Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

In my past articles I have underlined that the CSSF, the Luxembourg regulator, and the financial center of Luxembourg in general had and stil have an inadequate communication by:
- not telling the truth on the transposition of the directive,
- not communicating on all the aspects of the issue involving the jurisdiction.

I am afraid the Irish regulator is worse in its communication on Madoff case than the Luxembourg regulator.

When going through the websites of the regulators (CSSF and IFS ) it appears that the IFS has a poor communication. The Irish Regulator communicated on Madoff the first time only a couple of weeks after the Luxembourg regulator.

The IFS issued only one laconic press release dated 7 January 2009 entitled “Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC (“Madoff”) “ that does not quote the involved investment funds in Ireland : “Two funds, one UCITS and one non-UCITS, have exposures to Madoff arising from the appointment of Madoff as sub-custodian to the assets of the funds by the Irish trustee”

It is not the first time that I point out that the Luxembourg regulator is better that the Irish Regulator for the communication (see my article dated 14 October 2006).

A search on the website with the keyword Madoff confirms the feeling:
Search Results
• News (1)
• Remainder of site (1)
Both results are about the only press release dated 7 January.


Even though the CSSF communication in Luxembourg is not sufficient enough in a world of transparency, there is a communication that shows a minimum of respect for the investor:

11 February 2009: Withdrawal of the sicav HERALD (LUX) from the official list
6 February 2009: The Madoff case
6 February 2009: Meeting between UBS and the CSSF regarding the Madoff case
3 February 2009: Withdrawal of Luxalpha Sicav from the official list
23 January 2009: The Madoff case
2 January: The Madoff case
22 December 2008: Bernard L. Madoff and Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLP

A search on the website with the keyword Madoff confirms the positive feeling with nine results.


I wish Luxembourg realised that it must target and fix dysfunctions and “red flags” that harm the Ethical credibility of the center and create the risk with periodic involvement of the jurisdiction.