Financial Transparency Coalition

BERLIN—On Friday and Saturday this week (October 22d-23th), the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors are due to meet in South Korea. The G20 had raised big expectations at a time when it promised the end of bank secrecy (London, April 2009). At that time, capital markets were reaching their lowest point over several years. Since then, they have partially recovered and the G20 tone has considerably softened. Would we have a correlation between Dow Jones levels and G20 softness? Without going that far, we can only reaffirm that transparency and the fight against corruption still have...

Venezuela Lost Over US$33 Billion in Illicit Financial Outflows in 2008¹

Hugo Chávez again took to his twitter account last week, expressing his support for Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in the midst of an uprising by disgruntled police officers. While a firm fan of new social media, Mr. Chávez tends to take a dim view of the more traditional sort. Since his election to the presidency in 1998, he has sought to muffle opposition, with state dominance of the media at the heart of his ‘Bolivarian Revolution’. Invariably a government seeking to control the...

LONDON—British high street banks have accepted millions of pounds in deposits from corrupt Nigerian politicians, raising serious questions about their commitment to tackling financial crime, warned Global Witness in a report published today. By taking money from corrupt Nigerian governors between 1999 and 2005, Barclays, NatWest, RBS, HSBC and UBS helped to fuel corruption and entrench poverty in Nigeria.

LAGOS, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Britain needs to enforce money laundering regulations more strictly after some of its leading high street banks accepted millions of pounds in deposits from corrupt Nigerian politicians, a graft watchdog said on Monday.