Financial Transparency Coalition

A couple of weeks ago I presented evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. My evidence will be published shortly. This week Dave Hartnett also gave evidence to that committee, and at least in part on the same subject: employee benefit trusts. As Accountancy Age reports:

told the Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee: “Some of the offshore arrangements have been pretty opaque to us for some time.”

Hartnett said: “It is not always possible to use the exchange of information provisions under treaties and other things to expose those.”

The disclosure regime had...

If you read my posts, you might be aware that when it comes to bribery and corruption I am often skeptical and even more frequently condemnatory. But I also try to give credit where it’s due. Despite my criticisms and my often snarky tone, my message is one of guarded optimism. I am optimistic in the face of the shortcomings and the outright failings of our international systems because I see a positive trajectory. More trials of foreign bribery, more exposures of government corruption, and more revelations of dictator’s deposits in foreign banks are all good signs. Of...

Publish What You Pay and Eurodad have launched a briefing paper (PDF) calling on the EU to propose legally binding measures to require natural resource companies to publish key financial information for each country and project in which they operate. In recent months, civil society groups working on financial transparency and on tax and development have actively engaged the European Commission and other European institutions responsible for drafting key legislative and non-legislative proposals that will potentially reform European financial reporting standards. This paper aims to contribute to the current debate...

Task Force member Global Witness today revealed that HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale, JPMorgan Chase and many other western financial institutions appear to have held and managed billions in Libyan state oil money under the rule of Col. Muammar al Gaddafi. A release to the media from Global Witness early this morning began:

LONDON and WASHINGTON, DC – HSBC and Goldman Sachs are among the key western bankers for Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, a 2010 document leaked to Global Witness appears to show. The...