Financial Transparency Coalition

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's main political parties agreed on Wednesday to pass measures which should ease banking secrecy and help bring the Alpine republic up to OECD standards on financial transparency.

LOS ANGELES — A filmmaking couple devised an intricate system of bribes to Thai officials in order to land lucrative projects such as the Bangkok International Film Festival, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday during opening statements of their trial.

William Wallace: Your editorial welcoming action to force tax havens to loosen the bonds of secrecy (21 August) omitted one important point: many of the world's leading tax havens fall under the British crown. Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos are all significant offshore financial centres. All benefit from the British system of law, from the expectation of offshore investors that British oversight guarantees higher standards than competitor centres – and all have benefited from Whitehall's relaxed oversight regime.

BBC News -- The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says it will use phone tapping and surveillance to uncover British companies involved in corruption abroad.