Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

I went through many banks annual reports available online in Luxembourg and Belgium. There are similarities in the organisation of registered auditors with the IRE in both jurisdictions and the IRE Luxembourg has links to the IRE Belgium on its website.

It seems that in Luxembourg, most audit reports are a copy/paste of the european template.

But in Belgium risks and uncertainties seem to have been taken into account, as the "réviseur d'entreprise" (auditor) whatever firm seems to add the following idea to every report:

"we are not in a position to express an opinion on the description of the principal risks and uncertainties facing the companies included in the consolidation, the state of their affairs, their forecast development or the significant influence of certain events on their future development"

E.g. :
See Dexia Report in Belgium p. 223
See Fortis report in Belgium

NBB Report

Compare Bank Degroof reports

The statements added in Belgium are particularly important for Fortis and Dexia with what happened last week.


Why did most auditors in Luxembourg seem to have disregarded uncertainties that were taken into account in audit reports in Belgium ?



This is a critical question in the current financial mess. In Luxembourg the auditor's job is client-oriented instead of stakeholder-oriented with the view of growing for the audit firms (see their press release).

Can investors rely on a financial center that do not care of business ethics (CSR in Luxembourg exclude ethics) with a collective responsibility ?