"It's a year since financial education became a compulsory part of the curriculum for England's 11 to 16 year olds. But do you know the answers to some of the questions in their lessons?"

Healthy Global competition is at the heart of efficient, open and resilient world economies and financial systems. When markets are highly and fairly competitive, firms compete with each other to provide industry wide products and services that are better value, higher quality or more innovative than their competitors. Highly competitive markets are marked by easy entry and unhindered exit. 

Luxembourg has in the past benefited from the Fruits of National Autonomy but now it must change and harvest the higher hanging fruits relating to sophistication and competitors from abroad. There have been many conferences on this subject but this one was different because it was to concentrate on Luxembourg and to help prepare for its future in the industry:

GR Business Days, which took place on the Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th June, has become an important rendez-vous for business, SME’s and innovative start-ups. Clearly, GR Business Days which is organized by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce is now more than just a show, demonstrating the considerable dynamism of the Greater Region internationally.

Very good and encouraging traction has been recieved recently ranging from agreement with different bodies to promote MFTSE's business to co-operation interest from the fund association - Alfi, especially concerning Financial Literacy. We will soon be able to capitalise on all this as we publish more articles, obtain feedback and build the web-site: finance-eco-money.lu.

Stephen Platt was a guest speaker at a The Institute For Global Financial Integrity in Luxembourg recently. He spoke about the role the international financial services industry has played in facilitating and laundering criminal funds and property.

EUROPEAN MICROFINANCE WEEK 2015 (#emw2015) FOCUSES ON FINANCIAL INCLUSION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

This was a wonderful opportunity to discover new, budding, enterprises with a socio-economic conscience looking for 'femPower' (see www.finance-eco-money.org ) Tools, Mentoring & Guidance on Investment, finance, ‘FineTech’ etc. 

Money is the thing that has allowed the human race to progress from the days of barter in the caves. We have seen both banks and government controlled central banks that are corrupt so neither should have the right to control progress and the distribution of wealth to our mind!

Following on from the recent pension freedoms introduced which mean that you are no longer obliged to buy an annuity for your complementary pension; the government have realised that many existing annuity holders feel left out. They therefore propose to create a secondary market so that you could sell your annuity back, probably to other institutions who may want to buy.

World leaders in Paris, joined 45,000 others -- from civil society, businesses, media and more -- to urge Heads of State and Governments to forge a global agreement on climate change.

Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna, was in Paris with a delegation of professionals of the financial sector on the occasion of a seminar for bankers and fund managers held by LFF.

Luxembourg for Finance will organise a financial mission to Singapore and Sydney on 20-25 February 2016. The mission is led by HE Pierre Gramegna, Minister of Finance and Chairman of Luxembourg for Finance.

This was a good start but should it take still another 2 years!! Having eneterd into force in 2007, the initial version of the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID 1) imposed special rules on investment, aimed to better protect investors and offer them more transparent information. The second draft of the Directive (MiFID 2), passed in 2014 but not to be implemented until 2017, aims to address areas that remain opaque. This review applies to all financial instruments. So the directive will revolutionise the whole value chain, including design and marketing.