Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Dow Jones Newswires has reported that UBS issued a code of ethics and conduct it will require all of its roughly 69,000 employees to sign, part of the Swiss bank's effort to restore its reputation after a messy U.S. probe into hidden offshore accounts.

The code sets standards of conduct in areas such as financial crime, competition, confidentiality, diversity and cross border business.

Cayman Net News Online has reported that Luxembourg law firm Arendt & Medernach recently set up a representative office in Hong Kong.

Fund sponsors that would usually structure their funds in the Cayman Islands are increasingly seeking advice on relocating those structures to Luxembourg and using lightly regulated types of vehicles available there, says the local Arendt & Medernach representative quoted by Cayman Net News Online.

Richard Murphy yesterday quoted Telegraph that published an article about a study from Professor Adam Galinsky, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois. The study is available in the journal Psychological Science.

"The powerful impose rules and restraints on others while disregarding these restraints for themselves, whereas the powerless collaborate in reproducing social inequality because they don't feel the same entitlement", Professor Adam Galinsky said. 

This reminds me of what was said a study that Transparency International published exactly 10 years ago : TI Source Book 2000.