Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON DC - Global Witness welcomes the long-overdue vote on implementation rules for Sections 1502 and 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

LONDON / WASHINGTON DC - According to the chair of a U.S. Senate subcommittee, HSBC’s “pervasively polluted” culture allowed money launderers, drug dealers and suspected terrorists to move their money through the U.S. financial system. Today, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) will hold a hearing exposing HSBC’s North American banking units alleged failure to curb financial crime, and the failure of banking regulators to address this.

WASHINGTON, DC - Global Witness applauds the bipartisan call by 58 Members of Congress for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to immediately release the final rules for two sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) aimed at decreasing corruption and conflict relating to the extractive industries. The law, passed in July 2010, required the SEC to issue final rules for these provisions in April 2011. Fourteen months after missing this deadline, the SEC is refusing to name a date for their publication.

LONDON - Global Witness is today revealing evidence that numerous UK companies appear to have helped facilitate a major money laundering scandal centred on a bank in Central Asia. Grave Secrecy, launched today, shows how urgent action is needed to address the current ease with which the UK and other major economies are used to launder the proceeds of corruption, tax evasion and other crimes.