Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week, the World Bank unveiled a major initiative to make their funding more transparent.  Through the new World Bank Finances portal, vast amounts of information about the inner workings of the Bank's finances are now made easily accessible.  This includes information about specific funds that members are supporting, and the disbursement and repayment status of thousands of projects around the world.  Tools are provided to allow members of the public to comment on specific elements of the data, as well as to download datasets specifically catered to their needs.  The data is remarkably up-to-date, often covering information as recent as...

Big step forward for the World Bank today. After an arguably rocky history with the topic of illicit financial flows, one which is full of fits and starts, the World Bank has taken a large stride into the foray with a new, 196-page report: Barriers to Asset Recovery. The study explicitly concerns reforms that will “enable the recovery of stolen assets” as the result of corruption. It is a topic which has been given a fair amount of attention lately, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring. Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Muammar Qaddafi...

LONDON – Christian Aid has welcomed a new from the World Bank for countries to exchange information about who really owns companies, bank accounts and other financial assets within their borders, in a bid to help recover the billions currently stolen from poor countries each year.

Co-Authored by Maria José Romero and Rachel Sharpe

A new report by Eurodad and Action Aid

Tax policy has been at the heart of policy advice from the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to developing countries for the last twenty years. Tax reforms became an increasingly important part of the structural adjustment programmes promoted by the World Bank and the IMF in developing countries from the late 1980’s. This paper reviews existing literature on the IFIs approach to tax policy reform during the last decade. NGO and academic research suggest that the IFIs have used technical assistance and policy advice to encourage developing...