Financial Transparency Coalition

Today is not just Tax Day in the United States. It is also the first anniversary of the deadline for the SEC to issue rules on Dodd-Frank Secti0n 1504 – the breakthrough transparency provision for the oil, gas, and mining sectors. Task Force Managing Director Tom Cardamone, as a guest post at Trust Law, writes,

EU Country-by-country reporting rules are now being discussed by member states and the European parliament. But one of the clearest flaws in the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to increase corporate and government accountability has been ignored. Namely, the EC has included an exemption meaning companies would not have to disclose payments in countries where criminal law prohibits such disclosure. Effectively this poses the question “Should the law apply in places where it is most needed, where governments are determined to pass laws to hide their own wrongdoing?”

This post is the second part of a two-post series. The first post, on the economic costs of Section 1504, is available here. Embedded into the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act–also known as the “financial overhaul bill”—was Section 1504, which will require companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange to disclose payments to governments for oil, gas, and mining. The American Petroleum Industry (API), a U.S. trade association for the oil and gas industry, is pushing back against this provision. In a letter to the SEC, API claims Section 1504 defies Executive Order 13563, which Obama signed...

In July of last year President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act–also known as the “financial overhaul bill”—into law. Embedded into the Dodd-Frank Act was Section 1504, which required companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange to disclose payments to governments for oil, gas, and mining. Under these provisions, companies would provide this information in their SEC filings and it would be publicly available. Unsurprisingly, the American Petroleum Industry (API), a U.S. trade association for the oil and gas industry, is pushing back. In a letter to the SEC, API claims Section 1504 defies Executive...