Financial Transparency Coalition

New index reveals UK runs biggest part of global secrecy network TJN’s 2013 Financial Secrecy Index exposes yawning gap between G20 rhetoric and reality Today the Tax Justice Network launches its 2013 Financial Secrecy Index, the biggest ever survey of global financial secrecy. This unique index combines a secrecy score with a weighting to create a ranking of the countries that most actively and aggressively promote secrecy in global finance. Click here for the Financial Secrecy Index. This new edition of the Financial Secrecy Index shows that the United Kingdom is the most important global player in the financial secrecy world. While the...

This Op-Ed originally appeared in European Voice. The UK is showing the way forward on financial transparency Last week, the British prime minister, David Cameron, announced that the UK plans to create a central public register of who ultimately owns and controls companies, or so-called ‘beneficial owners'. This should make it much harder for criminals to hide their identities behind sham UK companies, and for the corrupt to steal billions of dollars from developing countries. Currently, corporations can be formed worldwide without disclosing who actually owns or controls them. Criminals often exploit this ability to create anonymous companies for the sole purpose...

When accused of abusive tax avoidance, the first words out of a mouth of a large-company CEO are usually, "We have a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders to avoid taxes." According to a new opinion from Farrer & Co, a major law firm in the UK, that may not be the case. The opinion, which applies only to the United Kingdom, states, "It is not possible to construe a director's statutory obligation to promote the success of the company as a positive duty to avoid tax." FTC Coordinating Committee member Tax Justice Network will be sending a letter to each...

LONDON - Prime Minister David Cameron revealed today that the UK will be seeking action from the G8 to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies. He has called for information about who ultimately owns and controls companies (beneficial ownership) to be registered and made publicly available.