Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Reuters quoted Sen. Carl Levin who said it would become easier for federal authorities to pursue possible tax evaders by putting more onus on them to show that offshore shelters are legitimate. "It's got to end, and it's going to take a change in the law," Levin said at the Reuters Regulation Summit

Levin; Obama, an Illinois Democrat who is campaigning for his party's nomination for president; and Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota, last year introduced a text to crack down on tax evasion strategies : the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act.

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“It is inexcusable that the entire market value of a financial institution can be placed at risk by such abject carelessness on the part of a leading European bank, that that institution failed to heed the warnings of a significant market counter-party and failed to learn the lessons that rogue traders have taught us about the checks, balances and controls that must be in place for risk to be effectively managed and controlled.”

Charlie McCreevy, EU’s internal market commissioner (Quoted by the FT)




It is all the more inexcusable than the bank like the other banks has beatiful web pages on risk management, corporate social responsibility, compliance, deontology, ethics... that turned out to be charade.

Banks are no longer reliable and trustable in their CSR that turned out to be charade.

Nobody raised the point : but we have competitors behaving as vultures.

A couple of days ago IMS Luxembourg published a press release.
The society is alive despite the lack of events in 2007.
There are new members (24 registered and 20 in the pipe) which is a good thing.
Unfortunately they did not change the areas of interest that are rather limited for a financial center as I already explained.
Especially areas like AML and ethics that are critical areas for CSR in the financial sector, are ignored to focus on money given.

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