The forthcoming visit to Luxembourg of the Financial Action Task Force, the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, is certainly not unrelated to the recent adoption of the law creating a new procedure of out-of-court dissolution without liquidation for certain commercial companies. That law is the first part of the more ambitious reform aiming at preserving businesses and modernizing bankruptcy law, currently pending before the Luxembourg Parliament. Its objective is to remove, in a quick and cost-efficient way, dormant and empty shell companies without economic reality and in breach of applicable laws to prevent them from being used for criminal purposes.

Through the EU Directive on Restructuring and Insolvency of 20 June 2019 (EUR 2019/1023, “Directive”), the European Union has imposed an obligation on its member states to offer a more attractive and flexible restructuring scheme in their respective local law. The initial deadline to do so had been 17 July 2021. Only a handful of countries (most notably Germany and The Netherlands) had implemented the Directive within the initial deadline, whilst the other countries made use of the possibility to ask for a one year extension.

On 9 February 2022, the Luxembourg Parliament adopted the draft bill amending the Luxembourg law of 22 March 2004 on securitization, as amended governing Luxembourg securitization vehicles. The Law aims at modernizing the 2004 Law by increasing the flexibility and legal certainty of the Luxembourg regime while ensuring effective protection for investors.

The law of 21 July 2021, effective as of 31 July 2021, has implemented the European prudential regime applicable to investment firms authorized under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II set out under the Investment Firms Directive and the Investment Firms Regulation into Luxembourg law.

On 15 June 2021, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) published an updated version of its Q&A on the statuses of PFS-Part II with respect to the granting of loans to the public.