Financial Transparency Coalition

Fittingly on International Anti-Corruption Day, more than 40 investigative journalists from all over the world signed a letter urging Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and other legislators to finish what the European Parliament started in March: the creation of public registers of company ownership information. The proposed reform, currently being debated under a new anti-money laundering directive, would create registers to collect information on the real, human owner behind every company operating in the EU. Right now, it's all too easy to set up an anonymous company and use it for money laundering,...

The latest edition of TaxCast, produced by the Tax Justice Network, is here! The monthly podcast, produced by Naomi Fowler, focuses on tax, corruption and illicit flows. In this month's edition, Naomi speaks with the Director of Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Action Centre, examines the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' latest data drop, LuxLeaks, and much more.

A multitude of officials are heralding a new cross-border tax information exchange crafted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the end of tax evasion as we know it. Unfortunately, the truth may be a bit more ambiguous. Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's finance head, stated unequivocally that "banking secrecy in its old form has had its day." Others, from George Osborne of the United Kingdom to Michel Sapinof France echoed similar praises. While the reforms, which were discussed at a Berlin conference this week, are a big step in...

The G8 and World Bank argue that the recent huge wave of private sector investment in agriculture increases innovation, jobs and food output. But is this correct? Forensic new research from influential campaign group, GRAIN suggests the opposite is true. GRAIN’s report, Feeding the 1 percent, produces evidence which indicates the avalanche of investment after the 2008 global food crisis is predatory and that investors have “little or no background in agriculture”.