The Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency (LuxFLAG) is pleased to announce that 16 funds have been granted the use of the LuxFLAG label, bringing the new total to 354 investment products, with assets under management of over 154 billion Euro, as at 01st July 2021. This represents a growth in labelled products of 74% over the last 12 months.

With the newly issued labels, LuxFLAG expands its reach to one new jurisdiction viz. the Monaco in addition to Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain.

‘’The asset management industry is determined to play an active role in the sustainable transition of the economy, resulting in the proportion of ESG assets growing every month. Initiatives like LuxFLAG have an increasingly important role to play in this transition by enhancing transparency and credibility to investors.’’ said Denise Voss, Chairwoman of LuxFLAG.

‘’The ever-growing demand for the LuxFLAG label affirms its relevance to investors while highlighting the sustainability credentials of the underlying investment products. In the process of expanding LuxFLAG’s activities and global reach, the stringent eligibility criteria and rigorous application review process remains our top priority’’ said Sachin Vankalas, General Manager of LuxFLAG.

The newly labelled ESG Funds are:

• Credit Suisse (Lux) Thematic Opportunities Equity Fund
• Fon Fineco Patrimonio Global
• Fundsmith SICAV – Fundsmith Sustainable Equity Sub-Fund
• GFG Funds – Euro Global Bond
• GFG Funds – Global Corporate Bond
• GFG Funds – Global Enhanced Cash
• GFG Funds – Income Opportunity
• LFIS Vision UCITS – Equity Defender
• MAM Positive Impact ESG Fund
• Moorea Fund – Sustainable Emerging Markets Equity
• Moorea Fund – Sustainable US Equity
• Multifondo America FI
• Multifondo Europa FI

 

The funds which were granted the use of the LuxFLAG ESG Label Applicant Fund Status are:

• MACSF Tikehau Financement Croissance
• Tomorrow Private Equity Fund I
• Zencap Real Estate Debt III Umbrella FPS

LuxFLAG Labels are valid for a period of one year and are subject to renewal on expiry. The full list of LuxFLAG labelled funds is available here.

Editorial Notes:
LuxFLAG, the Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency, is an independent and international, non-profit, organization created in Luxembourg, in July 2006, jointly by public and private partners. LuxFLAG aims to promote the raising of capital for the Sustainable Finance sector by awarding a recognizable label to eligible investment vehicles in Climate Finance, ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance), and Environment, Microfinance, and Green bonds. The LuxFLAG Labels are recognized for their high standards and rigorous assessment of applicant investment Vehicles’ investment holdings, strategy and procedures with respect to ESG matters as well as an affirmation of their transparency to investors – which are key components of the eligibility criteria for the LuxFLAG labels.

In January 2020, LuxFLAG became the first sustainable finance labelling agency in Europe to obtain the ISAE 3000 Type II certification for its system of internal controls for label issuance services to Sustainable Finance vehicles.

Contacts
Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency (LuxFLAG)
12, Rue Erasme I L-1468 Luxembourg
Tel: +352 20 28 50 I Fax: +352 22 30 93
Email: Communications@luxflag.org

LuxFLAG is pleased to announce the appointment of eight new Eligibility Committee Members.

LuxFLAG Eligibility Committee refers to an independent pool of industry experts, who are not employed by the LuxFLAG but work for the agency on a voluntary basis.

Each LuxFLAG Label has its own Eligibility Committee, comprised of independent experts, representing different subject matter expertise. The Committees are made up of academics, analysts, auditors, consultants and economists.

LuxFLAG counts 5 Eligibility Committees, namely:

• Climate Finance Label Eligibility Committee (CFLEC)
• Environment Label Eligibility Committee (ENVLEC)
• ESG Label Eligibility Committee (ESGLEC)
• Green Bond Label Eligibility Committee (GBLEC)
• Microfinance Label Eligibility Committee (MLEC)

The Label Eligibility Committee is an integral part of the application review process. Each Committee brings expertise and knowledge, along with different views and opinions from diverse perspectives.

LuxFLAG’s new Eligibility Committee Members include:

• Julie Castiaux

With over 14 years of experience in sustainability, Julie is Sustainable Finance Director at KPMG Luxembourg. In her previous role as Senior Manager at Deloitte Luxembourg, she was in charge of the coordination of the sustainability services. Passionate about nature, ecology and economic issues, Julie is an active expert in sustainability for the public and private sector. Her specialties include climate change and sustainability strategy. Her involvement in projects helps clients to progress towards sustainability by reducing their carbon footprints and environmental and social impact. She also supports financial institutions in understanding and complying with sustainable finance regulations and in the development of the ESG products strategy. Julie advises companies to improve their reporting on sustainability, with particular recommendations on environmental, human resources and health and safety reporting.  Julie has represented Deloitte at the International Climate Finance Accelerator and is also part of the ALFI working group on sustainable finance.

Julie has a Master in geology and attended a complementary training as environmental adviser (IEC Namur) and in management (ICHEC). She has the accreditation Bilan Carbone® from ADEME and has been trained to the ERS (Ecosystem Services review) methodology.

Julie Castiaux joins the LuxFLAG Climate Finance Label Eligibility Committee (“CFLEC”) and LuxFLAG Environment Label Eligibility Committee (“ELEC”)

• Claudia Dambax

Claudia Dambax is the deputy head of the Board Advisory Team. She has in-depth experiences in the fund structuring, operational management, legal, corporate governance and board advisory. She is experienced with a broad client base from private clients, ultra high-net worth individuals to institutional client, international financial institutions and development finance institutions. She works for more than 15 years in the financial services sector at the private sector and at European level. She administered and managed UCITS and alternative investment funds (as VC/PE, private debt, real estate) and since 2010 focuses on the sustainable finance space and its (public-private partnership) funds. Prior to joining Innpact, Claudia worked for Oppenheim Asset Management, Deutsche Asset Management and for the European Investment Fund. Claudia studied at the Free university Berlin (Germany), at the Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada) and at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management (Germany). In addition, she hold a certification in Sustainable Business Strategy from the Harvard Business School. Claudia is business fluent in her mother tongue German, English and French.

Claudia Dambax joins the LuxFLAG Climate Finance Label Eligibility Committee (“CFLEC”).

• Alyssa Di Cara

Alyssa Di Cara is an attachée and project manager in climate and sustainable finance at the Luxembourg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development. Prior to joining the Ministry, Alyssa was a researcher for Sustainability at Accenture Research in Frankfurt, part of Accenture’s Innovation Architecture for Growth & Strategy. Alyssa held an earlier position as ESG Analyst at Sustainalytics.  Her interests include sustainable finance, circular economy, business responsibility and ethics and responsible technology, travel and photography.

Alyssa holds a Master of Arts in Human Rights from Columbia University of the City of New York, USA.

Alyssa Di Cara joins the LuxFLAG ESG Label Eligibility Committee (“ESGLEC”)

• Claudia Hitaj

Claudia Hitaj is a research economist at the Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology. From 2013-2019, she was an economist in the Resource and Rural Economics Division of the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. She joined the Environmental Sustainability and Circularity unit of LIST in September 2019 where she is leading research on sustainable finance. Claudia has 25+ publications on various topics in energy, environmental, and agricultural economics, including on sustainable finance and renewable power.

Claudia Hitaj joins the LuxFLAG Environment Label Eligibility Committee (“ELEC”) and LuxFLAG ESG Label Eligibility Committee (“ESGLEC”)

• François Koulischer

François Koulischer is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Luxembourg School of Finance (LSF) of the Université du Luxembourg. His research interests include financial intermediation, monetary and macroeconomics and housing finance. Before joining the LSF, he was an economist at the Central Bank of Luxembourg and the Bank of France.

He holds a Ph.D. from the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

François Koulischer joins the LuxFLAG ESG Label Eligibility Committee (“ESGLEC”)

• Garvan (Garry) Rory Pieters

Garry Pieters is an ILA-certified, independent director with over 30 years of experience in the field of finance and asset management. In early 2010 he joined The Directors’ Office as a Partner and has several mandates as an independent director and/or conducting officer for a number of Luxembourg funds and management companies. He began his career in commodities, foreign exchange and money-markets trading at Commerzbank, after which he became a portfolio manager of fixed income and money market funds at (what became) ING. He spent a total of 22 years with ING, becoming the general manager of ING Investment Luxembourg in 1994 and in late 1999 he set up an asset management joint-venture for ING in Singapore where he was Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. In 2002 he became the Executive Vice President at the ING asset management joint-venture in South Korea. In 2006 he became responsible for business development of ING’s Fiduciary Pension Services in the Hague.

Garvan (Garry) Rory Pieters joins the LuxFLAG Microfinance Label Eligibility Committee (“MLEC”)

• David Suetens

David Suetens is the founder of Bridgebuilding and an Independent Director with financial services risk and business understanding with two INED mandates, one as Chair and one as Risk Chair. He was executive vice president and international chief risk officer for State Street Corporation with responsibility for leading the company’s risk management function internationally. David joined State Street in May 2012 after several senior global positions held at ING Investment Management Europe, ABN AMRO Asset Management and EUROCLEAR.

David holds a Faculty of Law – Juris Doctor from the Catholic University Leuven and a degree in investment advice from St Aloysius University in Brussels. He holds a master’s degree in international banking law and finance from Boston University School of Law.

David joins the LuxFLAG Climate Finance Label Eligibility Committee (“CFLEC”) and LuxFLAG ESG Label Eligibility Committee (“ESGLEC”)

• Dario Zambotti

Dario is audit Director in our investment management team and coordinates the sustainability assurance services and the Italian business community. Dario has more than 15 years of experience in the Financial Services industry, servicing investment management clients in Luxembourg and Dublin with a specialization in UCITS, Hedge Funds, impact funds, alternative investment funds and Management Companies. He started his career in Milan as external auditor for manufacturing and commercial companies. His experience on impact funds led him leading the initiatives and the development of assurance services on sustainable finance within the audit department cross industries.

Dario holds the practicing certificate issued by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and he is currently IRE (Institut des réviseurs d’entreprises) candidate.

Dario Zambotti joins the LuxFLAG ESG Label Eligibility Committee (“ESGLEC”)

LuxFLAG warmly welcomes its new Eligibility Committee Members and looks forward to close collaboration and inviting their contribution during the LuxFLAG Labels application review process.

***

LuxFLAG announces the revision of its Label Eligibility Criteria, in alignment with the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) requirements.  The revision will affect the Eligibility Criteria of its Climate Finance, Environment, ESG and Microfinance Labels.

The principal changes to LuxFLAG’s Label Eligibility Criteria are the requirement for Applicant Investment Funds to comply with the requirements defined under Article 8 or Article 9.

Label Name	Type of Label	Disclosure requirements as per SFDR
LuxFLAG Climate Finance Label	Impact Label	Art 9
LuxFLAG Environment Label	Impact Label	Art 9 /Art 8
LuxFLAG Microfinance Label	Impact Label	Art 9
LuxFLAG ESG Label	Sustainability Transition Label	Art 8 / Art 9

LuxFLAG envisages a transition period for the full compliance during the course of 2021.

• Revised Criteria of LuxFLAG Climate Finance Label
• Revised Criteria of LuxFLAG Environment Label
• Revised Crieria of LuxFLAG ESG Label
• Revised Critera of LuxFLAG Microfinance Label

LuxFLAG is pleased to announce that 27 funds (18 ESG, 5 ESG Applicant Fund Status, 1 Environment, 2 Environment Applicant Fund Status and 1 Microfinance) have been granted the use of the LuxFLAG Label, bringing the new total to 347 investment products with Eur 150.48 billion AuM as at 1^st April 2021.

These products are domiciled in ten jurisdictions, viz. Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain. The funds are managed in 16 countries by 113 asset managers.

LuxFLAG witnessed 77% growth in the number of labelled funds in the last 12 months and particularly 114% growth in ESG Labelled funds. During the past 24 months, LuxFLAG witnessed 197% growth overall and 472% in ESG, reflecting the strong growth in sustainable investing.

The newly labelled ESG Funds are:

• American Century Emerging Markets Sustainable Impact Equity Fund
• Amundi Funds Total Hybrid Bond
• Bakersteel Global Funds SICAV – Electrum Fund
• Bakersteel Global Funds SICAV – Precious Metals Fund
• BDL Convictions
• BlueBay Funds – BlueBay Financial Capital Bond Fund
• Brown Advisory U.S. Sustainable Growth Fund
• CapitalatWork Foyer Umbrella – Fixed Income at Work (expected to be renamed as CapitalatWork Foyer Umbrella – Sustainable Bonds at Work)
• Comgest Asia Ex Japan
• Comgest Asia Pac Ex Japan
• Comgest Growth New Asia
• Comgest World Plus
• Fidelity Funds – Sustainable European Smaller Companies
• Lyxor/Chenavari Credit Fund
• Metropole Funds – Metropole Euro SRI
• Metropole Funds – Metropole Selection
• Sky Harbor Global Funds – Global Sustainable High Yield Fund
• Sky Harbor Global Funds – US Short Duration Sustainable High Yield

The funds which were granted the use of the LuxFLAG ESG Label Applicant Fund Status are:

• Abante Global Funds – Abante Biotech Fund
• BCEE Lux-Equity Green
• BNP Paribas European Real Estate Debt Fund II
• Fidelity – Sustainable Asia Equity Fund
• Fidelity – Sustainable Japan Equity Fund

The funds which were granted the use of the LuxFLAG Environment Label are:

• France 2i

The funds which were granted the use of the LuxFLAG Environment Label Applicant Fund Status are:

• Eiffel Essentiel SLP
• BNP Paribas European Real Estate Debt Fund II

The funds which were granted the use of the LuxFLAG Microfinance Label are:

• EU Microfinance Platform FCP-FIS – Employment and Social Innovation

Kindly contact us for further information.

Download LuxFLAG in numbers

LuxFLAG is pleased to welcome 3 new members – Alma Capital Investment Management, FactSet Research Systems and  Sustainalytics – counting a total of 92 Associate Members.

 

 

 

Founded in 2006, Alma Capital is an independent asset management company with offices in Luxembourg, Paris and London. Alma Capital selectively partners with talented boutique asset managers from around the world and actively distributes their flagship strategies to European institutional investors. Alma Capital’s assets under management or advisory are near $4.5bn.

 

FactSet Research Systems provides computer-based financial data and analysis for financial professionals, including investment managers, hedge funds, and investment bankers. It consolidates data on global markets, public and private companies, and equity and fixed-income portfolios.

 

Sustainalytics is a global leader in ESG and Corporate Governance research and ratings. Over the last 25 years, Sustainalytics has brought together leading ESG research and client servicing professionals. Today, Sustainalytics supports hundreds of the world’s foremost investors who incorporate ESG and corporate governance insights into their investment processes.

Are you interested in becoming an Associate member? Get further details here.

Overview of LuxFLAG’s Associate members

LuxFLAG published its Annual Activity Report presenting an overview of key developments in 2020.

At the end of 2020, LuxFLAG had issued labels to 322 investment vehicles worth over EUR 135,40 billion. The non-profit association reported an increase of its number of labels by close to 76% in 2020. 92 Associate Members were part of the Association at the end of 2020.

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