Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Justice Department has indicated it will step up its enforcement of anti-money laundering (AML) rules among financial institutions and boost its efforts to safeguard U.S. banks from illicit financial flows. As the article points out, this comes as no surprise to those of us who have watched this issue—prosecutors in the United States have been bringing more cases against banks using the Banking Secrecy Act and DOJ has aggressively pursued both domestic and international banks for deficient money laundering controls. The DOJ’s efforts are laudable, but unfortunately they expose a...

The Center for International Policy (CIP) is a non-profit founded in 1975 to advocate for a foreign policy that promotes cooperation, transparency and accountability in global relations. CIP’s programs advocate policies that advance international cooperation, demilitarization, respect for human rights, and action to alleviate climate change and stop illicit financial flows. The international secretariat of the Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC), which CIP hosts, seeks an intern to work with us during the 2014 spring semester. The FTC intern will answer directly to the FTC Administrator and contribute to multiple FTC projects. This will range from contributing to blog posts to...

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...

Members of the European Parliament have proposed to strengthen Europe's Anti-Money Laundering Directive by requiring public registries of the real owners of all companies registered in the EU. They're voting on the Directive on January 22! A new FTC factsheet "How Europe can set the standard on anti-money laundering" tells you all you need to know about the Anti-Money Laundering Directive, including: •Why it matters •The modus operandi of money launderers •The revision of Europe’s anti-money laundering rules: a not-to-miss opportunity The Financial Transparency Coalition's network of over 150 civil society organizations and 12 governments around the world will be watching as the European...