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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 June 2025
This research reconstructs the business dynamics behind the evolution of the European mutual fund industry, which led Luxembourg to become its main international gateway since the 1960s. We analyze this local industry to understand how political and financial élites influence the economic specialization of small states. We argue that a closely-knit community of local professionals and politicians, well-versed in corporate and European legislation, leveraged the Grand Duchy’s small state status within the nascent European Community to become a financial hub specializing in mutual funds within an emerging network of international financial centers. This position was achieved through bifurcation of sovereignty strategies on the basis of two main premises. First, on the systematic acceptance of conflicts of interest within local financial and political leadership, comprising overlapping roles, revolving-doors, and familial ties in business relationships. Second, on regulatory engineering practices, such as the dynamic interpretation of laws, and the strategic planning of directive assimilation to advance Luxembourg’s interests as opposed to its EU counterparts. The analysis uses archival material from nine archival collections and oral history interviews.
1 “Politique d’investissement des OPC. Situation au 29 février 2024,” Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), accessed 29 March 2024, www.cssf.lu/fr/2023/01/politique-dinvestissement-des-opc/. Mutual funds are open-ended investment vehicles that pool capital from multiple investors to construct and manage a diversified portfolio of financial assets. They operate with a variable capital structure, continuously issuing and redeeming shares at net asset value (NAV). Unlike closed-end funds, which trade on secondary markets, mutual funds provide direct liquidity to investors through NAV-based redemptions. Portfolio composition is actively or passively managed by a professional management firm, subject to regulatory oversight. See Janette Rutterford, “Learning from One Another’s Mistakes: Investment Trusts in the UK and the US, 1868–1940,” Financial History Review 16, no. 2 (2009): 157–181; Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos, Janette Rutterford, and Carry van Lieshout, “The Rise of Professional Asset Management: The UK Investment Trust Network Before World War I,” Business History 63, no. 5 (2021): 826–849; John Morley, “The Separation of Funds and Managers: A Theory of Investment Fund Structure and Regulation,” The Yale Law Journal 123, no. 5 (2014): 1228–1287; K. Geert Rouwenhorst, “The Origins of Mutual Funds,” in The Origins of Value, the Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets, ed. Will N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst (Oxford, 2005), 249–269.
2 Gilbert Trausch, Histoire Economique Du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, 1815–2015 (Luxembourg, 2017); Sabine Dörry, “Strategic Nodes in Investment Fund Global Production Networks: The Example of the Financial Centre Luxembourg” Journal of Economic Geography 15, no. 4 (2015): 797–814.
3 Matteo Calabrese and Benoît Majerus, “Archaeology of a Treasure Island. Actors and Practices of Holding in Luxembourg (1929–1940),” Contemporary European History 33, No. 4 (2024): 1398-1415; Christophe Farquet, La défense du paradis fiscal Suisse avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale: Une histoire internationale (Neuchâtel, 2016); Christophe Farquet, “Le marché de l’évasion fiscale dans l’entre-deux-guerres,” L’Économie politique 2, no. 54 (2012): 95–112.
4 John McDermott, “Trading with the Enemy: British Business and the Law during the First World War,” Canadian Journal of History 32, no. 2 (1997): 201–219; James Hollis and Christopher McKenna, “The Emergence of the Offshore Economy, 1914–1939,” in Capitalism’s hidden worlds, ed. Kenneth Lipartito and Lisa Jacobson (Philadelphia, 2020), 157–177; Cees Wiebes and GH Aalders, The Art of Cloaking Ownership. The Case of Sweden. The Secret Collaboration and Protection of the German War Industry by the Neutrals (Amsterdam, 1996); Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski, “Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf 1914–1990,” Enterprise and Society 13, no. 1 (2012): 85–119; Christopher Kobrak and Jana Wüstenhagen, “International Investment and Nazi Politics: The Cloaking of German Assets Abroad, 1936–1945,” Business History 48, no. 3 (2006): 399–427; Marc Frey, “Trade, Ships, and the Neutrality of the Netherlands in the First World War,” The International History Review 19, no. 3 (1997): 541–562.
5 Farquet, “Le marché”; Geoffrey Jones, Multinationals and Global Capitalism (Oxford, UK, 2005); Daniela L. Caglioti, “Property Rights in Time of War: Sequestration and Liquidation of Enemy Aliens’ Assets in Western Europe during the First World War,” Journal of Modern European History 12, no. 4 (2014): 523–545.
6 Serge Paquier, “Swiss Holding Companies from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Early 1930s: The Forerunners and Subsequent Waves of Creations,” Financial History Review 8, no. 2 (2001): 163–182; Sébastien Guex, “The Emergence of the Swiss Tax Haven, 1816–1914,” Business History Review 96 (2022): 353–372; Pierre Eichenberger, “Swiss Capitalism, or the Significance of Small Things,” Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics 3 (2022): 215–252; Farquet, La défense du paradis fiscal Suisse.
7 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology”; Benoît Majerus, “From Local Notables to Global Players: Law Firms in a Tax Haven (Luxembourg, 1960s to 2020s),” Business History (advance online publication, 13 Dec. 2024), accessed 5 March 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2024.2428956; Katharina Pistor, The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality (Princeton, NJ, 2019); Benoît Majerus, “This Is Not a Scandal in Luxembourg,” Entreprises et histoire 101, no. 4 (2020): 75–87 here: 75.
8 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology.”
9 Vanessa Ogle, “Archipelago Capitalism: Tax Havens, Offshore Money, and the State, 1950s–1970s,” American Historical Review 112, no. 5 (2017): 1431–158; Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens (Chicago, 2015); William Vlcek, Offshore Finance and Small States: Sovereignty, Size and Money (New York, 2008).
10 Guex, “Swiss Tax Haven”; Sébastien Guex and Hadrien Buclin, Tax Evasion and Tax Havens Since the Nineteenth Century (Berlin, 2023); Eichenberger, “Swiss Capitalism.”
11 Youssef Cassis, Capitals of Capital: The Rise and Fall of International Financial Centres, 1780–2009 (New York, 2010); Carlo E. Altamura, “A New Dawn for European Banking: The Euromarket, the Oil Crisis and the Rise of International Banking,” Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte 60, no. 1 (2015): 29–51.Ryo Izawa, “Corporate Structural Change for Tax Avoidance: British Multinational Enterprises and International Double Taxation Between the First and Second World Wars,” Business History 64, no. 4 (2022): 704–726; Simon Mollan, Billy Frank, and Kevin Tennent, “Changing Corporate Domicile: The Case of the Rhodesian Selection Trust Companies,” in International Business, Multi-Nationals, and the Nationality of the Company, ed. Gehlen, Boris, Christian Marx, and Alfred Reckendrees, eds. (New York, 2023), 65–87.
12 Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations.
13 Pistor, The Code of Capital; Majerus, “This Is Not a Scandal,” 75.
14 Sabine Dörry, “The Role of Élites in the Co-Evolution of International Financial Markets and Financial Centres: The Case of Luxembourg,” Competition & Change 20, no. 21–36 (2016); Samuel Weeks, “Channeling the Capital of Others: How Luxembourg Came to Be Asset Managers’ ‘Plumber’ of Choice,” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 56, no. 2 (2024): 627–644.
15 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology.”
16 Marlene Jugl, Country Size and Public Administration (Cambridge, UK, 2022), 68; Majerus, “Local Notables.”
17 Dörry, “The Role of Élites.”
18 Godfrey Baldacchino and Anders Wivel, “Small States: Concepts and Theories,” in Handbook on the Politics of Small States, ed. Godfrey Baldacchino and Anders Wivel (Cheltenham, UK, 2020), 2–19; Robert Steinmetz and Anders Wivel, Small States in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities (London/New York, 2016).
19 Tom Crowards, “Defining the Category of ‘Small’ States,” Journal of International Development 14, no. 2 (2002): 143–179; Matthias Maass, “The Elusive Definition of the Small State,” International Politics 46 (2009): 65–83; Björn G. Ólafsson, Small States in the Global System: Analysis and Illustrations from the case of Iceland (Aldershot, Hampshire, 1998); Commonwealth Secretariat, A Future for Small States: Overcoming Vulnerability, ed. Commonwealth Consultative Group (London, 1997).
20 Tom Long, “It’s Not the Size, It’s the Relationship: From ‘Small States’ to Asymmetry,” International Politics 54 (2017): 144–160; Mark P. Hampton, “Exploring the Offshore Interface: the Relationship Between Tax Havens, Tax Evasion, Corruption and Economic Development,” Crime, Law and Social Change 24 (1995): 293–317.
21 Peter J. Katzenstein, Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe (New York, 1985); Paul Sutton, “The Concept of Small States in the International Political Economy,” in Small States in Multilateral Economic Negotiations, ed. Amrita Narlikar (London/New York, 2016), 7–19.
22 Godfrey Baldacchino, Island Enclaves: Offshoring Strategies, Creative Governance, and Subnational Island Jurisdictions, vol. 14 (Montreal, Quebec, 2010); Crowards, “Defining the Category.”
23 Commonwealth Secretariat, Vulnerability: Small States in the Global Society, ed. Commonwealth Consultative Group (London, 1985).
24 Sheila Harden, Small Is Dangerous: Micro States in a Macro World (London, 1985).
25 Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore, “On the Number and Size of Nations,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 112, no. 4 (1997): 1027–1056; Alberto Alesina, “The Size of Countries: Does It matter?,” Journal of the European Economic Association 1, nos. 2–3 (2003): 301–316; William Easterly and Aart Kraay, “Small States, Small Problems? Income, Growth, and Volatility in Small States,” World Development 28, no. 11 (2000): 2013–2027.
26 Andrew Cooper and Timothy Shaw, The Diplomacies of Small States: Between Vulnerability and Resilience (New York, 2009); Michael W. Mosser, “Engineering Influence: The Subtile Power of Small States in the CSCE/OSCE,” in Small States and Alliances, ed. Erich Reiter and Heinz Gärtner (New York, 2001), 63–84; Ronald Sanders, “The Fight Against Fiscal Colonialism: The OECD and Small Jurisdictions,” The Round Table 91, no. 365 (2002): 325–348.
27 Harvey W. Armstrong and Robert Read, “Comparing the Economic Performance of Dependent Territories and Sovereign Microstates,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 48 (2000): 285–306; Easterly and Kraay, “Small States,” 2014; Long, “It’s Not the Size”; Robert L. Rothstein, Alliances and Small Powers, Institute of War and Peace Studies of the School of International Affairs of Columbia University (New York, 1968).
28 Katzenstein, Small States; Vlcek, Offshore Finance.
29 Alan Chong, “Singapore and the Soft Power Experience,” in The Diplomacies of Small States: Between Vulnerability and Resilience, ed. Andrew Cooper and Timothy Shaw (New York, 2009), 65–80; Godfrey Baldacchino, “Bursting the Bubble: The Pseudo-Development Strategies of Microstates,” Development and Change 24, no. 1 (1993): 29–52; Mark P. Hampton and John E. Christensen, “Treasure Island Revisited. Jersey’s Offshore Finance Centre Crisis: Implications for Other Small Island Economies,” Environment and Planning A 31, no. 9 (1999): 1619–1637; Tijn van Beurden and Joost Jonker, “A Perfect Symbiosis: Curaçao, the Netherlands and Financial Offshore Services, 1951–2013,” Financial History Review 28, no. 1 (2021): 67–95.
30 Baldacchino, “Bursting the Bubble,” 39; Roger Bourbaki, “End of Paradise? Le Luxembourg et son secret bancaire dans les filets du multilatéralisme,” Critique internationale 71 (2016): 55–71.
31 Ole Elgström, “Introduction,” in European Union Council Presidencies: A Comparative Perspective, ed. Ole Elgström (London, 2003), 1–17.
32 Ronen Palan, “Trying to Have Your Cake and Eating It: How and Why the State System Has Created Offshore,” International Studies Quarterly 42, no. 4 (1998): 625–643; Armstrong and Read, “Comparing the Economic Performance”; Vlcek, Offshore Finance; Richard Woodward, “From Boom to Doom to Boom: Offshore Financial Centres and Development in Small States,” SSRN 1879298 (2011): 1-37.
33 Tiina Randma-Liiv, “Small States and Bureaucracy: Challenges for Public Administration,” Trames 6, no. 4 (2002): 374–389.
34 David Lowenthal, “Social Features,” in Politics, Security and Development in Small States, ed. Colin Clarke and Tony Payne (London, 1987), 26–49, here: 38–39.
35 Burton Benedict, Problems of Smaller Territories (London, 1967).
36 Mark P. Hampton and John Christensen, “Offshore Pariahs? Small Island Economies, Tax Havens, and the Re-Configuration of Global Finance,” World Development 30, no. 9 (2002): 1657–1673 here: 1664.
37 Katzenstein, Small States, 32–33.
38 Jugl, Country Size, 62–63.
39 Philip Ollerenshaw, “Business, Politics and the Transition from War to Peace: The Federation of British Industries, 1916–25,” Business History 67, no. 1 (2025): 126-146; Christian Marx and Morten Reitmayer, “Introduction: Rhenish capitalism and business history,” Business History, 61 no. 5 (2022): 745–784.
40 Niklas Jensen-Eriksen, “Creating an Entrepreneurs’ Movement: SME Associations as Political Actors in Late Twentieth-Century Finland,” Business History (advance online publication, 7 May 2024), accessed 5 March 2025,—https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2024.2343870; Grace Ballor, Enterprise and Integration: Big Business and the Making of the Single European Market (Cambridge, UK, 2025); Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen, “Associational Autonomy or Political Influence? The Case of the Cooperation Between the Danish Dairies’ Buttermark Association and the Danish State, 1900–1912,” Business History 56, no. 7 (2014): 1084–1110; Maiju Wuokko, “The Curious Compatibility of Consensus, Corporatism, and Neoliberalism: The Finnish Business Community and the Retasking of a Corporatist Welfare State,” Business History 63, no. 4 (2019): 668–685.
41 Patrick Cohendet, David Grandadam, Laurent Simon, and Ignasi Capdevila., “Epistemic Communities, Localization and the Dynamics of Knowledge Creation,” Journal of Economic Geography 14, no. 5 (2014): 929–954; Valeria Giacomin, “The Transformation of the Global Palm Oil Cluster: Dynamics of Cluster Competition Between Africa and Southeast Asia (c. 1900–1970),” Journal of Global History 13, no. 3 (2018): 374–398.
42 Ash Amin and Joanne Roberts, “Knowing in Action: Beyond Communities of Practice,” Research Policy 37, no. 2 (2008): 353–369; Etienne Wenger, “Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System,” Organization 7, no. 2 (2000): 247–268.
43 Patrik Marier, “Empowering Epistemic Communities: Specialised Politicians, Policy Experts and Policy Reform,” West European Politics 31, no. 3 (2008): 513–533; Amy Verdun, “The Role of the Delors Committee in the Creation of EMU: An Epistemic Community?,” Journal of European Public Policy 6, no. 2 (1999): 308–328.
44 Benjamin C. Waterhouse, Lobbying America: The politics of business from Nixon to NAFTA (Princeton, NJ, 2013); David Coen, Alexander Katsaitis, and Matia Vannoni, Business Lobbying in the European Union (Oxford, UK, 2021).
45 Igor Douven, “How Explanation Guides Belief Change,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 25, no. 10 (2021): 829–830; Alf Steiner Sætre and Andrew Van de Ven, “Generating Theory by Abduction,” Academy of Management Review 46, no. 4 (2021): 684–701.
46 R. Daniel Wadhwani, Matthias Kipping, and Marcelo Bucheli, “Analyzing and Interpreting Historical Sources: A Basic Methodology,” in Organizations in Time, ed. Marcelo Bucheli and R. Daniel Wadhwani (Oxford, 2013), 305-329; Sandeep D. Pillai, Brent Goldfarb, and David A. Kirsch, “Lovely and Likely: Using Historical Methods to Improve Inference to the Best Explanation in Strategy,” Strategic Management Journal 45, no. 8 (2024): 1539–1566; R. Daniel Wadhwani and Stephanie Decker, “Clio’s Toolkit: The Practice of Historical Methods in Organization Studies,” in The Routledge Companion to Qualitative Research in Organization Studies, ed. Mir Raza and Sanjay Jain (London/New York, 2017), 113–127.
47 Gino Cattani, Simone Ferriani, and Andrea Lanza, “Deconstructing the Outsider Puzzle: The Legitimation Journey of Novelty,” Organization Science 28, no. 6 (2017): 965–992.
48 Ernest Muhlen, “Les fonds d’investissement au Luxembourg. Les investisseurs sont devenus plus circonspects,” Luxembourger Wort, 18 March 1978, 25.
49 Guy Thewes, Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg depuis 1848, vol. Service information et presse du gouvernement Luxembourgeois, Département edition (Luxembourg, 2006), 193. After serving as Finance Minister from 1979 to 1984, Santer became the Prime Minister, and Minister of Finance in the subsequent coalition government of the CSV, and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) until 1989. Jeanne Chèvremont, interview with the authors, 23 Nov. 2022. She worked as a specialist in Luxembourg’s financial market for the audit company Coopers & Lybrand (then merged with Price Waterhouse, to form the current “big four” PwC) since the second half of the 1970s and then became a partner in 1987. Claude Kremer, Interview with the authors, 11 Jan. 2023. Kremer wrote an all-encompassing scholarly treaty on the modern jurisprudence of investment funds in Luxembourg, who, from 1981 to 1985, was a young practitioner at Elvinger & Hoss, a major Luxembourg law firm specializing in funds.
50 Session ordinaire de la Chambre des Députés 1928–1929 (Compte rendu des séances publiques), box CR-0129, Chambre des Députés (CdD), Archives nationales de Luxembourg (ANL).
51 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology.”
52 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology,” 3. ARBED ultimately decided against creating a holding company. The official reason, as reported to the press, was that the 1929 financial crisis had caused the company to reconsider its plans owing to the worsening economic climate. Interestingly, under the leadership of its head of legal affairs, Léon Metzler, ARBED launched a public campaign against the holding law in the Luxembourgish press in the early 1930s. ARBED’s vocal criticism of the “abuses of the law” could be seen as a response to the company’s dissatisfaction with the government’s efforts. The company had sought stronger measures, including further reductions or even the elimination of annual capital stock taxes on holding companies, as revealed in a letter ARBED sent to the Luxembourg Tax Authority during the law’s preparatory phase in 1929 (Projet de loi sur le régime fiscal des sociétés de participations financières dites holding companies (1929–1937), proposed amendments to the Holding Act by Deputy M.H. Clement, February 1937, box 2467, Conseil d’État, ANL; Réformes concernant les différents droits et taxes fiscales ainsi que relevés et avis y relatifs, 1907–1929, letter from ARBED, 10 May 1929, box 3788, Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines, ANL.
53 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology,” 13–14.
54 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology,” 10.
55 Legilux, Arrêté grand-ducal du 22 janvier 1916, accordant démission honorable à M. Edmond Reiffers, directeur général des finances et de l’instruction publique.
56 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology,” 9.
57 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology,” 17.
58 FINLUX Database; Bernard Delvaux, “Questions actuelles concernant la loi du 31 juillet 1929 sur le régime fiscal des sociétés de participations financières,” Pasicrisie Luxembourgeoise (1956): 145-65 here: 14–16.
59 See in particular the case of German banker and financier Hermann Josef Abs, who was unilaterally appointed by the German occupiers as managing director of Luxembourg’s BGL bank during the occupation. He had previously been involved as executive director with two Luxembourg holding companies, Société d’Électricité Sodec S.A. and Luxemburger Unionbank S.A., between 1936 and 1938 (FINLUX Database).
60 Budget de l’exercice 1941, box 00304, Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines, ANL; Legilux, Arrêté grand-ducal du 19 avril 1930 concernant la fixation des salaires dus aux conservateurs des hypothèques; Bulletin d’Information, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, Ministère d’Etat, accessed 6 Jan. 2025, https://sip.gouvernement.lu/dam-assets/publications/bulletin/1948/BID_1948_1/BID_1948_1.pdf.
61 Eric Eich, “La législation holding et son impact sur l’économie luxembourgeoise,” in Mémoire de licence (UCL1979), 36.
62 STATEC, Statistiques Historiques 1839–1989 (Luxembourg, 1990), 351.
63 J.G., “In Memoriam Bernard Delvaux,” Luxemburger Wort, 8 April 1972.
64 Projet de loi sur le régime fiscal des sociétés de participations financières dites holding companies (1929–1937), M-02467, Conseil d’État, ANL. Authors’ translation from French.
65 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology.” 13.
66 Bernard Delvaux and E. Reiffers, Les Sociétés “Holding” au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg: Etude théorique et pratique de la loi du 31 juillet 1929 (Luxembourg, 1933).
67 Delvaux, “Questions actuelles concernant la loi du 31 juillet 1929 sur le régime fiscal des sociétés de participations financières”; Bernard Delvaux, “Les Sociétés d’Investissement du type ouvert au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg,” Pasicrisie Luxembourgeoise XVIII (1961): 37–85.
68 Morley, “The Separation of Funds and Managers.”
69 Pistor, The Code of Capital.
70 FINLUX Database.
71 FINLUX Database.
72 Delvaux, “Les Sociétés”; Delvaux, “Questions actuelles concernant la loi du 31 juillet 1929 sur le régime fiscal des sociétés de participations financières.”
73 Paul Smets, Lambert. Une aventure bancaire et financière (Bruxelles, 2012).
74 Fonds Liquidé Eurunion, 1966–1978 III Anc.L., Extrait du Mémorial (Recueil Spécial) – Luxembourg national business register – no. 17, 19 March 1959; no. 84, 22 Dec. 1959, box 13934, CSSF; Fond Patrimonia [sic], box 4920, Banque Lambert, Archives générales du Royaume (AGR).
75 Note pour Monsieur Thierry, 15 March 1960, box 4918, fonds Patrimonia [sic], Banque Lambert, AGR.
76 Note pour Monsieur Thierry, “Question fiscale,” 15 March 1960, box 4918, AGR.
77 Note pour Monsieur Thierry, 15 March 1960, box 4918, AGR.
78 Delvaux, “Les Sociétés,” 67.
79 Calabrese and Majerus, “Archaeology.”
80 Thewes, Les gouvernements, Service information et presse du gouvernement Luxembourgeois, Département edition, 141–153.
81 Pierre Werner, Les organes collectifs de placement dans la perspective de la place financière de Luxembourg : journées d’études – 11 et 12 décembre 1970 (Luxembourg City, 1971). See the foreword, 3–4.
82 Conférence de Pierre Werner sur le Luxembourg et les euro-marchés (Luxembourg, 5 octobre 1982), 5, accessed 6 Jan. 2025, https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2013/10/30/1e983235-d538-4001-9447-12c833618847/publishable_fr.pdf.
83 During this crucial phase of further financialization, Luxembourg maintained a 1:1 parity between the Luxembourg franc and the Belgian franc, de facto outsourcing monetary policy to Belgium. Gilbert Trausch, Belgique – Luxembourg: Les relations belgo-luxembourgeoises et la Banque générale du Luxembourg (1919–1994) (Luxembourg, 1995).
84 These banks were: the Compagnie d’Outremer pour l’Industrie et la Finance in Belgium; the Rothschild brothers’ Crédit Commercial de France (Paris) and the Compagnie Financière in France; Berliner Handelsgesellschaft (Frankfurt) in Germany; Pierson, Heldring & Pierson (Amsterdam) in the Netherlands; and Banca Commerciale Italiana (Milan) through its branch Banca di Credito Finanziario “Mediobanca” in Italy. See: Fonds Liquidé Eurunion, 1966–1978 III Anc., Extrait du Mémorial (Recueil Spécial) – Luxembourg national business register – no. 17, 19 March 1959, box 13934, CSSF.
85 These new banks included Banque Européenne in Luxembourg, the banks N.M. Rothschild & Sons (London) and Hill and Samuel & Co. Ltd. (London) in the UK, Banque Privée (Geneva) in Switzerland, Bayerische Staatsbank (Munich) in Germany, and Banca Provinciale Lombarda (Bergamo), replacing Mediobanca as the Italian representative in the early 1970s. See: Fonds Liquidé Eurunion, Fusion avec Finance Union 1966–1978 II Anc. L, Prospectus d’émission 1968–1975, box 13935, CSSF.
86 Eurosyndicat (1975–1976), 6, box 1225, Banque Lambert, AGR.
87 Note pour le conseil de la Sogim of R. L. Larcier (addressed to Marcel Decleve), 1 Feb. 1960, box 4918, Banque Lambert, AGR.
88 Note pour le conseil de la Sogim, 1 Feb. 1960, box 4918, AGR.
89 Législation belge relative aux sociétés holding étrangères et problèmes avec les sociétés holding luxembourgeoises (28 Feb. 1955), “Les holdings belges et le fisc,” Le Soir, box FIN-10661, ANL; Législation belge relative aux sociétés holding étrangères et problèmes avec les sociétés holding luxembourgeoises, “Projet de loi belge affectant le régime fiscal des entreprises dépendant de sociétés holding,” December 1953, box FIN-10661, ANL.
90 Bernard Delvaux, “Régime fiscal des sociétés d’investissement et des fonds communs de placement dans les pays de la C. E. E.,” Pasicrisie luxembourgeoise (1963): 41–58 here: 53-54.
91 This group of Luxembourg-domiciled mutual funds included the Eurunion fund and two other mutual funds: the Finance-Union fund and the Patrimonial fund (Soges, Procès-verbaux des séances du conseil d’administration. Session of 22 June 1965, Dissolution du Fonds International de Placement (FIP), box 39532, Banque Lambert, AGR).
92 Rapport annuel 1963/64, Finance-Union, box 4929, Banque Lambert, AGR.
93 Sogès, Exercice 1966, 2, box 1187, Banque Lambert, AGR; Note pour le conseil de la Sogim, 1960, box 4918, Banque Lambert, AGR; Sogès-Fiducem, Rapport de l’exercice 1978, box 1196, Banque Lambert, AGR.
94 Majerus, “This Is Not a Scandal.”
95 Liquidation du fonds IIT, box 16656, CSSF.
96 Bernie Cornfeld; Ran Ill-Fated IOS Fund,” Los Angeles Times, 1 March 1995, L.A. Times Archives; Diana B. Henriques, “Bernard Cornfeld, 62, Dies. Led Flamboyant Mutual Fund,” New York Times, 2 March 1995; Majerus, “This Is Not a Scandal.” Charles Raw, Godfrey Hogson, and Bruce Page, Do You Sincerely Want to Be Rich? Bernard Cornfeld and IOS: An International Swindle (London, 1971), 85.
97 FINLUX Database; Majerus, “This Is Not a Scandal.”
98 FONDITALIA 9.85–5.86, box 3630, CSSF; CMoW SEQ Luxembourg, LuxSE Publications 1967–1978, 4.16.1, Archives of Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (AGI).
99 Arrêté grand-ducal du 19 juin 1965; Circular letter of the Banking Control Commissioner no. VM/8 of 21 Dec. 1967 (regarding information to be produced in connection with the public display, offering, or sale of shares of mutual funds, or in connection with the application for listing of said shares on the Stock Exchange); Chapter V, arts. 26–36 of the Internal Rules of the LuxSE (formalities on admission of shares). See also Edmond Israel, “Luxembourg: The Taxation and Legal Regime of Investment Funds and Investment Companies,” European Taxation 10, no. 8 (1970): 193–201 here: 201.
100 FONDITALIA 9.85–5.86, letter of Ministry of Finance (signed by Pierre Werner) to Lambert Dupong, 4 Dec. 1968, box 3630, CSSF.
101 FONDITALIA 9.85–5.86, letter of Ministry of Finance (signed by Pierre Werner) to Albert Dondelinger, 14 Oct. 1967, box 3630, CSSF.
102 Pierre Werner, Itinéraires luxembourgeois et européens. Evolutions et souvenirs: 1945–1985, 2e éd., revue et corrigée ed., vol. II (1992), 97–98.
103 Cathrine R. Schenk, “The Origins of the Eurodollar Market in London: 1955–1963,” Explorations in Economic History 35, no. 2 (1998): 221–238.
104 Gilbert Trausch and Marianne de Vreese, Luxembourg et les banques: de la révolution industrielle au 7e centre financier mondial (Luxembourg, 1995); Schenk, “The Origins,” 222; Cassis, Capitals; Ogle, “Archipelago.”
105 Trausch and de Vreese, Luxembourg et les banques; Ogle, “Archipelago.”
106 Ogle, “Archipelago.”
107 Werner, Itinéraires luxembourgeois, II, 98.
108 Werner, Itinéraires luxembourgeois, II, 94.
109 Werner, Itinéraires luxembourgeois, II, 94.
110 Fonds Communs de Placement, Statistiques, Historique des fonds d’investissement au Luxembourg, Le marché des fonds en Europe, box I-813, Archives de la Banque Nationale de Belgique (ABNB).
111 Majerus, “This Is Not a Scandal.”
112 Jacques Santer, Interview with authors, 1 Oct. 2021; Jean de La Guérivière, “La montée vers Bruxelles de Jacques Santer,” Le Monde, 18 May 1995.
113 Dörry, “The Role of Élites”; Hampton and Christensen, “Treasure Island Revisited.”
114 Kremer, Interview, 11 Jan. 2023.
115 Chèvremont, Interview, 23 Nov. 2022.
116 CIRCULAR CSSF 99/1 on the establishment of the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, 12 Jan. 1999, 2, CSSF. See also: “Le parcours de Jean-Nicolas Schaus,” Paperjam, accessed 6 Jan. 2025, https://paperjam.lu/article/news-le-parcours-de-jean-nicolas-schaus.
117 Rapport du Groupe des questions économiques (Établissement et Services) au Comité des représentants permanents sur la proposition de directive du Conseil portant coordination des dispositions législatives, réglementaires et administratives concernant les organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières, Problèmes sur lesquels le Comité est appelé à se prononcer, 22 Oct. 1985, Council of the European Union Archives (CEUA), 9738/85.
118 Proposition de directive du Conseil portant coordination des dispositions législatives, réglementaires et administratives concernant les organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières, Exposé des motifs, 1, 10, R-1095/76, CEUA.
119 Alex Schmitt, Investment Funds in Luxembourg, 54, Fonds Communs de Placement, Statistiques, 1993, box I-813, ABNB; André Elvinger, Investment Funds – Regulations – Taxation – Evolution, proceedings of Seminar, Nov. 1988, Institut Universitaire International Luxembourg, Association des Juristes de Banque, Fonds Communs de Placement, Statistiques, box I-813, ABNB. Unlike Switzerland, Luxembourg did not establish a formal banking secrecy framework until 23 April 1981, when a unanimous vote in the Grand Duchy’s Chamber passed the “banking secrecy” law. This law, along with its updated version on 5 April 1993, made breaches of confidentiality by banking operators, institutions, or professionals a criminal offense under Luxembourgish law. Although Luxembourg-domiciled UCITS and their management companies were not directly subject to these banking secrecy laws, the framework still applied to banks acting as distributors of investment fund shares or registering agents for funds.
120 Proposition de directive du Conseil portant application, aux organismes de placement collectif, de la directive du Conseil du… concernant l’harmonisation des systèmes d’impôt sur les sociétés et des régimes de retenue à la source sur les dividendes (présentée par la Commission au Conseil), 18 July 1978, CEUE_SEGE-COM (1978)0340, European University Institute Historical Archives (EUIHA); Rapport du Groupe des questions économiques (Établissement et Services) au Comité des représentants permanents sur la proposition de directive du Conseil portant coordination des dispositions législatives, réglementaires et administratives concernant les organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières, Problèmes sur lesquels le Comité est appelé à se prononcer, 22 Oct. 1985, 3, 9738/85, CEUA.
121 Historique des fonds d’investissement au Luxembourg, Le marché des fonds en Europe, Fonds Communs de Placement, Statistiques, box I-813, ABNB.
122 Investment Company Institute, Investment Company Factbook: A Review of Trends and Activities in the Investment Company Industry (2004). Accessed 6 Jan. 2025, www.icifactbook.org.
123 Addendum au Rapport du Groupe des questions économiques (Établissement et Services) au Comité des représentants permanents sur la proposition de directive du Conseil portant coordination des dispositions législatives, réglementaires et administratives concernant les organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières, Annexe, Communication de la délégation hellénique, 21 May 1984, 3, 7120/84, CEUA.
124 Dörry, “The role of élites”; Dörry, “Strategic Nodes in Investment Fund Global Production Networks: The Example of the Financial Centre Luxembourg”; Dariusz Wójcik, Michael Urban, and Sabine Dörry, “Luxembourg and Ireland in global financial networks: Analysing the changing structure of European investment funds,” Transactions – Institute of British Geographers (1965) 47, no. 2 (2022): 514–528.
125 FINLUX Database; Chèvremont, interview, 23 Nov. 2022; Kremer, interview, 11 Jan. 2023; Loi du 25 août 1983 relative aux organismes de placement collectif, Mémorial A, Legilux; Loi du 30 mars 1988 relative aux organismes de placement collectif, Mémorial A, Legilux.
126 Liquidation du fonds IIT, box 16656, CSSF; Chèvremont, interview, 23 Nov. 2022. For example, in 1984 the representant for KBL in 1984 was Damien Wigny, administrateur-directeur of Luxembourg KBL.
127 Comité OPC Documents de Travail I, 1984–1987, letter of Damien Wigny to Edmond Jungers, secretary of the Comité “Valeurs Mobilières,” IML, 7 Dec. 1984, box C000016745, CSSF; Informations sur les ventes et rachats de parts de fonds d’investissement au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, box 9813, CSSF; Chèvremont, interview, 23 Nov. 2022; Kremer, interview, 11 Jan. 2023.
128 “History,” Deloitte Luxembourg, accessed 6 Jan. 2025, https://www2.deloitte.com/lu/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/history.html”; Thewes, Les Gouvernements, Service information et presse du gouvernement Luxembourgeois, Département edition, 183; Chèvremont, Interview, 23 Nov. 2022.
129 Chèvremont, Interview, 23 Nov. 2022.
130 Chèvremont, Interview, 23 Nov. 2022.
131 Yves Mersch, Financial Governance in the EU (European Court of Auditors), accessed 6 Jan. 2025, https://www.eca.europa.eu/sites/FinancialGovernanceEU/Documents/Yves-Mersch.pdf.
132 Chèvremont, Interview, 23 Nov. 2022.
133 Dörry, “The Role of Élites.”
134 Santer, Interview, 1 Oct. 2021.