Financial Transparency Coalition

With all of the talk last week in the transparency community of David Cameron’s historic announcement regarding beneficial ownership, little mention was made of the US Government’s draft set of commitments to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Porter McConnell, Manager of the Financial Transparency Coalition, was asked by OpentheGovernment.org to provide her views, which have now been published alongside those of other civil society leaders.

In her statement, Porter comments “We are glad to see the United States reaffirm its recent G8 commitments to corporate transparency. The next step will be for the Obama administration to commit to making concrete progress on this front – especially in Congress. Coming off the heels of Prime Minister David Cameron’s historic announcement that the UK will put in place a public registry of the beneficial owners behind shell companies, the U.S. has an opportunity to join with its close trading partner to demonstrate that it is both possible and practical to crack down on the corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion that robs both poor and rich countries of billions of dollars each year.”