Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

BusinessWeek reported that at a meeting of finance ministers yesterday in Brussels, Germany's finance minister that he doesn't need to apologize to neighbors such as Switzerland for accusing them of aiding tax evasion

Steinbrueck compared Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein with one of the world's poorest nations, Burkina Faso, because the four European nations had boycotted talks on tax evasion last year.

He said they shouldn't complain that they now appear on a black list published by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.

"They all could certainly have come. And obviously I'll also invite them to the follow-up conference in Berlin in June: Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria and Ouagadougou," Steinbrueck said.

Ouagadougou, the capital of the struggling west African nation, learned in 2008 that the World Bank had named the country the least favourable on the continent for investors.

Steinbrueck is excessive. But it is true that some hove these jurisdictions are like developping countries for their justice, their police, the missing databases (judiciary judgement online, balance sheet database)... when they find the money for there misleading communication to deny to be a tax haven even though this is much more a business and banking haven situation (offshore abuses, scams...).

Bloomberg has reported that President Barack Obama proposed raising about $190 billion over the next decade by outlawing three offshore tax-avoidance techniques used by some U.S. companies.

Obama’s plan also would make it riskier for Americans to stash money in tax-havens

Depite a debate and lobbies, the paradigm shift is there.

"Internationally, the challenge will be to ensure that the countries and jurisdictions that have promised increased transparency live up to their commitments. The OECD, tasked with a mandate to monitor their performance, will be watching like a hawk."

This is the last sentence of an article signed by Angel Gurria dated 24 April 2009.

Watching like a hawk?

Unfortunately the experience of the OECD demonstrates that the organisation is everything but a hawk for jurisdictions that do not implement the international commitments.

The non respect of the OECD Anti-bribery Convention illustrates the failure to act like a hawk, all the more than the jurisdiction that is currently leading the cabal against the OECD and Angel Gurria is the one that has not responded yet to some key recommendations, and especially despite an injunction last year, the enforcement of the liability of legal persons for foreign bribery.