Banking and Professionals of the Financial Sector (PFS) News

Dans un contexte de crise et de doutes sur les marchés, le coût des services et des produits vendus mais aussi les niveaux de risques sont naturellement remis en question par les clients de la banque privée qui recherchent des placements transparents et des rendements prévisibles.
February 2012

Le secteur est rentable. Mais les investissements IT ne suivent pas comparativement à d’autres pays. La pression des maisons mères est perceptible. La consigne est la même pour tous: «réduisez les coûts»! Pour PwC Luxembourg, ce n’est pas la meilleure façon de relever les défis ...
February 2012

Amendment of the Luxembourg law dated 11 May 2007 on the "Société de gestion de Patrimoine Familial" relaxes the regime.
February 2012

Within the framework of one of the missions of the European System of Central banks, consisting in promoting the proper functioning of payment systems, the Banque centrale du Luxembourg ("BCL") has issued on 4 July 2011 Regulation 2011/N°9 (the "Règlement") on the collection of data on payment instruments and operations.
January 2012

PwC Luxembourg a organisé le 12ème PwC Banking Day ce jeudi 1er décembre. Une nouvelle édition qui a réuni près de 250 personnes autour des enjeux du secteur bancaire et plus généralement de la place financière luxembourgeoise.
December 2011

Please note that the Private banking European Tax Newsletter has been renamed to Private Wealth Services European Tax Newsletter in order to better reflect the content and the subjects adressed.

The 7th edition of the Private Wealth Services European Tax Newsletter is dedicated to various changes and upcoming amendments in a number of tax jurisdictions, which will have an impact on the tax situations for wealth management business. We do not usually see so many legislative changes passed throughout the summer months. This year, however, we had to face a number of legislative developments, mostly related to the increased fiscal pressure.

 Private Wealth Services - European Tax Newsletter (October 2011)

The Central Bank of Luxembourg (“CBL”) has issued on 29 April 2011 a regulation concerning the collection of statistics from companies which contract loans or issue debt securities or derivative instruments to finance its affiliated companies.
August 2011

Changes and news impacting Private Banking business are the dominant themes of this 6th edition of the Private Banking European Tax Newsletter.

For several months, changes to local tax legislations have led to an increase in the tax pressure in some countries. Parts of the tax amendments that are reported in this Newsletter still pursue that goal and are expected to contribute to reduce budget deficits. For example, the French finance bill includes several tax increases, like the introduction of an exit tax and the abolition of the tax "shield" system.

However, some countries have taken or intend to take tax measures to improve their tax climate and to attract foreign investors.

The European Union efforts for more harmonisation among European countries have resulted in positive changes in some EU jurisdictions like in Poland where discrimination against foreign - among others Luxembourg - investment funds have been reduced.

We hope you will enjoy reading this Newsletter and we wish you a very nice summer.

Le Comité de Bâle sur le contrôle bancaire (« le Comité ») est un forum international dont l’objectif est d’améliorer la coopération sur les normes prudentielles gouvernant l’industrie bancaire et de promouvoir les meilleures pratiques de gestion des risques.

Please find below the fifth edition of our Private Banking European Tax Newsletter.

The beginning of a new calendar year is an opportunity to provide you with a summary of changes to local tax legislation. You will see that most articles in the newsletter focus on these legislative developments.

As many European countries currently suffer budget deficits, we see an unprecedented fiscal pressure on governments. This has resulted in an increase in tax rates in some jurisdictions, as you will notice while reading some of the articles.

We also provide you with news on administrative cooperation, exchange of information and the fight against tax evasion. However, we do not only observe increased tax rates and more severe sanctions imposed by tax authorities. Some countries report good news on more favourable tax regimes applicable as from 2011, e.g. Luxembourg, Italy.

We hope you will enjoy reading this Newsletter.

This year-end edition is dedicated to upcoming tax reforms in various European countries, which will be effective as from 2011. As in our previous editions, the trend towards more transparency and the fight against tax evasion is still high on the agenda. Yet we also see some negotiations aiming at a settlement of non declared income via a withholding tax at source but without relieving the banking secrecy. The outcome of these bilateral negotiations will probably only become concrete during the next months, but will be highly dependent on the EU Commission’s overall strategy.

We also see that based on recent developments in various European countries, such as Belgium, the Luxembourg investment vehicles are raising an increased interest from foreign investors.

As regards the Luxembourg private banking sector, the expected consolidation phase has not really started. The 2011 Luxembourg
M & A transactions are likely to relate to small and medium size wealth managers and banks.

We hope you will enjoy reading this Newsletter.

This third edition of our Private Banking European Tax Newsletter is dedicated to upcoming changes in various national tax jurisdictions, which will influence the tax situation and investment decisions of private clients.

We are also very pleased to provide you with some insight from Lebanon, which we believe could play the role of a gateway to the Middle East region. Lebanon is recognised as a centre of expertise for Private Banking and maintains strong links with European markets.

Tax transparency and the fight against tax evasion are still high on the agenda. Latest news on client reporting requirements and some national tax fraud investigations are provided in this regard.

We hope you will enjoy reading this Newsletter.