Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

The ALFI (Association Luxembourgeoise des Fonds d’Investissement) is the official representative body for the Luxembourg investment fund industry and was set up in November 1988 to promote its development. It published récently a brochure in French about careers in the investment funds.

It is interesting to observe the expected profiles for the compliance officers and internal auditors positions.

The qualities for the internal auditor are the following:
University diploma in economic and financial sciences or of accountancy
Open to acquire specific qualifications
Bilingual, even trilingual
Ambitious, motivated
Team spirit
Excellent relational capacities

The qualities for the compliance officer are the following:
Economic, legal or regulatory university diploma, ideally supplemented by one 3rd financial cycle high Level of professional competence in the field of banking and financial and the applicable standards
Good knowledge of the financial markets
Perfect knowledge of the general regulation and OPC industry.
Bilingual/trilingual English/French/German

It is striking that the keyword for the functions is missing in this official brochure supported at the govermental level: independence (or independent).

This is the critical quality for such jobs.

On the other hand, a quality like "Ambitious" poses a major problem: it appears incompatible with the job which precisely must take the risk if necessary to be opposed even if it means to bring into play the position : an ambitious guy will not oppose his management all the more that management in Luxembourg consider officially vague and ambiguous offences such as forgery, use of forgery, false balance sheet, use of false balance sheet or unauthorised use of corporate property (See ABBL report in 2003 )

In a nutshell, these functions are "formatted" in Luxembourg so that they do not disturb too much by focusing on the languages and the legal and regulatory standards (that anyway are regularly changing ). But independence is not sought.