Financial Transparency Coalition

This year saw a great deal of progress on financial transparency. From the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg to 10 Downing Street, the world has committed to more transparency both in words and in actions. Specifically, the events of this year have shown the world is eager to cooperate on issues of transparency and there is significant momentum building for significant and sustainable change. Here’s a review of some of the big events in 2013. Many of the developments in 2013 showed the world is more willing to cooperate on issues of transparency. At its heart, transparency requires cooperation....

Last year, inspired by TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year, I picked ten individuals as nominees for a “Transparency Person of the Year.” Keeping with TIME’s definition, these would be people who influenced the news, for better or worse, on issues related to financial transparency. Keeping with the tradition, here are my picks for 2013. DAVID CAMERON. The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister has led a charge to change worldwide standards on beneficial ownership. In October of this year, the Prime Minister promised to make information on the beneficial ownership of companies available on public registries. Through these registries, the UK...

Happy Holidays from the Financial Transparency Coalition! This year has marked a true turning point for financial transparency. I’d like to take a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come: •In March, the European Union passed a directive mandating full country by country reporting for the banking sector. After a significant advocacy push, the European Council committed in May to extend this to all sectors in the future. •In May, Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel made illicit flows a focus of its annual report, urging world leaders to tackle the problem and drawing attention to the fact that Africa loses twice...

Alex Prats of FTC member Christian Aid has just had this excellent piece up on the Guardian's Poverty Matters Blog. In it he starts " Tax came of age in 2013. No longer the preserve of accountants, it won the attention of governments, parliaments, journalists, campaigners and voters who, according to one recent British poll, are more concerned about tax avoidance than any other aspect of companies' behaviour. With so much focus on how rich people and companies dodge their fair share – and with many societies struggling with austerity – it's hardly surprising the international apparatus of tax evasion and...