Unequal Exchange – how poor countries are blindfolded in the global fight against banking secrecy
October 19th, 2017
Since the 2009 G20 Summit, we’ve seen repeated claims that banking secrecy is over. But viewed alongside the countless tax and corruption scandals that have plagued us since, it would be understandable if you question that sentiment.
In our new analysis, Unequal Exchange, we explore just how far one key transparency tool, the automatic exchange of financial information, has come. Will all countries stand to gain or will it simply be a tool for the few?
In our analysis of information exchange agreements in place around the globe, we found a stark political reality in which high-income countries receive the lion’s share of information, while some of the world’s poorest are receiving none at all. Three of the five agreements analyzed only involve European or European-linked jurisdictions, while FATCA, which involves a range of developing countries, in many cases requires that they provide information to the U.S. without receiving any in return.
View the full microsite and our data here.
