Arendt & Medernach’s teams in Luxembourg and Hong Kong have advised ICBC (Europe) S.A. throughout the process leading up to the approval by the Luxembourg regulator (the “CSSF”) of their first Luxembourg R-QFII UCITS. It is the first time a Chinese bank has tapped the European investment fund industry by setting up a proprietary UCITS structure, which will help the group to position itself on Europe’s private banking and asset management markets. For Michèle Eisenhuth, Investment Fund Partner at Arendt, “the setting up of a UCITS platform enables asset managers to seize the full potential and capabilities of Luxembourg in order to bridge the European and Chinese markets. The choice of Luxembourg for such a UCITS platform shows that Asian actors are actively using Luxembourg to access the European markets”. According to Stephane Karolczuk, Head of Arendt’s Hong Kong Office: “this will pave the way for the asset management arms of a number of Chinese and Asian banks willing to offer China-centric fund products on the European market. Luxembourg is the European hub for these activities with its top positions in essential sectors such as RMB funds using QFII, R-QFII as well as the Stock Connect between Hong Kong and Shanghai. We are looking forward to receiving shortly our own Luxembourg R-QFII quota to further develop the scope of services and products available in Luxembourg in the RMB sphere”.