The Allen & Overy Luxembourg podcast

Beneficiary Units – A Peak into Pandora’s box

In our newest episode of the Allen & Overy Luxembourg Podcast, Victoria Woestmann, Senior Associate in our Corporate M&A department, discussed all things Beneficiary Units with Justine Yansenne, junior associate in our Corporate M&A department, who recently won the Prix de l’ALJB 2020 for an empirical study on the market practice for beneficiary units in Luxembourg commercial companies, together with her university colleague, Dr. Thomas Biermeyer. Keen to find out what beneficiary units are, what they are used for, and whether you have to pay for them with your own sweat and blood ? Listen in !

DAC… WHAT?

Listen in to an informal coffee break conversation on (the Luxembourg implementation of) DAC 6 between Zofia White (Senior Associate) and Franz Kerger (Counsel), both tax lawyers within Allen & Overy Luxembourg.

“DAC6” is the sixth EU directive on automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation. Its purpose is to provide Member States with information on reportable cross-border arrangements so as to enable them to close loopholes and combat harmful tax practices.

Back to the office post-pandemic: Top tips for employers

^{In this podcast, Victoria Woestmann (senior associate in the Luxembourg Corporate team) and two members of the Luxembourg Employment Law team, Laurie Lougsami (associate) and Maurice Macchi (counsel), discuss some of the key considerations for employers over the coming months as they prepare for a return to the office in a post-Covid-19 world.}

SPACs and Luxembourg – a success story in the making?

Jacques Graas, partner in the Luxembourg corporate team, Paul Péporté, a partner in the Luxembourg ICM team, and Victoria Woestmann, a senior associate in the Luxembourg corporate team, talk about the SPACtacular world of Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicles (SPAC), how de-SPACing is as important as getting the SPAC listed, and why Luxembourg is a great market to absorb the SPAC wave that is flooding into Europe over the Atlantic. 

Keen to learn more? Then listen to the newest A&O Luxembourg Podcast.

The revised CSSF circular 12/552 and what it means for banks

Banks’ internal governance issues have, in recent years, received increased attention from regulators and international bodies, aimed primarily at correcting weak or superficial internal governance set-ups and practices.

In this context, the CSSF Circular 20/759 recently amended the CSSF Circular 12/552 on central administration, internal governance and risk management and aligned it with relevant European guidance (notably the EBA Guidelines on internal governance (EBA/GL/2017/11) and the Joint ESMA and EBA Guidelines on the assessment of suitability of members of the management body and key function holders (EBA/GL/2017/12).

Testimony to the importance of the topic in the coming years, the amendments made to the CSSF circular 12/552 go beyond mere cosmetic updates and:

• clarify certain internal governance requirements applicable to banks;
• define the scope of certain regulatory principles (such as the principle of proportionality); and not least
• formalise the CSSF’s approach and practice in certain areas.

In this podcast, Henri Wagner, the head of A&O’s Luxembourg banking regulatory practice, is joined by Carole Schmidt and Andrei Costica, who are respectively counsel and associate in the firm’s Banking-ICM and Regulatory team, in an interactive discussion on the key amendments to the revised CSSF circular 12/552.

Great Fund Insights: Luxembourg - a leading hub for alternative investments and a hedge against uncertainty

Today, Luxembourg is widely used as a hub to set up alternative investment funds (so-called upstream or fund formation) and to structure and execute transactions at the funds’ investment portfolio level (so-called downstream transactions). 

In this podcast, Natacha Oskian (head of business development) is joined by Peter Myners (partner and co-head of [Global] Alternative Investment Initiative) and Patrick Mischo (office senior partner) to discuss the main features of the Luxembourg alternative investment space and how it has been adjusting to the Covid-19 crisis.

They will also discuss what makes Luxembourg so special and distinct from other countries and examine some of the changes alternative investment managers are experiencing today.  

Great Fund Insights: Capital call financing - why and how?

The popularity and volume of capital call financings (also called subscription lines or equity bridge facilities) have steadily increased over the past few years (including in Luxembourg) and this trend is here to stay. In this podcast Bénédicte Kurth (Counsel, Banking), Joanna Pecenik (Counsel, Investment Funds) and Yannick Arbaut (Partner, Investment Funds) explain the logic and key features of capital call financings.

Bill 7637: a new era for crypto-securities?

Luxembourg is about to add the missing piece to its legislative framework to enable the issuance of crypto-securities using decentralised ledger technology (“DLT”).

In this podcast, Natacha Oskian is joined by Philippe Noeltner, a lawyer and associate who is part of Allen & Overy’s Luxembourg International Capital Markets team, to discuss the following:

• the objectives of Bill 7637 concerning the issuance of dematerialised securities on DLT devices, such as blockchain and Ethereum;
• the importance of Bill 7637 for Luxembourg Capital Markets ecosystem and how this Bill may lead to a new era for crypto-securities in Luxembourg;
• the use of DLT-based wallets to operate an issuer’s issuance account, and investors’ securities accounts;
• how both legal certainty and investor protection are ensured; and
• grey areas and opportunities.

Podcast #3: AML/CTF – Recent Luxembourg developments: focus on Fintech

The inclusion of virtual asset service providers in the scope of the AML Act 2004 and the additional restrictions on the use of anonymised e-money instruments showcase the need to address the “Fintech” spread in the financial sector and to mitigate the potential threats they pose to the current AML/CTF framework. Counsel Carole Schmidt and Senior Associate Baptiste Aubry discuss the implications of those measures while reminding of the need to embrace new technologies and the bright side of legal or reg-tech as powerful tools to improve AML/CTF processes, for both customers and professionals.

Podcast #2: AML/CTF – Recent Luxembourg developments extraterritorial effects of the AML Act 2004

Counsel Thomas Berger and Senior Associate Baptiste Aubry discuss the extraterritorial effects of the AML Act 2004 in light of the recent implementation of 5MLD into Luxembourg law. They shed some light on the impact of these effects on obliged entities and on the particular measures to apply where high-risk countries are in the picture.