Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Remember last July.

Luxembourg was congratulated by OECD for having signed the famous 12 agreements. More are actually signed for the frontage.

"Luxembourg  has shown that countries are increasingly prepared to enter into high quality agreements and to extend the network of treaties which meet the OECD standard (...) The process is working and I look forward to other countries following the example that Luxembourg has set (...) 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", Angel Gurria said.

I and other warned OECD.

As far as tax agreements are concerned what do we have :

1. We had a draft law to bypass with the creation of a strange "discharging fine".

2. We have no law enforced this year which delays the implementation.

3. We had anyway professionals that called for not implementing agreements and go before the courts : "nous proposons de soumettre toute demande des autorités luxembourgeoises au contrôle d'un tribunal luxembourgeois".

By the way criminal liability of legal persons required is still neither enacted nor enforced depite two OECD injunctions last yeatr and this year.

I am happy that OECD and Angel Gurria are happy...

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)

The Luxembourg government today published a press release that is signed by the Luxembourg Minister of Justice and Angel Gurria.

This press release took place place in the framework of the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

Despite Luxembourg is a secrecy jurisdiction with many scandals that are hushed up including corruption cases like the recent affair of "ruling" before the court, criminal libility of legal persons does not exist.

The press release does not say a word about this failure to comply with OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

Legislature file