Financial Transparency Coalition

"We are on the right side of history at the right time."

So said Raymond Baker in his opening conference comments this morning. And I agree with him. The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development is a unique global coalition of civil society organizations and more than 50 governments working together to address inequalities in the financial system that penalize billions of people. Launched by Global Financial Integrity in January 2009, the Task Force advocates for greatly improved transparency and accountability in the global financial system. The Task Force advocates five priorities:

Sen. Levin Calls For Tax Haven Sanctions In Run-up To G-20.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan wants the U.S. to propose stiff sanctions at this month’s G-20 economic summit for banks and countries that harbor the assets of tax evaders.

In a Tuesday letter to President Obama, Levin said the U.S. should seek Group of 20 approval of sanctions for tax havens, including prohibiting G-20 banks from doing business with financial institutions that are found to be impeding tax enforcement.

I run the international development program at SAIS, at Johns Hopkins, and for the last several years I’ve been involved in governance issues because it does seem to me that the development community has finally woken up to the importance of good governance and institutions. Obviously, the fight against corruption is a key part of this agenda. I think there is a very broad consensus that has fallen into place over the last decade or so about just how detrimental corruption is in undermining the legitimacy of democratic institutions and in impeding growth.

The 2009 conference of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development commenced this morning at the Hilton Embassy Row in Washington, DC. After hearing from Poul Engberg-Pedersen, the Director General of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, and Raymond Baker, Director of Global Financial Integrity, we heard from a panel of leading experts on the issue of transfer mispricing. The panel featured Alex Cobham from Christian Aid, Jack Blum from Tax Justice Network USA, Krishen Mehta from Asia Initiatives and Raymond Baker from Global Financial Integrity. To view the complete conference agenda, click here. I'll...