Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier

In Luxembourg, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) is the supervisory authority responsible for the prudential supervision of credit institutions, professionals of the financial sector (PFS); undertakings for collective investment (UCI); management companies;  alternative investment fund managers; authorized securitization undertakings; fiduciary representatives having dealings with securitization undertakings; regulated markets and their operators; multilateral trading facilities; payment institutions; and electronic money institutions. It also supervises the securities markets, including their operators.

The CSSF is also the competent authority for monitoring compliance with professional obligations relating to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing by all persons subject to its supervision. In this respect, the CSSF has all the supervisory and investigatory powers provided for in the Law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (“AML/CTF Law”) and in various sectorial laws for the purpose of carrying out its duties, in addition to the powers granted in the context of its supervision role.

Being part of the European Union, Luxembourg institutions are part of the European system set up for the supervision of the finance sector, which consists of three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs): the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the European Banking Authority, and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority.

The objective of the ESAs is to improve the functioning of the internal market by ensuring appropriate, efficient and harmonized European regulation and supervision. Meanwhile, the CSSF as national supervisory authority remains in charge of supervising the individual financial institutions.

Banque Centrale du Luxembourg

The Banque Centrale du Luxembourg is responsible for: (i) the supervision of the global liquidity situation as well as the supervision of the individual situation of the liquidity of each operator; and (ii) the oversight of payment and settlement infrastructures.

Luxembourg is part of the Eurozone, and, as such, the European Central Bank has become the supervisor of Luxembourg banks under the EUs Single Supervisory Mechanism.

Commissariat aux Assurances

The Commissariat aux Assurances (CAA) is the public institution supervising insurance and reinsurance companies, insurance intermediaries and professionals of the insurance sector. The CAA also has supervision over three main types of regulated pension funds in Luxembourg: (i) pension savings companies with variable capital (sociétés d'épargne-pension à capital variable or SEPCAVs); (ii) pension savings associations (associations d'épargne-pension or ASSEPs); and (iii) other regulated pension funds (CAA pension funds).