There is only one Global Financial Integrity
October 26th, 2009
. . . and it is run by Raymond Baker and is based in Washington, D.C. It is curious that since GFIP started measuring the scale of illicit financial flows, another well-financed institution has popped up, sporting almost exactly the same name, and claiming to share the same sorts of ends as GFIP does: “governance,” anti-corruption, “ethics and integrity” – and so on. This new body is called the Luxembourg Institute for Global Financial Integrity, and it promises to be churning out reports.
Do not be deceived – for this is a very different organisation, with very different aims, from GFIP. Look at its Board of Regents: three of four of them are top politicians from Luxembourg – one of the world’s top tax havens — and one of them is Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister, who not so long ago forced a television journalist to issue a craven public apology for having the temerity to question Luxembourg’s penchant for bank secrecy.
Hat tip: Jérôme Turquey – who provides more analysis here. And if you want to see how secretive Luxembourg is, look here.