Financial Transparency Coalition

NEW YORK – Even as anger over governmental corruption has exploded into protests across the Middle East, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been working to weaken the law that bans companies from bribing foreign officials.

Targeting Stock Exchanges is Key in Civil Society's Push for Country-by-Country Reporting, writes François Valérian Today, Transparency International and the Revenue Watch Institute have published the Promoting Revenue Transparency 2011 Report on Oil and Gas Companies. This report evaluates corporate reporting performance on anti-corruption programmes, on subsidiaries and partners, as well as on country-level financial results and technical data. The report shows a concerning reporting gap. Most companies score significantly better in reporting on anti-corruption programmes than in country-level reporting of relevant financial and technical data. This gap further illustrates the major focus of corporate communication, at least for listed...

Global Financial Integrity Applauds Shareholder Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC--Global Financial Integrity (GFI) applauds Harrington Investments, Inc.’s decision to file shareholder resolutions with Citigroup, Bank of American and JPMorgan Chase, calling for the adoption of a policy position addressing the systemic use of the U.S. financial system to both shelter illicit funds and transfer them internationally. The shareholder resolution follows a difficult year in which we saw Wachovia Bank sanctioned for laundering millions of dollars for South American drug cartels, HSBC agreeing to sanctions from the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency for failure to maintain adequate anti-money laundering programs, and the...

The European Commission has recently opened a consultation process until 23 August 2010 calling for views to modify a regulation that sets out minimum transparency requirements for listed companies. The Transparency Directive was adopted in 2004 with the aim of improving the information available to investors on companies’ performances to help them make investment decisions. Now, the so-called TOD Directive is under revision. Where the directive currently falls down As it currently stands, while the Directive covers a large range of firms, namely, those whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market, it only offers EU Member States the possibility...