Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Xavier Bettel, who is member of parliament in Luxembourg has recently asked a parliamentary question relating to the absence of publication online of judiciary cases in Luxembourg compared to other countries.
I dont know what the minister is gonna answer but the actual answer is simple : in Luxembourg leaders either professionals or politiciens do not like transparency on issues that are either hidden or hushed up.

Evidences ?

- No TI chapter in Luxembourg compared to Switzerland and the UK,
- no involvement of the Luxembourg big four entities in international surveys of their brand relating to fraud or corruption : for example "Global Economic Crime Survey" for PwC and "Corruption or compliance – weighing the costs" for E&Y
- CSR without ethics in Luxembourg compared to Switzerland and the UK
- etc.

Xavier Bettel's question

A Beat Balzli and Frank Hornig from the Spiegel wrote, after fighting Switzerland's banking secrecy laws for decades, European finance ministers are about to receive support from the United States. Investigations into major Swiss bank UBS and a proposed law against tax havens are ratcheting up pressure against the system.

Know more

Richard Murphy recently observed that the Swiss Private Banker’s Association has looked at the consequences of making tax evasion a criminal offence in Switzerland (where it does not have that status at present) and has found that after asking someone they call a highly regarded expert on the subject - Professor Xavier Oberson, of Geneva University that the change would lead to an overall revision of Switzerland’s tax system.

Richard concluded that there will be those who will argue long and hard in Switzerland for retaining its corrupt ways, but it’s more likely many are now seeing the reality of their future, and are rapidly reconciling themselves to a world in which surviving of the wages of fraud looks like a cosy little number whose days were always going to be numbered.

Read Richard Murphy's post