According to the Monegasque authorities, IFREFI's first meeting in Monaco, which was held from 2nd to 4th April 2008, is of key importance to the future development of the Principality's financial management industry.

Established in 2002, the IFREFI groups together approximately twenty countries from Europe, French-speaking Africa and Quebec. The goal of the Institute is to strengthen cooperation and exchange between its members in the field of financial regulation, a burning issue in the light of the financial market crisis of the last few months.

The topics of the meetings, chosen by the regulators themselves, this year concerned the subprime crisis and potential regulatory solutions, group savings products, and codes of good conduct in financial information matters.

The opening of the 4th April session was held in the presence of Prince Albert II, and brought together the Presidents of the CCAF, Christian de Boissieu and the Authority for the French Financial Markets, Michel Prada, among others.

Established as an independent administrative authority, following the adoption of new legal provisions on financial activities in September 2007, the Financial Activities Auditing Committee is entrusted with the following:

• Making a decision on requests for start-up funds and the opening of management companies, as well as issuing authorizations;
• Monitoring the regularity of the transactions carried out by approved companies;
• Carrying out audits and putting a stop to any irregularities (if necessary, imposing administrative sanctions);and
• Cooperating with foreign counterparts in compliance with specific conditions and procedures.

President Christian de Boissieu pointed out that, far from acting as a brake for the development of the market, the regulator "is there to increase its security and consequently help Monaco compete as a financial market”.

Secretary General of the CCAF, Jean Castellini, added that:

“With the steady growth of consultancy and management firms setting up over the last few years (41 at the end of February 2008), some of which are of high repute (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and hedge funds such as SRM), on the one hand we need to ensure investors are given the best information possible on products available, and on the other hand, to promote efficient financial and operational risk control of the organisations supervised by the CCAF”.