Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Bloomberg has reported that Switzerland asked the U.S. not to pressure UBS AG for client data located in the Alpine country as investigators look into whether the world's largest wealth manager helped American clients evade taxes.

According to Swiss law, bank secrecy can only be lifted in connection with a criminal offense, such as tax fraud or money laundering. Tax evasion isn't a crime in Switzerland. Should the finance ministry agree for the account details to be given out, account holders would be informed before their details are handed over, giving them the option to go to court.

Joseph Stiglitz, a former chief economist for the World Bank, in an interview published in Germany calls for coordinated worldwide action against tax havens because single actions against jurisdictions such as Liechtenstein or Monaco may simply make money transfer to other contested jursidiction.

Quotation

Es bringt nichts, wenn man Liechtenstein oder Monaco dichtmacht und das ganze Geld dann in eine andere Steueroase fließt. Deshalb muss man weltweit vorgehen, ohne Ausnahme

There is no result, if you close down Monaco or Liechtenstein and then all the money flows into another tax haven. That is why we must proceed around the world, without exception.


Read interview (german)

Interpol, the world’s largest international police organization, that was created in 1923 to facilitate cross-border police co-operation, and support and assist all organizations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or fight international crime, is involved in the fight against corruption that is one of INTERPOL’s six priority crime areas.

The Mission statement of the INTERPOL Anti-Corruption Academy is "Working together towards a corruption-free world by promoting and defending integrity, justice and the rule of law".


The INTERPOL Group of Experts on Corruption (IGEC) defines corruption as "any course of action or failure to act by individuals or organizations, public or private, in violation of law or trust for profit or gain."

IGEC’s mission statement is "We believe in a free and just society. To be truly just, society must embrace high standards of integrity and openly resist corruption. To this end, we join with the community to ensure such standards and accept responsibility to fight all forms of corruption through education, prevention and effective law enforcement."


The IGEC approach is probably more extensive than the one of Transparency International that defines corruption as "the misuse of entrusted power for private gain."