Kang Beng Hoe wrote today an interesting analysis. He is is an executive director of Taxand Malaysia Sdn Bhd, a member firm of Taxand, the first global organisation of independent tax firms. In his opinion the question, which arises, is whether Article 26 in its revised form with paragraph 5 is incompatible with banking secrecy? The OECD's view is that meeting the standard of Article 26 involves only limited exceptions of bank secrecy rules. These should not undermine the overall credibility of such rules in protecting the privacy of bank customers. He observes that Article 26 of the...

Some European jurisdictions like Switzerkand or Luxembourg or the UK may be upset and think that the USA are willing to kill their business. The USA raises actual problems with Libor or the use of banking secrecy in Switwerland or Luxembourg. However I wish the USA and Obama were more balanced by admitting their own responsibilities in the current mess and taking corrective actions : -...

Britain is still the money-laundering capital of the world, according to a special six-page investigation published in this fortnight’s Private Eye. This it not a surprise despite FSA does a...

A very interesting video that explains that banks crimes are everywhere.

There is currently a very huge issue in France in the real estate sector with notaries, bankers and other professionals involved in a massive fraud. Like for Madoff that was an American issue...

  Making money for a bank is not a shame. The problem is that many banks are no longer supporting the economy and some jurisdiction do not care of the balance. Everyone will be loser. Banks...

Reuters reported that the Swiss government still wants to settle a long-simmering dispute with U.S. justice officials over undeclared funds stowed in Swiss offshore funds by year-end....

Very relevant thoughts from the South African Civil Society Information Service, which is a nonprofit news agency promoting social justice.   "There are oceans of money slopping around...

The Cayman Islands have long been known as a paradise boasting brilliant blue water, pristine sand -- and absolutely no corporate or personal income tax. That last perk has made them famous as a...

Financial Times and other media reported that the US and Europe’s five biggest economies unveiled fresh details of their coordinated push to crack down on tax evasion on Thursday, in a move that...

Documents relating to the Becca affair were made public by the legislature . As it is a sensitive affair with critical questions about actual conflicts of interest in the jurisdiction between...

Luxembourg currently faces many issues that should definitely have been avoided if advice like mine were taken into account in time. They thought that they had found THE solution, with...

It was reported that Germany, the United Kingdom and Austria, are about to ratify the agreement signed with Switzerland to impose a one-time tax in all deposits of citizens with tax base in such...

As BBC explains "Libor is the the inter-bank lending rate set every day by the British Bankers' Association (BBA). Libor sets the price for trillions of pounds of hugely valuable derivatives...

In my previous post, I mentioned my investigation in the Luxembourg Corporate registration about a businessman named Flavio Becca: I did not know him and had never heard about him. I...

As I am launching a new company (I will publish soon about it on this blog, but impatient French readers may have a look at the website ), what is taking place in Luxembourg is very interesting...

The French Cour de cassation (Supreme Court) last Thursday published three important jurisprudences in three litigations where the French journalist Denis Robert was prosecuted by Clearstream...

  In various articles of this blog I have highlighted dysfunctions and deficiencies in the Luxembourg financial center to show poor ethics and poor governance, contradicting the official...

In a recent interview Laszlo Kovacs confirmed that banking secrecy should be given up in a couple of months. Algirdas Semeta, who is his sucessor, will go on the same policy as him.

Dow Jones has reported that confidential files that an informant may be offering for sale to Germany's government files that may contain information on 1,500 German taxpayers using Swiss bank...

During a recent EU parliamentary committee meeting, the designated Tax Commissioner emphasized the fact that there are still member states within the EU who continue to oppose the agreement....

Dow Jones Newswires has reported that UBS issued a code of ethics and conduct it will require all of its roughly 69,000 employees to sign, part of the Swiss bank's effort to restore its...

Cayman Net News Online has reported that Luxembourg law firm Arendt & Medernach recently set up a representative office in Hong Kong. Fund sponsors that would usually structure their funds...

Richard Murphy yesterday quoted Telegraph that published an article about a study from Professor Adam Galinsky, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois. The study...

The French magazine L’Expansion has published an interesting article to explain to what extent juridictions that were considered as tax havens (black list) or other financial centers (grey...

I have posted a couple of articles about LIGFI to explain the reason why the initiative is not serious in the debate on business ethics and financial integrity. LIGFI launched the concept of the...

Remember last July. Luxembourg was congratulated by OECD for having signed the famous 12 agreements. More are actually signed for the frontage. " Luxembourg  has shown that countries are...

Tax Justice Network has reported that the Swiss Federal Council has just published a new report, Strategic directions for Switzerland's financial market policy, which is predictable in its...

The Luxembourg government today published a press release that is signed by the Luxembourg Minister of Justice and Angel Gurria. This press release took place place in the framework of the...

The media have reported what Luc Frieden said in the framework of an event that was organised by PwC Luxembourg for the financial center: the banking day. He said that a bank without secrecy...

The Financial Times has repôrted that Gibraltar would have almost completed its transformation into a conventional financial centre. “We have been repositioning Gibraltar away from the tax...

Reuters reported that according to Jeffrey Owens, a global crack down on tax evasion in financial centers is moving into a more difficult enforcement phase. This is exactly what I said with...

Reuters as reported that a Luxembourg court will decide in hearings starting today whether investors have the right to bring direct claims against the fund’s custodian and auditor. The...

The head of the Luxembourg tax administration will testify before the court. He stated that "ruling" is neither illegal nor exceptional in Luxembourg He is right. I will quote a comment...

PwC has just published its Economic Crime Survey. There are no respondants from Luxembourg as officially economic crime does not exist, so corruption does not exist in this...

A couple of months ago, after the release of Rainer Falk's report and prior to its censorship under pressure including threats on the financing of Luxembourg NGOs ABBL stated that "Luxembourg...

Challenge has reported that OECD is going to investigate in Monaco. The signature of most tax agreements with tax havens sounds like a way to fool the audience. Know more

The Luxembourg regulator yesterday communicated on the Madoff affair once more in a very bad way. Nothing about the influence of professionals that opened the drift. But inaccurate statements...

I quoted yesterday Dr. Johann Graf Lambsdorff, creator of the Corruption Perceptions Index. He said in an email to the Transparency International network: "It is you, the movement, that will...

The Justice Department and IRS yesterday  announced that over 14,700 taxpayers have come forward to report previously-undisclosed foreign bank accounts under the voluntary disclosure program the...

Transparency International today published its CPI (Corruption Perception Index). The press release admits that the CPI is perfectible: Financial secrecy jurisdictions, linked to many...

Les Echos yesterday reported that Patrick Littaye, co Access International Advisors, has summoned before courts CSSF and every UBS entities involved with Luxalpha (UBS Luxembourg, UBS Third...

Le Temps has reported that Patrick Odier, Chairman Association suisse des banquiers (ASB), is in favour a a new business model. In his opinion, Clients should sign a document to confirm the...

Some foreign readers of this blog may be surprised by my findings about the disclosure of UBS' OPMEM in the media. I will state three observations about the functioning of Luxembourg as a...

I have analysed in the previous article that the Operating Memorandum (OPMEM) that quotes Madoff over 20 times should not exonerate a collective responsibility in Luxembourg because of the...

The French newspaper La Tribune has reported that in the third version of an internal operating memorandum, the name of Bernard Madoff is quoted more that twenty times whereas it appears...

The FATF has released the Follow-Up Report to the Mutual Evaluation Report of the United Kingdom, which was adopted in June 2007. In October 2009, the FATF recognised that the United Kingdom had...

Liechtenstein and Singapore have passed into the "OECD's whitewash, sorry, white list category" ( TJN wording ). Liechtenstein scored an 87 percent opacity score and Singapore scored a 79...

A draft law is before the Chambre des Députés (Luxembourg legislature) to enforce agreements that Luxembourg signed based on OECD's Model Agreement on the Exchange of Information on Tax Matters....

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined UBS AG (UBS) £8million for systems and controls failures that enabled four employees to carry out unauthorised transactions involving customer money...

The media have reported that around 30 million US dollars of the Medellin drug cartel are still lying dormant since 1989 in several bank accounts worldwide of which in Switzerland, Panama and...

TJN has commented a new report from ALTER-EU that addresses a wide range of concerns relating to the way Expert Groups dominated by large private banks, insurance giants and a range of financial...

Jack Blum, Chairman of TJN-USA and GFI advisor, has been called before the Senate Homeland Security Committee to testify on the Incorporation Transparency Act. Mr. Blum, the former Head...

Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers, has observed that "Underscoring the role of tax havens as a Wall Street marketing tool, a Treasury Department report found that as of June 30, 2008, $164...

The fourth European Union Organised Crime Threat Assessment (2009 OCTA) was just published . "The OCTA is a core product of the intelligence-led law enforcement concept and its drafting is one...

Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., have introduced new legislation to stop the formation of U.S. corporations with hidden owners. It is subject of a Hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland...

If bankers and politicians (that are their servants) in Luxembourg denies TJN's findings, in the UK, David Taylor, Member of Parliament for North-West Leicestershire, asked : " The Tax...

Jersey Evening Post has reported that both Jersey and Guernsey have opposed the move, saying that to sign up to the EUSD before their competitors could damage the finance industry. Jersey’s...

The Swiss Bankers Association , which   is the leading professional organisation of the Swiss financial centre, did not communicate (yet ?) on the Tax Justice Network index that was released a...

Euronews has reported that Switzerland suspends tax deal with Italy  because of a series of raids by Italian police on Swiss banks across Italy last week. "Switzerland wants to negotiate with...

As I expected , ABBL issued a press release to state that Luxembourg is not a “secrecy jurisdiction”:and respond to the Tax Justice Network jurisdiction index that ranks Luxembourg the as...

As LIGFI is calling to recruit member, I state again that I do not believe that LIGFI is a sincere initiative.   There are many red flags that it is actually an economic...

TJN has just published the Financial Secrecy Index i.e. secrecy jurisdictions that they have ranked according to both their lack of transparency and their scale of cross-border financial...

The BBC has reported that the UK's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have been told to improve standards of regulation, and find new methods of raising tax....