Financial Transparency Coalition

According to a recent editorial from The Guardian, the illicit activities that drive capital flight, such as drug trafficking and terrorist financing, are actually supported by legal infrastructure. Namely, the lack of transparency in regions designated as "tax havens" allows for elaborate tax avoidance schemes and money laundering that funds these sorts of activities. As an example, banking company HSBC reportedly held a Cayman Islands subsidiary that "handled some 60,000 accounts," which "drug lords used . . . to fuel their jet-set lives." According to the newspaper, politicians must address the issue of tax haven abuse. In affected countries such...

Where do multinational corporations go on their holidays, and how much money do they spend when they get there? Despite their global reach, Transparency International’s recent Transparency in Corporate Reporting report – which assesses 105 multinational companies’ anti-corruption reporting – shows that these companies reveal very little information about their financial and non-financial contribution to the countries in which they operate. The European Parliament is now calling for legislation to require companies to report financial information on a country-by-country basis.

Yesterday on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart dedicated his first three minutes to talking about the HSBC money-laundering case.  As he’s known to do, Stewart gave a quick primer of the situation coupled with some humor.  During his HSBC segment, he mentions how there are a lot of banking scandals that most people don’t really

NPR’s Tom Ashbrook did a great program on the HSBC banking scandal, including an interview with Sen. Carl Levin, yesterday as a part of Thursday’s edition of On Point. The discussion is in regards to Tuesday’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations hearing about HSBC’s money laundering allegations. In the interview, Senator Levin speaks about the long list of issues that goes along with solving these types of systemic problems, the main one being a lack of accountability. Improper enforcement, oversight, and a disregard for the well being of the global financial system are aspects of this...