Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Dow Jones has reported that confidential files that an informant may be offering for sale to Germany's government files that may contain information on 1,500 German taxpayers using Swiss bank accounts to avoid taxes.

"We would consider it rather delicate for a state operating under the rule of law to make use of illegally obtained data," Doris Leuthard told Swiss media at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Who started ?

Banks that accepted money from foreign taxpayers that did not pay their taxes definitely did not operate under the rule of law of foreign jurisdictions to make use of illegally accepted money.

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.

Tax Justice Network has reported that the Swiss Federal Council has just published a new report, Strategic directions for Switzerland's financial market policy, which is predictable in its genuflection to Swiss bankers. Indeed, as the accompanying press release notes that "The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) prepared [it] in consultation with financial market players, defines goals and measures to further strengthen the Swiss financial centre. The responsibility of the Confederation is limited to the creation of an appropriate regulatory framework."

Like in Luxembourg public policies are influenced by the business community but with a huge difference: conflicts of interest are specific to the Luxembourg jurisdiction because of the small size, which explains the reason why the regulator does not do the job as it should in Luxembourg (See the Madoff affair for example and the influences on the regulator that are traced in CSSF sources)