Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week, the United Nations High-Level Panel on Financial Transparency, Accountability, and Integrity (FACTI) Panel released its much-anticipated findings. The momentous release, as FTC wrote in response, “established a new global standard on financial transparency.”

The Financial Secrecy Index is the Tax Justice Network’s flagship index of secrecy jurisdictions, or ‘tax havens’. The idea emerged from discussions at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, in January 2007. In part, it came from frustration with a popular view of corruption as a ‘poor country’ problem – when all the analysis of

So the latest big tax haven whistleblower, Antoine Deltour, is facing the combined massed might of Luxembourg, one of the world’s biggest and most aggressive tax havens, and PWC, one of the biggest and most aggressive lobbyists for offshore tax and secrecy legislation, the Big Four accounting firm. Deltour faces up to ten years in prison.

Corruption can take many forms. Whether it's a politician funneling state funds into bank accounts in offshore tax havens, or a multinational corporation skirting their tax responsibilities in a developing country, one thing is clear: corruption stifles development and hinders society. Often, lots of these activities are facilitated by a lack of transparency in our financial system. Today is International Anti-Corruption Day, which should serve as a day to remind the world why it's important to speak out against corruption. Feel free to join in the global chorus on Twitter by following the hashtags #breakthechain and #anticorruptionday.