Las gestoras españolas trasladan a Luxemburgo 12.700 millones en fondos

Spanish asset managers have been rapidly transferring €12.7 billion in assets to Luxembourg over the past three years, according to industry sources. This trend reflects the growing importance of Luxembourg as a global center for asset management, with European asset managers leveraging Luxembourg's well-established ecosystem to distribute their products internationally.

Large banks, such as Banco Santander, use Luxembourg as a hub to sell their investment funds to clients in other countries, while most of the transferred assets eventually end up being distributed to Spanish clients. Despite the strong growth in asset transfers, the sector is concerned about the number of Spanish asset managers that are now in the process of moving part of their business and assets to Luxembourg.

Recent examples include the independent asset manager Buy and Hold, which transferred around €3 billion of assets to Luxembourg this year, and Dunas Capital, a medium-sized Spanish asset manager that has publicly expressed its intention to register its funds in Luxembourg due to difficulties in distributing them in Spain. Other Spanish asset managers are also reportedly in the process of transferring assets to Luxembourg, although they have not yet disclosed these moves.

Industry representatives from the Association of Collective Investment Institutions (Inverco) argue that the acceleration of asset transfers from Spain to Luxembourg should be mirrored in the market for mutual funds to encourage exits to the stock market and address potential gaps in competitiveness compared to other European jurisdictions.