What safeguards do we have in place to ensure the quality of the new clients we work for?

Our clients are mainly multinationals, private equity firms, investment funds and high net worth individuals.  Each of our prospective clients is assessed individually for pre-acceptance and one of the first factors considered (and which helps build trust) is the origin of the relationship. Criteria such as length of the business relationship with the business feeder, frequency […]

What are some of the key KYC/AML regulations in Luxembourg that clients should be aware of?

Luxembourg has a comprehensive and extensive anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML&CFT) legal, regulatory and institutional framework based for the most part on EU instruments and FATF standards. In Luxembourg the Financial Supervisory Authority (“Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier”, CSSF) issues the applicable AML/CFT laws for the financial sector. The main […]

How do we help clients manage the balance between regulatory risk and business specific risk in terms of AML?

One of the obligations supervised entities have under AML law, refers to ongoing measures of vigilance around clients which are applied according to a risk-based approach (RBA). These measures of vigilance are applied, not only in the beginning of business relationship, but also during the course of the business relationship.  The RBA states that an […]

Private Wealth Investment Vehicles (SPF)

The société de gestion de patrimoine familial (Private wealth management company) has been created by the law dated 11 May 2007 (the “SPF Law “) with the objective of creating a favourable framework for the family wealth management by qualifying shareholders which are either: • Individuals acting in the management of their private wealth, or• […]

Specialised Investment Funds (SIF) – Overview

The Specialised Investment Funds (SIF), governed by the Luxembourg law of 13 February 2007(the “SIF Law”), as amended by the AIFM Law of 12 July 2013, is designed as a more lightly regulatedinvestment vehicle which offers an operationally flexible and fiscally efficient multipurposeinvestment tool for international, institutional and qualified investors (the same definition as forSICARs,): […]

How can practices gain a competitive edge in the AI era?

With the AI era upon us, how can practices ensure that they get ahead of the competition in delivering services to clients?   Artificial intelligence (AI) is receiving a lot of coverage in the accounting press at present, as the Big Four, large firms in the next tier and software houses publicise their investment in AI […]

Chris DowningDirector, Inspire Professional Services Ltd

TRUE COST OF AML COMPLIANCE – FINDINGS FROM EUROPEAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS – LexisNexis Risk Solutions, September 2017 EU regulations governing anti-money laundering (AML) compliance continue to evolve, most recently with the EU’s Fourth AML Directiv

TRUE COST OF AML COMPLIANCE – FINDINGS FROM EUROPEAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS – LexisNexis Risk Solutions, September 2017   EU regulations governing anti-money laundering (AML) compliance continue to evolve, most recently with the EU’s Fourth AML Directive coming into force in June 2017. The expanded focus of this new Directive increases pressure on compliance teams, with significant […]