Financial Transparency Coalition

This article originally appear on the EU Observer's website. BRUSSELS - On 13 February the European Parliament will have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to vote for legislative revisions to the current EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD).

This blog originally appeared on European Development Days' website. Earlier this month, the Financial Transparency Coalition organised the conference ‘Towards Transparency: Making the Global Financial System Work for Development’ in Tanzania. There, African civil society organisations and a coalition of leading international development organisations called on global policymakers to adopt measures to counter the hundreds of billions of euros siphoned out of the continent through money laundering and industrial-scale corporate tax avoidance. The Africa Progress Panel led by Kofi Annan has estimated in its 2013 report that Africa loses twice as much in illicit financial flows as it receives in international...

This Op-Ed originally appeared in European Voice. The UK is showing the way forward on financial transparency Last week, the British prime minister, David Cameron, announced that the UK plans to create a central public register of who ultimately owns and controls companies, or so-called ‘beneficial owners'. This should make it much harder for criminals to hide their identities behind sham UK companies, and for the corrupt to steal billions of dollars from developing countries. Currently, corporations can be formed worldwide without disclosing who actually owns or controls them. Criminals often exploit this ability to create anonymous companies for the sole purpose...

BRUSSELS - Money launderers, corrupt politicians, tax dodgers and traffickers of all sorts rely on the same things to move their ill-gotten gains. They need legal structures that allow them to hide their identity. This often happens through anonymous companies whose beneficial ownership is hidden. European leaders have a unique chance to curb these shell companies in the ongoing review of the European Union’s anti-money laundering rules. To ensure cash or assets are efficiently processed, corrupt officials and politicians require professional bankers, lawyers and accountants willing to help them.