Financial Transparency Coalition

The bail out of the troubled banking sector in Cyprus has taken on serious political overtones as the crisis deepens. During the past few weeks Cyprus has been accused of failing to combat money laundering and fraud and that Russian oligarchs seek refuge for their money in this “tax haven” country.

according to Jonathan Guthrie of the Financial Times, in discussing the decision of HSBC to close down its operations in Panama (Corruption Perceptions Index score in 2012: 38 out of 100). The decision was purportedly to increase profits – but maybe not in the way one would expect.

How banks implement international financial sanctions may not strike many as the sexiest news story of the day, but its importance comes alive when one remembers that holding a banking license and taking deposits from the public at large is not a right, but a privilege. It is bestowed on certain companies by the public through government regulators and it should make banks accountable to that same public.

On July 10, Transparency International issued a report showing that the world’s biggest companies are disclosing more about their measures for preventing corruption, but not so much of their financial data in the countries where they operate.