Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

In his investiture speach one year ago, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco promised he would continue efforts made over the past few years to clean up Monaco's image as a centre for money laundering and loose financial controls.

He said : ' I intend however that ethics remain the backdrop for all the actions of the Monegasque authorities. Ethics are not divisible. Money and virtue must be combined permanently. The importance of Monaco's financial market will require extreme vigilance to avoid the development of the type of financial activities which are not welcome in our country. To avoid such deviance; Monaco must function in harmony with all those organizations who share the same aim. Monaco must therefore respect the requirements of FAFT-GAFI (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering) and the tax authorities and in particular the French and American tax authorities, and respect all the other good practices in the control of financial flows."

Monaco has long had the reputation of a fiscal paradise but the principality has considerably tightened its financial guidelines in recent years under pressure from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) .

investiture-speech_MC.pdf

An analysis of the websites of the CSSF (www.cssf.lu) in Luxembourg and the SFBC (www.ebk.admin.ch) in Switzerland demonstates that the body responsible for the control of the financial sector in Switzerland has no problem to communicate on issues in the framework of press releases or bulletins, which is not the case in Luxembourg where issues are usually either denied or dropped. Hence, the CSSF is unfortunately mute on issues : no example will be provided because this blog is not intended to chuck names. but only to assess if regulation may be effective.

Examples of press releases in Switzerland :
SFBC_orders_removal_of_bank’s_general_manager.2.pdf
SFBC_Reprimands_UBS_over_US_Dollar_Banknotes_Trading.2.pdf
SFBC_has_withdrawn_its_pending_investigation_against_Mr_J...

Examples of Bulletin in Switzerland :
bull47_Suisse.pdf



Due to the exemplarity thanks to the transparence on issues, the financial sector may be much more ethical in Switzerland than in Luxembourg.