Privacy and why it matters, how it is threatened and the ways that offshore financial centres can provide compliant solutions and ideas will come under the spotlight in a conference to be held in Monaco, 14 March. This publication will attend the event and provide coverage.

How to maintain privacy at a time when governments, corporations, political activists and criminals want to pry into one’s financial affairs has never been more of an urgent concern, a conference, to be held in Monaco, will hear. 

The role that international financial centres such as Monaco can play in offering compliant solutions for protecting privacy is an important part of the conversation.

The 14 March afternoon conference entitled “How to structure and protect your legitimate privacy?” is being organised by TrustConsult. It will feature a broad range of speakers discussing all aspects of privacy. 

Stories of data leaks such as the Panama and Paradise Papers, calls for public registers of beneficial ownership of trusts and firms, the end of cross-border bank secrecy in Switzerland, the declining use of cash, and other factors, have put privacy under pressure. The growth of social media and technologies such as AI and central bank digital currencies raise concerns. While policymakers understandably want to stop financial wrongdoing, ensuring legitimate privacy isn’t lost is essential, Luxembourg-headquartered TrustConsult argues.  

“The issue is indeed so important because over the last 20 years, with the development of the digital era and social networks which everyone agrees makes a positive contribution, this has been done without any consideration for privacy respect and protection,” Christian Bühlmann, group chairman and founding partner, TrustConsult Group, told this news service.

“We keep seeing this [privacy loss] through the International Consortium of Journalists that keeps shaming and blaming people at regular intervals with its successive leaks, which by the way seem always less popular, and target people that are very often operating entirely legally. People are harmed and have no way to reverse the narrative,” he said.

Pushback
There has been pushback against erosions of privacy: In 2022, for example, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against public access to registers of beneficial ownership, sparking criticism – and praise from legal privacy campaigners. In the US, the federal government introduced the Corporate Transparency Act, imposing beneficial ownership disclosure obligations on companies (there isn’t a public register; this information resides with state agencies). The Covid-19 pandemic, and the collection of test data on a vast scale, arguably reminded the general public why privacy is important. The Ed Snowden data leaks from the National Security Agency in 2013 highlighted the powers of state agencies have in collecting information on the public. The advent of Europe’s GDPR data protection regime has also focused minds on privacy.

The programme, which starts at 14:00, will give the audience a chance to hear a variety of perspectives. To discuss how all these issues play out, TrustConsult has assembled a list of industry experts for four panels: 

First panel: Why privacy still matters?
Filippo Noseda, partner, Mishcon de Reya
Guillaume Grisel, partner, Schellenberg Wittmer 
Christian Bühlmann, CEO, TrustConsult Group
Myret Zaki, journalist, Bilan Magazine 
Pierre-Jean Douvier, partner, CMS Monaco

Second panel: Is privacy still allowed?
Thierry Boitelle, LLM, tax, Leiden University, Boitelle Tax
Alex von Stein, managing partner, Spencer Ship Monaco
Cécile Civiale Vuillier, partner, TrustConsult Suisse
Maurizio Cohen, managing partner, Interlaw Monaco

Third panel: Protecting privacy in the media 
Christian Bühlmann, CEO TrustConsult Group
Myret Zaki, journalist, Bilan Magazine
Tom Burroughes, group editor, ClearView Financial Media

Fourth panel: Maintaining privacy in your investments
Grégoire Mure, CEO TrustConsult Luxembourg
Patrice Sauro, CFO and executive director, TrustConsult Group
Ramy Torbey, managing partner, EPTALEX Law Firm
Will Adams, executive director, Private Trust Partners
Philippe Reynier, CEO, WECAN

This news service is pleased to have been invited to the event, given the seriousness of the topics concerned and the chance to hear the latest thinking about privacy. WealthBriefing intends to follow the conference with reports on specific topics where relevant.

For those who wish to attend this event, please email jennie.robinson@trustconsultgroup.com