Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Luc Frieden's answer on a recent parliamentary question relating to an article about the BCEE and Lehman Brothers is very worrying: He answers only one third of the question: insinuations with regard to Lehman. Nothing about the exposure as regards doubtful debts and nothing about the publication of the situation of the BCEE.

Above all Luc Frieden's answer is based on work of the credit rating agencies, which evaluated the BCEE positively.

Who give today any credit to rating agencies?

That is not to reassure on Luxembourg.


Read parliamentary question and answer

The Madoff case does not exist in Luxembourg... when observing officials and leaders' attitude.

I find it interesting to observe that officials and leaders in Luxembourg keep silence despite the fact that a luxembourg-based fund is involved in the Madoff scandal.

Unfortunately this attitude does not remove problems and confirms once more the lack of ethical credibility of the Luxembourg financial Center.

Such an attitude can only reinforce the lack of confidence of the investor.

But it is true that the Madoff case dramatically illustrates the drifts and dysfunctions that are visible in Luxembourg, and especially :
- canted standing,
- canted CSR
- conflicts of interests
- failure of self regulation
- etc.

In this context the recent communication on LFF (cf ) is completely surrealist.

Luxembourg is proud of the PSF certification to provide a secure and confidential processing of the data.
To guarantee the confidentiality of their clients of the financial sector many companies are subjected to the monitoring by the CSSF.
As CetrelSecurities explains , the professional of the financial sector status (PSF) is an official business status set out under the Luxembourg law. This status underlines an expertise as a professional in the Finance Sector and guarantees a secure and confidential processing of the data. Steria states the same idea explaining that to guarantee the confidentiality and the typical professional attitude for the banking environment, the company is subjected to the monitoring by the CSSF. Every professional share the same values of confidentiality under the monitoring by the CSSF.

The problem comes from the ab(use) of the status to prevent the truth in a trial whatever matter: civil, commercial or penal.

Some companies acting as a PSF in their motivation before the justice may lodge a complaint against a former employee to intimidate him or her in money laundering, fraud or corruption issues including on facts the confidentiality of which is fairly questionable.

Therefore the PSF certification might be canted unless it is knowingly intended to prevent the truth and protect illegal or abusive activities or behaviors because of the CON-FI-DEN-TIA-LI-TY.