Financial Transparency Coalition

Cross-posted, with small amendments, from the Treasure Islands blog. A new report from the IMF (hat tip: Markus Henn) tallies surprisingly closely, at least in part, with what members of the Task Force have been saying for some time. Take this, for example, on the role of secrecy jurisdictions (the IMF prefers the term Offshore Financial Centers, or OFCs:)

Before the 2008–09 economic crisis, many banks and hedge funds used OFCs for off-balance-sheet activities such as the so-called special purpose vehicles or structured investment vehicles. These vehicles were typically funded in onshore financial...

The powerless have few tools to use against the powerful. Sometimes the powerless are a minority. Sometimes they are a majority. Suffrage, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are tools civilizations have developed to give powerless people more power. But the other side has its own tools, which the powerful use to perpetuate their power. Corruption and nepotism are the most obvious examples. These tools are not only used by theocrats and autocrats. They are used in democracies too, and they erode democratic systems by concentrating power in the hands of a few, depriving the powerless of...

Global Financial Integrity Managing Director Tom Cardamone has written a blog post for the TrustLaw website examining the shortfalls of anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance efforts at companies around the world. A study showed that a third of firms saw anti-bribery programs as “an example of the governments imposing costly and excessive requirements”, demonstrating a lack of motivation in reducing unethical business practices. Referencing the effectiveness of penalties for corrupt practices, Cardamone writes:

An even closer read of the stories behind these fines shows that seldom do they make a significant dent in the profits of the firms involved and rarely...

Anti-Corruption Views - Corporate corruption: The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Trustlaw, June 9, 2011

Fasting guru denies he's arming followers in India AP, June 9, 2011

Chaitanya Kalbag on Ramdev satyagraha, coolest start-ups Business Today, June 26, 2011

Graft, bureaucracy denting India's global image The Economic Times, June 9, 2011

SEC scans Goldman, other firms' Libya dealings: report Reuters, June 9, 2011

Azerbaijani Bank Identified As Major Spam Facilitator Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, June 8, 2011