Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

While the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) received fewer reports on suspicious transactions in 2006 than in the previous year, the quality of reports improved. However, reports from the banking sector on suspicious financial transactions reached an all-time high in the year under review. MROS is an agency at the Federal Office of Police. The number of reports from the banking sector rose by a significant 22.5 percent to 359.

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PwC Switzerland yesterday published a survey called "What is the added-value of the audit?".

It is very interesting to go through the press release as one may detect significant différences with the colleagues based in Luxembourg.

The presse release focuses on stakeholders' confidence ("l'audit élève la qualité des comptes annuels et justifie ainsi la confiance que placent les partenaires en l'entreprise auditée" : the audit raises the quality of annual accounts and thus justifies the confidence of the auditee's partners") rather than clients' confidence ("Our clients’ confidence is the cornerstone of our profession”), which demonstrates that they have understood that the audit is not only a client-supplier relationship but has a legal role and is stakeholders-oriented.

The survey provides a very interesting feedback on the audits and clients' behaviour.

PwC Switzerland had last week published a report on economic crime compared to the colleagues in Luxembourg that did not provide any feedback of their center on the topic.


This communication is very good for the financial center. So it is for PwC Switzerland that demonstrates it is reliable as auditor : they do not hide or deny issues.




Press release (French)
Press release (German)

Self-regulation has an important function in Swiss financial market regulation. The SFBC presents its position in a new report.

See Dr Urs Zulauf's analysis