Financial Transparency Coalition

The Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a member of the FTC’s Coordinating Committee, has just released a great animated video highlighting the problem of illicit financial flows. Along with providing a sound and straightforward overview of the problem, the animation also looks at the problem and how it specifically relates to the regional context

PRESS RELEASE As 6th Financial Transparency Conference ends, work on illicit financial flows is only getting started Though local and regional contexts vary, participants from around the world see common thread in issues of tax and transparency  

When it comes to transparency and development, Asia is home to many paradoxes. China is ready to overtake the United States as the world's largest economy, but also home to rapidly rising income income inequality. Hong Kong, China's Special Administrative Region, is meanwhile the world's fastest growing tax haven. And, as you will see in the presentation below, Asia is also home to alarming levels of endemic corruption and of financial opacity. High income inequality can undermine social cohesion, create barriers to social and economic mobility, and result in increased corruption and cronyism. Meanwhile, illicit financial flows erode...

In recent years wealth among the wealthiest has increased. This trend is well-documented in the United States, where commentators have noted that since 1979, the rich have become richer and the poor have become (relative to the rich) poorer. Dubbed the “Great Divergence” by NY Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman, this phenomenon may be both a driver and the result of tax policy and tax evasion in the United States. But America isn’t the only country vulnerable to these kinds of trends. In fact, evidence from recent years has suggested that these trends are at play in several emerging...