Financial Transparency Coalition

We are big fans of human rights organisations, generally speaking, but we’re going to say some uncomfortable things about some of them here. Yesterday we noted that Rudolf Elmer, the Swiss whistleblower who has been persecuted for years by the Swiss tax haven industry, via the Swiss courts and other arms of Swiss state, collapsed in court during a trial where he is accused of breaking Swiss banking secrecy laws. He has already spent five months in prison and he faces more: read the background here. The Swiss establishment and media has mostly focused on Elmer the...

Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, has just responded to a letter sent to him by more than 40 leading investigative journalists. The letter urged President Juncker to ensure the creation of public registers of beneficial ownership information as part of the ongoing negotiations of the EU's 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Beneficial ownership information would provide authorities, journalists, and civil society with information on who actually owns or profits from a company. The European Parliament already approved such registers overwhelmingly in March, with a vote of...

Fittingly on International Anti-Corruption Day, more than 40 investigative journalists from all over the world signed a letter urging Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and other legislators to finish what the European Parliament started in March: the creation of public registers of company ownership information. The proposed reform, currently being debated under a new anti-money laundering directive, would create registers to collect information on the real, human owner behind every company operating in the EU. Right now, it's all too easy to set up an anonymous company and use it for money laundering,...

Corruption can take many forms. Whether it's a politician funneling state funds into bank accounts in offshore tax havens, or a multinational corporation skirting their tax responsibilities in a developing country, one thing is clear: corruption stifles development and hinders society. Often, lots of these activities are facilitated by a lack of transparency in our financial system. Today is International Anti-Corruption Day, which should serve as a day to remind the world why it's important to speak out against corruption. Feel free to join in the global chorus on Twitter by following the hashtags #breakthechain and #anticorruptionday.