the fund industry is dealing with its megatrend
The cross-border fund sector was shaken by the turbulence that erupted in equity markets after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but there’s little sign that it has suffered any permanent damage. European UCITS assets are down 6% so far this year, a similar decline to those in 2011 and 2018, according to Deloitte partner François-Kim Hugé; in fact, there have been net inflows in every month except March, which saw net redemptions of €313bn.
CSSF leads by example on remote working
When Luxembourg’s financial regulator exhorted institutions to send their staff home in March, the CSSF was able to practice what it preached. “We were well equipped for the lockdown because all staff had been issued with laptops,” head of fund regulation Marco Zwick told delegates on the fourth day of the ALFI Rentrée virtual conference. Of around 900 staff, 98% worked from home, with just IT and HR personnel in the office.
The five pillars of ALFI’s strategy for the next five years encompass innovation in savings and investment, sustainability, UCITS as a multi-purpose vehicle, alternative investments, and innovation and digital transformation. Members of the association’s Strategic Advisory Board spelled out some of the implications to delegates on the final day of the ALFI Rentrée virtual conference.
