Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

The General Administration of Press and Publication in China ( 新闻出版总署) said that criticism against Bejing are "stereotypes based on gossips (...) that do not take into account the reality".

That is exactly the same wording that many leaders either political or professional in the Luxembourg Financial Center communicate, as they have their vision of the reality that deny facts and ignore the paradigm shift.

Amazing.

The Washington Post has reported that a report accuses Bank Officials of helping clients hide money from the IRS.
"The iron ring of secrecy around tax haven banks and their deceptive banking practices enable and encourage tax cheats to hide assets from the United States," Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the investigations subcommittee, said in a statement issued upon release of the report. "Congress needs to enact strong penalties on tax haven banks that help U.S. taxpayers avoid paying taxes to Uncle Sam."

Read Senator Levin press release

The Luxembourg governement met last 18 July 2008 and approved of an Action Plan to Fight Corruption.
This is a good thing. Better late than never.
But I wish the Action Plan were public (I am gonna to ask a copy to target weaknesses with my independant mindset)
The actions are implemented in the framework of the Corruption Prevention Committee, which is expected to do much in raising bribery awareness among the players concerned and to improve interagency coordination, and the introduction of anti-bribery mechanisms in agencies responsible for export credit insurance and development cooperation. But I wish the members of the Committee were public.



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