Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Luc Frieden's answer on a recent parliamentary question relating to an article about the BCEE and Lehman Brothers is very worrying: He answers only one third of the question: insinuations with regard to Lehman. Nothing about the exposure as regards doubtful debts and nothing about the publication of the situation of the BCEE.

Above all Luc Frieden's answer is based on work of the credit rating agencies, which evaluated the BCEE positively.

Who give today any credit to rating agencies?

That is not to reassure on Luxembourg.


Read parliamentary question and answer

The Madoff case does not exist in Luxembourg... when observing officials and leaders' attitude.

I find it interesting to observe that officials and leaders in Luxembourg keep silence despite the fact that a luxembourg-based fund is involved in the Madoff scandal.

Unfortunately this attitude does not remove problems and confirms once more the lack of ethical credibility of the Luxembourg financial Center.

Such an attitude can only reinforce the lack of confidence of the investor.

But it is true that the Madoff case dramatically illustrates the drifts and dysfunctions that are visible in Luxembourg, and especially :
- canted standing,
- canted CSR
- conflicts of interests
- failure of self regulation
- etc.

In this context the recent communication on LFF (cf ) is completely surrealist.