Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

An article published by the OECD in 2000 is worth being read again.

"When corruption permeates a country’s political and economic institutions, it is no longer a matter of a few dishonest individuals, but rather institutional, systemic corruption. It is a phenomenon which thrives where institutions are weak or non-existent. And it is strongly related to poor governance. Systemic corruption happens most where adequate legislative controls are lacking, where there is no independent judiciary or oversight, and where independent professional media and civil society agencies are absent. Reforms aimed at providing greater transparency and accountability of public institutions and government operations are urgently needed to redress such corruption.
There is much to be done. And let it not be forgotten that wherever corruption occurs and at whatever level, the ultimate victims of corruption are ordinary citizens and society at large. That is why fighting corruption is so important. Finding effective, credible and enforceable measures to stamp out corruption and to hold those guilty accountable is more than a noble objective. Our economic, political and legal institutions may depend on it."

The FATF report 2006-2007 is available in English.

It clearly states that "Funding for the FATF is provided by its members on an annual basis and in accordance with the scale of contribution to the OECD. The cost of the secretariat and other services is met by the FATF budget, using the OECD as the channel for these operations. This scale is based on a formula related to the size of the country’s economy. Non-OECD members’ contributions are calculated using the
same scale of OECD members. The two member organisations also make contributions to the FATF
budget."

Therefore when the previous paragraph states that "Thanks to a generous grant from Luxembourg, the FATF has been working to improve its information technology systems, with a view to providing FATF delegations with better access to confidential documents. This system will be strengthened over the coming year and the FATF will then be in a position to enhance its public website." we are no longer in the normal financing.

Organisations like the FATF with a controlling role should not receive such grants from their members and members should not give any grant. How the FATF would be able to sanction poor compliance in the future ? How the positive report on the member would be reliable in the future ? The grant introduces a doubt which is a shame for the financial community worldwide.

Active and passive corruption are standardised in a way.

When looking the FATF website it is amazing to observe that the page for English-speaking visitors is not the same as one for French-speaking visitors.

Lasts events for English-speaking visitors:
- 24-Oct-2007 - FATF third mutual evaluation report of Finland adopted by the FATF plenary in June 2007.
- 15-Oct-2007 - Guidance Regarding the Implementation of Activity-Based Financial Prohibitions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737

Lasts event for French-speaking visitors:
- 20-déc.-2007 - 18ème rapport annuel du GAFI - 2006-2007
- 16-oct.2007 - Lignes directrices relatives à la mise en oeuvre des interdictions financières liées aux activités couvertes par la Résolution 1737 du Conseil de Sécurité des Nations Unies


The web site is not controlled so money laundering is not controlled by the perfectible functioning of the FATF.

An interesting conference took place last Thursday, June 28, 2007 at the CSIS Conference Center of Washington DC . The topic was "Illicit Financial Flows: The Missing Link in Development".

Raymond Baker, Director, Global Financial Integrity, provided a couple of interesting definitions.

Tax havens – These are places where you can set up an entity—a corporation or partnership or trust fund—and then you can sell to that entity and that entity can sell to other entities, and you can structure the pricing in such a way that all or most of the profits are earned in the tax haven entity, and it doesn’t have to pay taxes or pays only minimal taxes on those profits. There are now 72 tax havens around the world.

Offshore secrecy jurisdictions – These are places, usually located within tax havens, where you can set up these entities behind nominees and trustees such that no one knows who are the real owners and managers of the business



The conference is online.