Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

The advantage of being a critic is to be able to support or congratulate without being suspected of kindness.
Lucien Thiel, the former chairman of the Luxembourg Bankers' Association that stated a doctrine that I have contested (it is not our duty to control of the taxpayer was honest) and member of the LIGFI, yesterday raised a critical point in the fight against tax evasion :

"Au niveau européen, il existe une pression pour un abandon total du secret bancaire. Or, si des mesures plus strictes sont adoptées seulement en Europe, nous serions défavorisés face à d'autres centres financiers comme Singapour" (free translation : At the European level, there exists a pressure for to give up banking secrecy. However, should stricter rules be adopted only in Europe, we would be disadvantaged vis-a-vis other financial centers like Singapore”

He is right but I wish he had more European team spirit. When he states "nous serions défavorisés" (we would be disadvantaged ) "we" is for Luxembourg, not for European States.

However it is true that every jurisdiction and every parameter (banking secrecy, offshore abuses, corruption, money laundering...) should be taken into account to avoid communicating vases.

OECD today stated that Luxembourg moves into the category of “Jurisdictions that have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard.”.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said: “I commend Luxembourg for its swift implementation of the OECD standards on exchange of information. In three months, Luxembourg has turned into reality its commitment to fully cooperate in tax matters. I would like to congratulate Minister Luc Frieden for his leadership in this process".

Austria and Switzerland will appreciate.

Parliament did not vote yet to confirm every agreement and nothing is actually enforced as the agreements start for data as of 2010.

The press realeases from Luxembourg stated that “The protocol envisages the information exchange on request in individual cases between the tax authorities of both countries. It applies to the financial years 2010 and following. The agreement does not have as an aim an automatic exchange of banking information and does not authorize general requests (fishing expeditions)"

Pascal Saint Amans from the OECD quoted by L'Expansion specified that "Il faudra seulement fournir l'identité d'une personne soupçonnés de fraude, et c'est tout" (free translation : it will only be required to provide with the identity of a person suspected to commit fraud and that's all)

This is not what many bankers in Financial centers understood.

I think the OECD is beeing fooled.

See new OECD list

The Irish Independent has reported that  a record number of litigants will seek to have cases heard this week in the Commercial Court, which was set up five years ago to fast track multi-million euro business disputes.

This special court, which became operational in January 2004, heralded a new approach to commercial litigation in Ireland. It was set up to send a message to the world that Ireland is a good place to do business and resolve costly disputes

Among the applications will be attempts to sue Dublin-based Thema International Fund plc, which invested with disgraced US "Ponzi Prince" Bernard Madoff.