Financial Transparency Coalition

From the Treasure Islands site: Treasure Islands took some trouble to explain how small U.S. states such as Delaware were serving essentially as offshore centres within the United States, offering secrecy and lax regulation of various kinds, and offering themselves as 'captive states' willing to write their laws in pretty much whatever ways private interests (from elsewhere) wanted, while no consultation with anyone outside the tiny rarefied circle of insiders. Well, a new and excellent New York Times story, about the captive insurance industry, fits the Treasure Islands framework so closely as to be almost...

Over the last decade or so, investment banks have chronically put their profits ahead of the interests of the community. Take Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, that sold complex financial structures en masse, which helped spread toxic mortgages throughout the financial system. In 2008 our financial system nearly collapsed, in large part because of these toxic mortgages. Goldman Sachs actually profited from that meltdown, by putting millions of dollars into a subprime mortgage deal in 2007. Soon after that little stunt, the firm paid a settlement fine of $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for charges...

Foreign Policy: Next, Let's Get Bin Laden's Financiers NPR, May 12, 2011 Companies connected to money-laundering scandal Montreal Gazette, May 12, 2011 Money laundering involves more than just cash transactions FINTRAC Director tells Anti-Money Laundering Conference FINTRAC (News Release), May 10, 2011 FBI: Some US rogue firms operate in Indonesia The Jakarta Post, May 12, 2011 Seeking Business, States Loosen Insurance Rules New York Times, May 8, 2011 Pop stars among investors hit by taxman's victory The Guardian, May 11, 2011

Delaying Release of Final Rules on Extractive Industries Disclosure Law Will Hurt Developing Countries, Could Weaken Enforcement The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in April that the final rules for Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection act could be delayed until sometime between August and December 2011, at the earliest.  Once enacted, Section 1504 would require companies operating in the oil, gas and mining industries (the extractive industries) that have to report to the SEC, which includes—at a minimum—all such companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, to report payments made to the...