Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

TJN has commented a new report from ALTER-EU that addresses a wide range of concerns relating to the way Expert Groups dominated by large private banks, insurance giants and a range of financial enterprises wield significant power within the EU legislative process - from the drafting of EU strategies and laws to their implementation.

Paul de Clerck member of ALTER-EU's steering committee, said: "The Commission only seems to be interested in listening to the advice of the finance industry, rather than acting in the interests of society. Light touch regulation may have made it easier to do business, but it has not protected our savings and our pensions from being gambled away. Now the Commission tells us they are tightening the rules but in reality their proposals still leave many loopholes. If the Commission wants to restore confidence in our financial systems, it must break free of this stranglehold of partial advice."

I agree with him. What happened with Madoff in the European jurisdiction is the result of poor controls and will at the European level (see my Fault Tree Analysis).

Jack Blum, Chairman of TJN-USA and GFI advisor, has been called before the Senate Homeland Security Committee to testify on the Incorporation Transparency Act.

Mr. Blum, the former Head of the United Nations Experts Group on Asset Recovery and a former investigator for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism, and International Operations, stressed both the economic and national security benefits of shutting down US shell corporations.

Read the testimony

Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers, has observed that "Underscoring the role of tax havens as a Wall Street marketing tool, a Treasury Department report found that as of June 30, 2008, $164 billion in U.S. mortgage-backed securities were held in the Cayman Islands and $22 billion more were held in Luxembourg, another tax-friendly zone".

Know more