Financial Transparency Coalition

Ngozi Ikonjo-Iweala is MD of the World Bank. She’s spoken here and is saying that the importance of the issue we’re talking about – illicit financial flows – has not yet struck home. It’s time for it to take centre stage. She has directly endorsed action. Direct action, on the street, she says. She’s directly thanked the small coterie of us from civil society who are working on this issue – and has said this is the #1 issue for civil society and development now. There must be, she says, people on the streets demanding change. Placards are needed. And we must...

A new joint briefing paper by Global Witness, Tax Justice Network, Christian Aid and Global Financial Integrity explains how illicit financial flows out of the developing world is entrenching poverty. These flows include tax evasion, abusive transfer mispricing and the proceeds of corruption. All of these illicit financial flows are facilitated by global financial opacity, both in tax havens and major financial centres. As a result of the financial crisis, which was largely created by global financial opacity, governments are now starting to tackle these issues, particularly through the G20 process. Describing a problem is not enough though: the paper...

As the Tax Justice Network notes:

Tucked away low down in an article in the August edition of the Swiss review, there is this:

“Switzerland has become a paradise for foreign capital on which tax is not paid. The uproar from foreign governments is understandable.”

These are not the words of a critic of the banks, but of private banker Konrad Hummler. He says that around 30%, or CHF 1,000 billion, of the CHF 2,800 billion or so of foreign assets in Swiss banks is untaxed “black money”.

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No, you didn’t read that incorrectly. Cayman is insolvent, bust, broke, unable to pay its debts. This is not a rumour, this is fact. This fact is confirmed by the speaking notes used by the Hon. McKeeva Bush for a meeting held with senior Cayman civil servants, government boards and private sector business leaders last Thursday, of which I seemed to be the first to secure a copy. The text is here, but I will also reproduce it separately on my blog in case Cayman take it down. The following summarises the current state of play,...