Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

PwC Luxembourg put online very some interesting videos on topics that are explained by its experts.

There are currently 3 podcasts with two speakers.
John Parkhouse, Leader of the Investment Management and Real Estate Practice at PwC Luxembourg, tells about the results of this years' Fund Manager MiFID Survey and the results and analysis of the Alternative Investment Survey 2007.
Mark Evans, Fund Distribution Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg, tells about some of the key trends impacting the distribution of cross-border funds now and over the next couple of years.

As supporting material, a pdf file is provided.



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21 November 2007 marks the ten-year anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions by member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

According to Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-Genera, "It is one thing to enact laws, and another to enforce them. That is why we put a strong emphasis on monitoring and evaluating implementation (...) The ten years of the Anti-Bribery Convention offer no reason for complacency. Much more needs to be done. Sadly, rather than being more ambitious, some countries are sliding back on their determination. Some are still holding back on implementing the Convention. They have almost no investigations. They have brought no cases to court. They are not being pro-active"

Read TI article

OECD Website

Opening Remarks by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General at the the Tenth Anniversary of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention

KPMG recently published a paper that examines the relationship between a company ’s approach to its tax liabilities and its attitude to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

As explained in the abstract, the paper adopts the view that CSR is a legitimate interest of business. It argues that, because CSR is a way of doing business rather than an ‘add on ’ to normal business processes, companies should consider how their chosen approach to CSR applies to all aspects of their activity,including the management of their tax liability. They should then be in a position to give a reasoned justification of their approach to key tax issues such as the use of tax minimisation techniques,which is consistent with their approach to other CSR issues. Possible challenges to this approach are also considered.
Quantum is the only significant variable when assessing a company ’s tax contribution; in contrast to many other aspects of its business activity, the relevant question as regards its tax liability is not how it pays it, but only how much it pays. Accordingly the paper goes on to consider how CSR principles might be applied to the principal means by which a company may reduce its tax payments: ie, broadly, tax avoidance and tax planning (which are defined for the purpose of the discussion). While tax evasion is another means by which companies sometimes reduce their payments, CSR factors are not considered to be relevant in this context because such behaviour is already ruled out on more fundamental ethical grounds.

The paper sometimes sounds strange.

Read paper