Financial Transparency Coalition

Cross posted from Transparency International’s Space for Transparency Blog. After a summer of corruption scandals in Spanish politics, the country’s Congress passed a new piece of legislation on transparency and access to information this September. Public tolerance for corruption had reached boiling point with companies, parties and even the royal family seemingly acting with impunity after graft allegations. The new legislation is now headed for the Senate, where it will be debated before coming into effect.

Check out this great BBC broadcast covering David Cameron's groundbreaking commitment to introduce a public register to reveal the true beneficial owner of companies. Global Financial Integrity's E.J. Fagan was interviewed for this broadcast. You can find his comments starting at the 3.20 mark.

London, October 31, 2013 - David Cameron is expected to become the first leader of any country to commit to introducing a public register to reveal the true beneficial owner of companies. The Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC) strongly welcomes this move, as we have been calling on world leaders to put these public registries in place since our founding in 2009. We believe public registers of beneficial ownership will go a long way towards reducing corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) welcomed the introduction late Wednesday night in the U.S. House of Representatives of two pieces of legislation aimed at stemming the flow of trillions of dollars in dirty money through the U.S. financial system. The Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization noted that the two bills would bring the United States in line with certain international anti-money laundering (AML) standards, target individuals responsible for laundering money, and bring an end to the abuse of anonymous U.S. shell companies.