Financial Transparency Coalition

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...

Guinea is the world’s largest producer of the mineral Bauxite, which is the main source of aluminum. Guinea also possesses reserves of hydropower and solar power, and it exports other valuable minerals: it’s the world’s fifth largest producer of iron ore and it also produces gold and diamonds. Historically, however, Guinea has experienced tremendous difficulty in profiting from this potential. Correspondingly, Guinea has high rates of poverty, high inflation, and low levels of tax revenues. According to a joint study by Global Financial Integrity and the African Development Bank, Guinea lost about 10 percent of its GDP...

Every so often in campaigning, you experience a rare breakthrough moment where the project gathers steam and people start to listen in a way they haven’t before. We had one of those moments last summer. My colleagues and I had spent the last five years telling people that anonymous companies facilitate much of the corruption that we campaign to stop. Most people were sympathetic to our cause and surprised by what we told them, but in terms of real, hard change, it’s fair to say our calls fell largely on deaf ears. In 2013, things changed.

Joint NGO Media Reaction Financial Transparency Coalition – Eurodad – Global Witness – Transparency International EU Office – Oxfam Brussels, March 11, 2014 – Today, the European Parliament endorsed the creation of public registers of who really owns companies, trusts and other legal structures. This will make it much harder for criminals, tax evaders, corrupt politicians and other money launderers to hide their identity, and their