Unanimous support was also given to the law adopting European regulation on key information documents relating to packaged retail insurance-based products, or Priips. It means financial institutions will have to provide a standardised disclosure document to investors, providing the investor with information on the nature and characteristics of the product, the potential risk of loss of capital, the cost and risk profile, the appropriate performance scenarios and the basis on which these conclusions were drawn. Retail investors should request this document from the people providing advice or selling the product before any transaction is made.

The Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved a bill to adopt the European regulation on the kinds of indices used as benchmarks for financial instruments and contracts or to measure the performance of investment funds. Financial services authority the CSSF was given responsibility for supervising the new framework.

IP tax

There was less unanimity on the tax regime for intellectual property, offering a tax advantage to companies according to their scope of research and development activities. CSV MPs abstained from Thursday’s vote, while two dei Lénk MPs voted against. The law aims to create a stricter tax regime and outlines the conditions to be fulfilled by a company in order to benefit from a tax exemption for its research activities. It delineates eligible assets such as patents or copyright on software.

Finally, Luxembourg adopted the law on a double taxation agreement with Cyprus, to avoid both double taxation and the absence of taxation.