Richard Murphy, Author at Financial Transparency Coalition

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Tackling offshore – setting the scene

July 19th, 2010

I was asked recently what ten issues I would prioritise if I was to tackle offshore. The person making the request didn’t want much detail, just a list, but I’m not that good at doing “just lists” so I thought I’d share my thinking over a number of blogs. First things first, I’d not list ten things. That suggests there are discrete action points in this area, and I’m not sure that’s true. So I offer five areas of activity where I’d develop issues, as I will in the blogs to come. They are: 1....

Plan B for Jersey

July 7th, 2010

Jersey is in a profound mess. Its finance industry is failing, with funds under management rapidly leaving the island and the profits of its finance sector falling by fifty per cent in 2009.

Jersey should base its future activity on radical transparency

Worse still, it faces a government spending deficit of at least £100 million a year representing 18% of its total annual government income unless radical reforms take place soon. To compound matters its corporate tax system faces being ruled unacceptable by...

Illicit Financial Flows and the Recession

June 23rd, 2010

Around the world governments are announcing massive cuts in government spending. The consequence is inevitable: programs that politicians and civil servants once thought essential will be subject to new scrutiny. In many cases those programs will be scaled back, or even cut altogether. Nowhere is this more likely than amongst new programs, where there is no established pattern of spending and no certain proof of delivery of benefit as yet. Many of the programs initiated over the last few years to tackle tax haven secrecy jurisdiction abuse fall into this last category. Will commitments to negotiating new information exchange...