Luxembourg’s Role in Building a Sustainable Islamic Investment Hub in Europe Pierre Oberlé ALFI

First driver: international expansion of Islamic Funds  UCITS : Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities  Are a set of European Union Directives that aim to allow collective investment schemes to operate freely throughout the EU on the basis of a single authorization from one member state (distribution passport)  Fund managers from more than 50 countries use Luxembourg as a hub to sell UCITS funds in 70 countries around the world  UCITS are well adapted for Shariah compliant investments

3 Evolution of cross-border UCITS fund distribution

Second driver: regulated European alternative funds and investor demand for transparency  Redomicilation of funds to onshore European domiciles  AIMFD (Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive):  New opportunites for Shariah compliant Real Estate and Private Equity funds  New distribution passport: easy to reach institutional investors in the whole European Union

 Full support of the authorities and of the financial sector players  2008: Government Taskforce launched  2008: ALFI Islamic Finance Working Group launched  2012: Publication of ALFI Collection of Best Practices for setting-up and administering Shariah-compliant funds in Luxembourg” Third driver: developments at the institutional level

Thank you Pierre Oberlé Business Development Manager Tel :