The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) has re-elected Denise Voss for an additional two-years term as Chairman of its Board of Directors.
Denise Voss has been a member of the ALFI board of directors since 2007 and has been Vice Chairman for International Affairs since 2011 before being appointed Chairman in June 2015. Denise is Conducting Officer of Franklin Templeton Investments and has worked in the financial industry in Luxembourg since 1990.
Before the Association’s Annual General Meeting held today at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, an Extraordinary General Membership Meeting adopted a modernisation of the Association’s statutes. The main modifications concern the introduction of a limit on the number of consecutive terms of Board members and an adaptation of the annual membership fee calculation principles.
Fostering team work and cooperation between ALFI’s various bodies, its General Secretariat and its members who join efforts in the Association’s 150 Technical Committees and Working Groups will continue to rank as one of her top priorities for the next two years, Denise Voss said when presenting her programme.
The implementation of regulation, including MiFID II, PRIIPS and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, will continue to occupy much of the industry’s time and resources in the years to come. In this context, providing input to consultations from both EU and non EU bodies as well as regular communication with the European institutions and the Luxembourg government should continue to be focus areas.
As the Luxembourg fund industry is moving towards €4,000 billion of assets under management, new structures and investment vehicles, including those used for non-traditional assets, have proven to be successful, and new jurisdictions such as Brazil and Australia have opened up to the distribution of Luxembourg funds. The impact of Brexit on the fund industry and businesses will be high on ALFI’s agenda over the next two years.
Denise Voss also stressed the importance of governance and of the role of the management company. “It’s vital that ALFI continues to explain the delegation model that the Luxembourg fund industry has operated over the last 30 years since the introduction of UCITS. The delegation model continues to be tried and tested in many industries throughout the world and in the case of UCITS brings the expertise of portfolio managers from around the world to investors in over 70 countries”, Denise said.
Talking about the opportunities offered by a rapidly changing environment, Denise Voss highlighted the asset management industry’s increasing role as a source of financing jobs and growth in Europe in the context of Europe’s Capital Markets Union and the chance – and need – to pro-actively use the arising digital technologies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the fund industry and its companies.
The ALFI chairman also expressed the conviction that the fund industry is now recognising its responsibility to engage with investors and fund distributors in respect of investor education, key to the financial well-being of individuals in and outside of Europe.
In order to best address the challenges the industry is facing, ALFI is adapting itself. Following a member survey, the Association has reviewed the governance of its internal bodies as well as the concept and organisation of its events – the first result having been the very well received transformation of the Spring conference into the ALFI European Asset Management Conference. Last but not least, a re-designed intranet went “live” in 2016 as a means of facilitating communication and exchange with and between ALFI members.
Read more about ALFI’s activities and achievements in the Associations online annual report.
ALFI’s new Board of Directors is as follows: Georges Bock, KPMG Luxembourg, S.C. • Freddy Brausch, Linklaters • Dirk Bruckmann, Deutsche Asset Management S.A. • Stéphane Brunet, BNP Paribas Asset Management Luxembourg • Michèle Eisenhuth, Arendt & Medernach • Jacques Elvinger, Elvinger Hoss Prussen S.A. • Michael Ferguson, Ernst & Young S.A. • Bettina Graeber, Pictet & Cie (Europe) S.A. • Jonathan P. Griffin, JPMorgan Asset Management (Europe) S.à r.l. • Holger Hildebrandt, Deka International S.A. • Lou Kiesch, Deloitte General Services S.à r.l. • Rudolf Kömen, Credit Suisse Fund Management S.A. • Nils Kruse, GAM (Luxembourg) S.A. • Steven Libby, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Société Coopérative • Maria Löwenbrück, Union Investment Luxembourg S.A. • Geoff Radcliffe, BlackRock Fund Management Company S.A. • Gilbert Schintgen, UBS Fund Management (Luxembourg) S.A. • Thomas Seale, European Fund Administration S.A. • David Suetens, State Street Bank Luxembourg S.C.A. • Denise Voss, Franklin Templeton International Services S.à r.l. • Marc Wathelet, FIL (Luxembourg) S.A. • Revel Wood, FundRock Management Company S.A. • Alastair Woodward, Schroder Investment Management (Luxembourg) S.A. • Julien Zimmer, DZ PRIVATBANK S.A.
