Credit Institutions are legal persons whose activities consist in receiving from the public deposits or other repayable funds and in granting credits for their own account. Credit institutions are by law also authorised to exercise all activities regulated by the Law of 5 April 1993 on the financial sector, in particular investment services.
The sectoral regulation on UCIs provides for a specific authorisation for central administration/transfer agent and depositary of Luxembourg UCIs.
The European prudential supervision regime is organised as follows:
Type of credit institution |
Direct competent authority |
Significant Luxembourg incorporated credit institution |
ECB |
Less significant Luxembourg incorporated credit institution |
LFS |
Branch of an EU significant credit institution |
ECB |
Branch of an EU less significant credit institution |
Home authority |
Branch of an EU credit institution incorporated in a non Euro area Member State |
Home authority |
Branch of a non EU credit institution |
LFS |
Besides the prudential supervision in a strict sense which lies, as the case may be, at the ECB, the LFS or the home authority, the LFS is in particular in charge of the following areas of supervision.
The LFS is the competent authority in charge of the supervision of compliance with professional obligations in respect of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing.
The LFS is in charge of the supervision of consumer protection regulation, in particular MiFID, mortgage credit directive and consumer credit directive.
The LFS is in charge of regulation in relation with market integrity, in particular EMIR, SFTR (Securities Financing Transactions Regulation) and Benchmark regulation.
The LFS is finally in charge of various other European or national regulations: Payment services directive, Directive on security of network and information systems, Directive on payment accounts.