Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

The IRE (Institut des Réviseurs d'Entreprise), which is the regulatory body for external auditors in Luxembourg, is currently reviewing its quality control process.
One must underline the transparency of this review with a public consultation that is evidence of a will to be credible.

A first draft was proposed last fall; contribution received were commented and integrated when estimated relevant.

A new draft was released last Friday. A couple of weaknesses remain in the new version that is anyway better than the first one:
- The text doest not seem to take into account the international role of Luxembourg : when assessing breaches in Luxembourg auditors should not define a national view but integrate foreign fiscal doctrines and judicial cases involving auditors;
- Disciplinary cases should be communicated without the name to demonstrate that the disciplinary matter is actually working and provide with accurate information on the disciplinary doctrine;
- Files that are disregarded due to a judiciary procedure should be kept in mind by the committee to be examined when the judiciary procedure is completed for debrief.

In a nutshell because Luxembourg is a small country where everybody knows everyone and where tolerated dysfunctions may be traced in public and official sources, the jurisdiction cannot transpose minimum requirements from directive or international texts (IFAC, FATF...). Such texts are designed by and for bigger jurisdictions that do not have the stake of financial center that cannot afford standardised negligence.

Know more (IRE Website)