Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Jean-Jacques Rommes (ABBL, General Manager) wrote an interesting article in the Editorial for the Luxembourg Banking Quarterly - 2/2009.

The last paragraph is worth commenting.

It states:

Whenever things go wrong, blame is a common knee-jerk reaction. Yet, blaming is only ever useful insofar as it may lead to identifying the real issues that need be discussed and the real problems that need to be solved. Like everyone else involved, banks and bankers must accept responsibility for mistakes that have been made, but, more importantly, our profession must act responsibly by participating constructively in the shaping of a regulatory and financial environment that will allow us to prevent a repetition of what we are currently going through.

Is Rommes’ Statement credible?

Should such editorial be written in another jurisdiction than Luxembourg, it would mean an awareness and commitment for regulation.

How credible are professionals who are practically unable to take their responsibility in the Madoff story because of their influences on the regulation in the jurisdiction and who only accept right minded contributors in the discussion may identify with relevance  “the real issues that need be discussed and the real problems that need to be solved”.

The risk is that they hush up critical issues and problems as they have always done to focus on right minded issues and problems, with right minded experts that will produce right minded reports.

Ctitical issues and problems are

- revising and correcting the transposition of directives,

- strengthening supervision and sanctions in Luxembourg by reducing official influences,

- sanitizing the judicial and regulatory haven.

But there is nothing about that in the Government programme that LFF translated online.