Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

To comment the recent tax agreement between the USA and Luxembourg, Le Temps interviewed a couple of Swiss professionals.

What they say admits that financial centers knowingly fool the OECD by accepting the agreement as the OECD framework is not relevant to counter tax evasion.

The agreement requires that the request shall be written, justified and personal, based on a suspicion against a specific person that is addressed to a bank or a precise branch. The circumstances of tax evasion must be described with accuracy.

This is the OECD tax Model for cooperation.

As I wrote, it is exactly as if a travel agency would sell tickets only for detailed requests (e.g. I want a ticket for the flight from X to Y at HH:MMabd) but would not provide information about a destination (Are there flights to go from X to Y, what are the schedules... ?) for  the client to get the ticket. Only a few tickets would be sold.

Professionals that support tax evasion confirm what I recently wrote to Angel Gurria :

According to Thomas Kalbermatten, bank Analyst at Credit Suisse, quoted by Le Temps, "Il sera, en pratique, très difficile pour les autorités fiscales étrangères qui appliquent les standards de l’OCDE de fournir ce degré de details" (free translation: “It will be, in practice, very difficult for the foreign tax authorities which apply the OECD standards to provide this degree of details”)

According to Didier de Montmollin, partner at Secretan Troyanov, quoted by Le Temps, "Si la Suisse va dans la même ligne que le Luxembourg, le résultat ne sera pas du tout si problématique pour la Suisse. Le secret bancaire sera relativement préservé, et le client restera maître de son éthique fiscale". (free translation: “If Switzerland goes in the same line as Luxembourg, the result will not be so problematic  at all  for Switzerland. Banking secrecy will be relatively preserved, and the client will keep his/her tax ethics under control”)

Which ethics?

The one that the LIGFI wants to promote?