Why doesn't calc format correctly a simple spreadsheet which opens correctly in Excel 2000?

I periodically download a spreadsheet from a financial institution; Calc always prompts me for “Import Options” such as Language and an option to detect special numbers (such as date). After having entered this information I get a spreadsheet with lousy formatting. Columns are all narrow and of equal width (0.89"), everything is aligned center, including both text and numbers, text is not wrapped, cells that should have a background color and different font color don’t, the font is Liberation Serif instead of Arial, currency values that are negative are in Red and in Dollars instead of Euros, dates are in mm/dd/yyyy format instead of dd/mm/yyyy. If I open the same spreadsheet in Excel 2000 everything is perfect. Can anybody shed some light?