Financial Transparency Coalition

This year, the European Union will review a number of European laws that spell out what types of information companies must disclose in their annual financial reports. Although at first sight this change in accounting rules seems like a dull technical exercise, well designed and transparent accounting standards have the potential to lift the veil of opacity that has contributed to the recent global financial drama and which, for years, has been preventing developing countries from properly taxing the activities of multinational companies operating within their jurisdictions. Civil society groups are calling on the European Union to live up to...

This report "A confused economy", highlights the distortions between the real economy and the indicators that guide the G20 and the International Financial Institutions. Investments, trade, savings, production- the report shows how the use of offshore financial centres makes any measurement of these indicators impossible. At the heart of this economic lie, the report points to the important role of multinationals and banks- the top users of tax havens.

Whether or not our economy mirrors seismic activity, we still need financial transparency, explains Karly Curcio

Policy makers and economists around the world are being challenged with the question “what needs to be done to ensure the soundness of the global financial system?” Scholars are introducing non-traditional methods for attacking the question. Some economists say that traditional economic theory holds, and that the best approach is to allow for free markets with minimal regulatory distortions. Others argue that we must be open to an alternate paradigm. In a letter to George Soros, financier and founder of the Institute for...

A certain number of tools have been developed over the past two decades to enhance corporate or governmental transparency. Anticorruption prevention tools, integrity pacts, and good reporting or disclosure practices were adopted by a certain number of corporations, governments or public institutions, those being individual players in the global economy. Yet the 2008 crisis has shown that many individual commitments or right behaviors were not enough when a few uncontrolled players could put the entire system at considerable risk and threaten economic development for several years.