Financial Transparency Coalition

THE ECONOMIST—CONGRESSMEN working late into the summer nights to overhaul America’s system of financial regulation were surprised when Bono started lobbying them. Yet the rocker-cum-campaigner helped to insert a far-reaching change into the legislation they were drafting. It has nothing directly to do with America’s financial mess, but it will push forward the fight against corruption in the developing world, a cause which has made some much-needed progress recently.

Robin Hodess, Transparency International's Director of Policy and Research, looks back at 15 years of the Corruption Perceptions Index.

WASHINGTON—Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development (Task Force) member Transparency International released its 15^th annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) today. The Index is based on different assessments and business opinion surveys concerning the administrative and political aspects of corruption such as bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds, and the strength and effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts. Two of the Index’s biggest losers were Russia and the U.S.—both of which were perceived to have become more corrupt over the past year—while Denmark, New Zealand, and Singapore were considered the least...

With governments committing huge sums to tackle the world’s most pressing problems, from the instability of financial markets to climate change and poverty, corruption remains an obstacle to achieving much needed progress, according to Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption released October 2010.