Financial Transparency Coalition

 

This piece is cross-posted from the blog of Transparency International

Boris Johnson’s call for new homes in London to be sold first to Londoners, "not to oligarchs”, made headlines this week.

The Mayor of London making this demand at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham highlights a growing acknowledgement that a vast number of properties in the city are being used as safe investments by the world’s mega-wealthy.  In fact, foreign buyers bought up to 75% of new homes in central London over the past year, and foreign buyers reportedly...

Cross posted from Transparency International's website. December 9 is International Anti-Corruption Day. It is a day when people around the world raise their voice against the abuse of power for private gain. The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013, in which two-thirds of countries score less than 50, offers a warning that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world. They will continue to do so as long as corruption pays off for the corrupt. From the business executive who helps a corrupt official hide a bribe in an offshore bank out of authorities' reach, to the...

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 offers a warning that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world. More than two thirds of the 177 countries in the 2013 index score below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). “The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 demonstrates that all countries still face the threat of corruption at all levels of government, from the issuing of local permits to the enforcement of laws and regulations,” said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International.

Cross posted from Transparency International’s Space for Transparency Blog. After a summer of corruption scandals in Spanish politics, the country’s Congress passed a new piece of legislation on transparency and access to information this September. Public tolerance for corruption had reached boiling point with companies, parties and even the royal family seemingly acting with impunity after graft allegations. The new legislation is now headed for the Senate, where it will be debated before coming into effect.