Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week, China executed Wen Qiang, a former high-ranking member of the Chongqing judiciary on charges which included accepting bribes, protecting criminal gangs and even rape. The execution of Wen, charged with taking over 12 million yuan ($1.76 million) in bribes, is the climactic result of a massive crackdown on corruption in Chongqing which has resulted in nearly 100 officials being prosecuted. Despite the breadth of corruption in Chongqing, however, this is not an isolated problem in China. Rather, it is part of a...

LONDON - A league table of the world’s most secretive tax havens has been compiled by campaigners seeking greater transparency about the operation of ‘offshore’ finance centres. The Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) analyses the level of secrecy each haven offers, and the extent of their reluctance to co-operate with other countries' tax authorities.

WASHINGTON, DC -- According to a new analysis of financial jurisdictions prepared by UK-based civil society group Tax Justice Network, the state of Delaware is the most secretive financial jurisdiction in the world. Based on the laws and practices of 60 financial jurisdictions the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) ranks jurisdictions according to their level of secrecy and the extent to which they cooperate with tax authorities in other countries.

The results of the 2009 Financial Secrecy Index Finally, the time has come to reveal the names of the secrecy jurisdictions that we have ranked according to both their lack of transparency and their scale of cross-border financial activity. For the first time ever, and based on far, far stronger criteria than those used by the OECD, we can now announce the world’s leading secrecy jurisdictions. Nothing remotely like this has ever been done before. Our new index assesses each jurisdiction on an opacity rating – how secretive the jurisdiction is – combined with a weighting according to size. We...