Financial Transparency Coalition

On July 10, Transparency International issued a report showing that the world’s biggest companies are disclosing more about their measures for preventing corruption, but not so much of their financial data in the countries where they operate.

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.

The recent global financial crisis highlighted the need to broaden the discussion about regulation and oversight of the financial system. Transparency and related risk assessments of financial institutions have surged to the top of the agenda. In our study on transparency and disclosure of measures for reducing corruption risk among the world’s largest companies published today, financial companies constitute the single largest industry sector. Among the 24 financial institutions in the survey there are 19 banks, four diversified financial service providers and one insurance company. They are incorporated in 11 different countries: six in the US, four in China, three...

BERLIN - The world’s largest publicly-traded companies are reporting more than in the past about their anti-corruption programmes but still need to do a lot more to increase transparency in reporting on their operations, according to a new study by anti-corruption group Transparency International. Transparency in Corporate Reporting: Assessing the World’s Largest Companies scored 105 of the top publicly-traded companies based on their public commitment to transparency.