Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

The CRF (Cellule de Renseignement Financier), which is the FIU in Luxembourg this month published its report for 2005 and 2006.
The report is very positive as it does not hide issues and especially :
- the fact that legally the attempt of laundering is not punishable in Luxembourg as concluded by judges in a judgement dated 12 October 2006
- the fact that the word "knowingly" that was added to the law of 12 November 2004 has increased the risks.

But on the other hand it does not give the same ethical version as professionals and politicians in Luxembourg.

See report in french

French civil society organisations have last month published a brochure about Tax and judicial havens
By combining arrangements able to hide the origin of funds and a refusal to cooperate with the international community in tax and criminal investigations, the tax and judicial havens offer a privileged interface between the world of legitimate financial transactions and money of criminal origin. They therefore constitute an encouragement to international bribery and to the development of criminal networks: money from the drug trade, from prostitution, from terrorism, arms trafficking, flags of convenience, etc. It comes as no surprise, then, that they have been used on a large scale in the majority of financial scandals of the last few years (e.g. Enron).
The brochure rates the harmfulness taking into account various criteria: banking secrecy, no or little taxes, easiness to create companies, practice of trusts, limited judicial cooperation.

As far as the centres in the framework of this blog are concerned the rating is the following (the higher the figure out of 100, the more harmful the country):

Gibraltar: 94,90
Cyprius, Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Jersey: 89,80
Isle of Man: 88,10
Monaco: 86,45
Ireland: 76,35
Switzerland: 76,20
Malta: 79,70
Luxembourg: 69,8

The authors observe that the ratingis based on a subjective assessment of the legal framework and that the relevance of the veight given to each criterion my vary depending on the goals of the "user" of the tax haven.

Read the brochure (French)

GRECO’s 33rd Plenary Meeting will be devoted to a Training Workshop on Incriminations within Third Evaluation Round (29 May) and the examination of reports within the framework of the First and Second Evaluation Rounds (30 May – 1 June).
The Workshop on Incriminations for the Third Evaluation Round, designed for GRECO evaluators, will involve a number of international experts in this area (see agenda of workshop). The main topics are the monitoring of the implementation of international anti-corruption standards in the criminal law sector and the practical aspects of applying criminal legislation in the investigation and prosecution of corruption at domestic level.
GRECO will examine for adoption the draft Addendum to the First Round Compliance Report on Portugal, as well as draft Second Round Compliance Reports on Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania, Malta and Sweden.
The Plenary will hold a tour de table on the following topics: “Recent developments in anti-corruption institutions and strategies (including measures taken to raise public awareness in this area)” and “Actual and potential obstacles to the ratification of the Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 174)”.
A hearing with the Mexican “Federal Institute for Access to Public Documents” is also foreseen. Elections will be organised to fill one vacant seat on the Bureau.

Source : GRECO