Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

In his investiture speach one year ago, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco promised he would continue efforts made over the past few years to clean up Monaco's image as a centre for money laundering and loose financial controls.

He said : ' I intend however that ethics remain the backdrop for all the actions of the Monegasque authorities. Ethics are not divisible. Money and virtue must be combined permanently. The importance of Monaco's financial market will require extreme vigilance to avoid the development of the type of financial activities which are not welcome in our country. To avoid such deviance; Monaco must function in harmony with all those organizations who share the same aim. Monaco must therefore respect the requirements of FAFT-GAFI (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering) and the tax authorities and in particular the French and American tax authorities, and respect all the other good practices in the control of financial flows."

Monaco has long had the reputation of a fiscal paradise but the principality has considerably tightened its financial guidelines in recent years under pressure from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) .

investiture-speech_MC.pdf

When looking at the governmental website, it is stated in a pages called " The fight against money-laundering " that the Principality is fully aware of the necessity of combating this. The following stats are given : the progression in the number of declarations of suspicion recorded by SICCFIN, have increased from 58 in 1999 to 34 for just the first 4 months of the year 2000, engendering numerous requests for investigation, in addition to the exchange of information with TRACFIN and other foreign organisations.

The increase took place at the time of the visit of the French MPs. No more recent stats are unfortunately provided on the website. Nevertheless the SICCFIN report 2004 is available with recent stats :
- 2000 : 210
- 2001 : 307
- 2002 : 275
- 2003 : 254
- 2004 : 341

Rapport_MC_fr.2.pdf